Photographs of works go on display in Manger Square to celebrate British street artist’s contribution to diversifying tourism
Photographs of 20 pieces of Banksy’s artwork in Palestine have been displayed in the centre of Bethlehem as a thank you to the anonymous British street artist for helping diversify tourism in the city.
The images were collated by Palestinian photographers for the surprise exhibition in Manger Square.
Continue reading...Two refugees’ efforts to reach Dover reflect persecution in Sudan and rising tensions over migrants in Europe
On the night he attempted to cross the Channel, Abdulfatah Hamdallah left his blanket and bicycle behind at the camp in Calais.
They were the only possessions he would leave behind: his backpack was lost at sea when he drowned attempting to make the perilous crossing over the Dover Strait to England in a dinghy, with shovels for oars.
Continue reading...Cargo from the MV Rhosus caused the explosion in Lebanon’s main port – its crew say they were stranded aboard for a year
The problems began the moment Captain Boris Prokoshev set sail aboard the MV Rhosus in 2013.
He discovered that the ageing Russian-owned cargo ship, bound for Mozambique, was in “terrible” condition, including having a defunct generator. Then he learned that the previous crew had mutinied over unpaid wages. So it was no surprise when the owner told Prokoshev there was no money to pay for fees for the Suez canal, either.
Continue reading...US to activate controversial ‘snapback’ procedure, which Britain, France and Germany say it doesn’t have the right to do
President Donald Trump has announced that secretary of state Mike Pompeo will activate a controversial mechanism aimed at reimposing UN sanctions on Iran, escalating a row with European allies that has huge repercussions for the Iranian nuclear deal.
Pompeo will travel to New York on Thursday to notify the UN security council that the US is triggering the so-called “snapback” procedure, which Britain, France and Germany say it doesn’t have the right to do.
Continue reading...Assurances on Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh dependent on UK handing over evidence
The US has promised not to pursue the death penalty against two British Isis members accused of taking part in the beheadings of western hostages, in return for UK cooperation with the prosecution.
The pledge was given in a letter from the US attorney general, William Barr, in the case of Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, members of the “Beatles” group of British Isis members, who were captured by Syrian Kurds and then handed over to US custody last October.
Continue reading...Ability to carry out humanitarian work in most dangerous conflict-hit regions threatened by local NGO staff being caught in crossfire
There has been a sharp rise in the number of aid staff killed in the first six months of this year with Syria at the top of the list of the deadliest places to be a humanitarian worker.
A total of 74 fatalities have been recorded globally since January, a 30% rise on the same period last year. Syria accounted for more than a quarter of the deaths.
Continue reading...Coronavirus laws used to quash protests after country’s largest independent union suspended
He spent 17 days on the run, moving surreptitiously, sleeping in different homes. When Sharaf Obeidat saw security forces surrounding his building, he knew it was over. “They’ve arrested me,” he managed to write on Facebook, before he was hooded, handcuffed and led away.
Neither a violent criminal, nor a political dissident, Obeidat is one of what lawyers estimate is about 1,000 teachers arrested across Jordan in the past few weeks as part of a crackdown on the kingdom’s largest independent trade union, the Jordan Teachers’ Syndicate.
Continue reading...Hikes in food, water and petrol prices adds to ‘triple emergency’, as coronavirus spreads unchecked and humanitarian aid dwindles
Families in Yemen are having to send their children out to work and to beg as concerns mount over rising food, water and petrol prices, a survey has found.
Despite coronavirus spreading undetected across the war-ravaged nation, data collected from more than 150 households in three provinces of southern Yemen found that respondents were more worried about going hungry than contracting Covid-19. The International Rescue Committee (IRC), which led the survey, found nearly two-thirds (62%) of respondents reported being unable to afford food and drinking water. Prices for sugar and vegetable oil have jumped by more than 25% in the past year.
Continue reading...Interview given by MI6 officer in 1980s was discovered in research for new documentary
A first-hand account of Britain’s role in the 1953 coup that overthrew the elected prime minister of Iran and restored the shah to power has been published for the first time.
The account by the MI6 officer who ran the operation describes how it took British intelligence years to persuade the US to take part in the coup. Meanwhile, MI6 recruited agents and bribed members of Iran’s parliament with banknotes transported in biscuit tins.
Continue reading...The Guardian’s Middle East writers reflect on a week of devastation and anger after a blast that shocked the world
For most of my 15 years in the Middle East, I’ve had a home in Beirut. It’s been a sanctuary to return to from countless trips around the region, a place where the rigours, and sometimes dangers, of Iraq, Syria, Libya and elsewhere could be set aside for a while.
Continue reading...As quest for answers over massive port blast begins, a tribunal is expected announce findings on death of Rafik Hariri
A military judge in Beirut will, on 17 August, start examining a report into the cataclysmic explosion that levelled parts of the city 12 days ago, and determine who might face charges. A day later, five thousand miles away in The Hague, an international tribunal is due to hand down a verdict into a blast that took place 15 years earlier, killing the country’s former prime minister Rafik Hariri and unleashing a generation of havoc, from which it is yet to recover.
The tales behind the two explosions are the most important events in the modern history of Lebanon. The 2005 assassination of a leader credited by many with leading a broken nation from the rubble of war had remained a searing wound, while the annihilation of much of Beirut on 4 August has left gaping new scars on the country’s psyche.
Continue reading...President says US will unilaterally reinstate sanctions a day after only two countries voted for prolonging embargo
Donald Trump has vowed to use a contentious provision to unilaterally reinstate UN sanctions on Tehran, following what Iran’s president said was a humiliating defeat for the US in its bid to extend an arms embargo on Tehran.
A day after the UN security council overwhelmingly rejected a US resolution to extend the embargo, Trump said at a news conference at his New Jersey golf club: “We’ll be doing a snapback. You’ll be watching it next week.”
Continue reading...Israeli forces say they bombed Hamas targets for a fifth consecutive night as clashes broke out along border
Israeli aircraft have bombed sites belonging to the militant Hamas group in Gaza for a fifth night in a row, the Israel defence force says.
The military said early on Sunday that the airstrikes were in response to arson balloons that Hamas-affiliated groups sent across the Gaza frontier into Israeli territory.
Continue reading...US diplomat David Hale calls for a thorough and transparent investigation into the blast
A team of FBI investigators is due to arrive in Lebanon this weekend to take part in the investigation into Beirut’s explosion, a senior US official has said, after visiting the location of the blast.
David Hale, the US undersecretary of state for political affairs, called on Saturday for a thorough and transparent investigation. He said the FBI team was taking part at the invitation of Lebanese authorities in order to figure out what caused the 4 August explosion that killed nearly 180 people and wounded thousands.
Continue reading...‘The move against Palestine is not a step that can be stomached,’ says Erdoğan
Turkey has threatened to suspend its diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates and recall its envoy, a day after the Gulf state announced it would become the third Arab country to establish full ties with Israel.
“The move against Palestine is not a step that can be stomached,” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told reporters on Friday.
Continue reading...Israel’s relationship with neighbours is no longer defined by occupation, Palestinians say
Shortly after Donald Trump announced he had brokered a “huge breakthrough” deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, the White House published a list of bullet points detailing what it had achieved.
Only at the bottom, just after “expanded business and financial ties between these two thriving economies”, did the very last sentence blandly mention what had previously been the key regional issue: the fate of the Palestinians.
Continue reading...Israel and the United Arab Emirates announced an agreement on Thursday that will lead to a full normalisation of diplomatic relations between the two states, a move that reshapes the order of Middle East politics from the Palestinian issue to Iran. However, cracks in the deal became quickly apparent, with Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, saying there was 'no change' to his annexation plans, while the UAE insisted that it 'immediately stops annexation'. The agreement was rejected by Palestinians, with some calling it a conspiracy.
Trump hails US-brokered pact as ‘peace agreement’ but cracks quickly appear as Netanyahu denies change of plan
Israel and the United Arab Emirates have agreed to establish full diplomatic ties in a historic Washington-brokered deal under which Israel will “suspend” its plans to annex parts of the Palestinian territories.
However, cracks in the deal became quickly apparent after its announcement on Thursday, with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, saying there was “no change” to his annexation plans, while the UAE insisted that it “immediately stops annexation”.
Continue reading...Common ground rests on a ‘peace plan’ aided by splintered Arab solidarity over Palestine
The peace deal that few saw coming had been gathering steam in plain sight. Even before the election of Donald Trump, Israel and the UAE had been inching closer, drawn together by three factors – enmity with Iran, a loathing of the Muslim Brotherhood, and a mutual belief that the agreed formula for peace with Palestinians was no longer working.
More than anything else, combating Iran became the conduit for the two sides. The adage of a foe of a foe becoming a friend has rarely been more apt. Tehran’s determination to acquire a nuclear weapon, its extensive reach into the Arab world, potential to shut off the Strait of Hormuz, and Shia Islamic revolutionary zeal, provided enough common ground for both sides to sharply deepen intelligence links to strategic levels over the past four years.
Continue reading...Donald Trump has said the United Arab Emirates and Israel have agreed to establish full diplomatic ties as part of a deal to halt the annexation of occupied land sought by the Palestinians for their future state. US officials described the agreement, to be known as the Abraham Accords, as the first of its kind since Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty in 1994. It also gives Trump a foreign policy success as he seeks re-election in November
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