Houthi drones attacked the world's largest oil processing facility in Saudi Arabia and a major oilfield operated by Saudi Aramco early on Saturday, sparking a huge fire at a processor vital to global energy supplies. It was not clear if there were any injuries in the attacks, nor whether they would affect the country's oil production
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Kylie Moore-Gilbert named as Australian-British academic jailed in Iran since 2018
Cambridge-educated lecturer in Islamic Studies at Melbourne University has been in prison in Tehran for almost a year
The third foreign national revealed this week to be imprisoned in Iran has been named by the Australian government as Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert, a Melbourne academic who has published work on the 2011 Arab uprisings and on authoritarian governments.
Moore-Gilbert, a dual UK-Australian national, is Cambridge educated and worked as a lecturer in Islamic Studies at Melbourne University. She has been in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison for almost a year.
Continue reading...Benjamin Netanyahu in close election fight for power in Israel
‘Nastiest, most racist campaign ever’ as Likud shores up vote with divisive pledges
Benjamin Netanyahu remains neck and neck with his main election challenger after a widely condemned vow to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, before a vote that could bring an end to his time as Israeli prime minister.
In the last polls before election day on Tuesday, neither Netanyahu’s Likud party or the opposition Blue and White alliance, run by his former army chief Benny Gantz, appeared to have a clear route to the premiership.
Continue reading...‘Tunisia’s Berlusconi’ the wild card as nation goes to the polls
Jailed Nabil Karoui hopes to appeal to voters disillusioned by lack of progress since Arab spring
Campaigning ends on Friday in Tunisia’s presidential election before Sunday’s first round of voting, pitting more than two dozen candidates against each other, including a media mogul running for office from jail.
Tunisia is the last of the Arab spring countries still on a democratic track, after Egypt slipped back toward authoritarianism and Syria and Libya descended into conflict.
Continue reading...Russia denounces Netanyahu’s West Bank annexation plan
Moscow says proposal could increase regional tensions, as Israeli PM meets Putin
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, flies into Sochi on Thursday for talks with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, that come after Moscow added its voice to criticism of his pre-election pledge to annex occupied Palestinian territories.
Netanyahu said on Tuesday that he would annex up to a third of the West Bank if he is re-elected in next week’s parliamentary polls. His announcement was condemned by the Palestinians, Arab countries, the UN and the EU.
Continue reading...Israel accused of planting spying devices near White House
Surveillance devices planted over past two years, says report citing former US officials
Israel is likely to have planted mobile phone spying devices near the White House and other sensitive locations in the US capital over the past two years, according to a report from Politico that cited three former US officials.
The miniature surveillance devices mimic telecommunications towers to gather information, including the contents of phone calls. The US government concluded Israeli operatives were most likely to have put them in place to spy on Donald Trump and his associates, the news website reported.
Continue reading...Australia left with few diplomatic levers after three citizens detained in Iran
Canberra’s adherence to a hawkish US policy has undermined its ability to negotiate with the paranoid and sanctions-squeezed regime in Tehran
It was the trip of a lifetime, a globe-trotting adventure halfway across the world, chronicled online for family and friends back home and for followers online.
But in the eyes of the regime in Tehran – squeezed by sanctions and paranoid about the motives of outsiders – the act of flying a drone near a military installation on the outskirts of the Iranian capital appeared as an act of espionage.
Continue reading...Australian and British bloggers arrested in Iran named as Jolie King and Mark Firkin
Couple left Perth in 2017 and had been documenting their travels as they drove to London before being detained in Tehran’s Evin prison
The Australian couple being held in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison have been named as Jolie King and Mark Firkin, who were reportedly arrested 10 weeks ago near the Iranian capital.
Firkin and King, who also holds a British passport, have been blogging a globe-trotting adventure since 2017 as they endeavoured to drive from Australia to London. Despite diplomatic efforts to keep their cases from public attention, the pair was named overnight on social media.
Continue reading...Britain-Iran relationship caught up in mutual blame game
No progress in cases of dual-nationals arrested but catalogue of British failings is also long
The summoning of the Iranian ambassador to the British Foreign Office on Wednesday over broken assurances about the destination of an Iranian oil tanker, and now the arrest of two British-Australian nationals, marks yet another stage in the mutual blame game between Britain and Iran that leaves the relationship stuck deeper in a frustrating rut.
From the British perspective, well articulated by the former Middle East minister Alistair Burt, those in the UK government who would have liked to build a new relationship with Iran in the wake of the 2015 nuclear deal feel very badly let down by Tehran.
Continue reading...Rouhani says US ‘warmongering’ against Iran will fail
President Hassan Rouhani signals approval of firing of national security adviser
Iran’s president has urged the US to “put warmongers aside” as tensions roil the Persian Gulf amid an escalating crisis between Washington and Tehran after the collapsing nuclear deal with world powers.
Hassan Rouhani’s remarks signalled approval of Donald Trump’s abrupt dismissal of John Bolton as national security adviser. Bolton had been hawkish on Iran and other global challenges.
Continue reading...Arab leaders denounce Netanyahu’s plan to annex Palestinian territories
Israeli prime minister’s proposal would ‘kill all chances of peace’, says Jordan
Arab leaders have denounced Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to annex large swathes of the Palestinian territories if he is re-elected next week as an election stunt that would “kill all chances for peace”.
The Arab League held an emergency session on Tuesday evening after the Israeli prime minister announced the plan in a live press conference.
Continue reading...Three Australians, two of them dual British citizens, held in Iran
Two British-Australian women believed to be in prison, while location of Australian man is unknown
Three Australian citizens – two of whom also hold British passports – have been arrested and detained in Iran.
A female British-Australian academic who has been teaching at a university in Australia was arrested several months ago, sources confirmed to the Guardian.
Continue reading...How will John Bolton’s dismissal affect US foreign policy?
Trump’s anti-interventionist instincts likely to come to the fore in flashpoint countries
Donald Trump’s abrupt dismissal of John Bolton, his national security adviser, may reflect the near breakdown in personal relations between the two men, as well as Bolton’s rivalry with the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, but it will also have implications for US foreign policy in a range of flashpoints.
Related: John Bolton fired as Trump's national security adviser – live news
Continue reading...Why Netanyahu’s election threats could become real this time
Israeli PM is a master of fiery rhetoric but Trump’s support could embolden him to action
Benjamin Netanyahu is an old hand at Israel’s equivalent of the “October surprise”, reliably making incendiary remarks on election eve designed to both rally the faithful in his Likud party and undercut any rivals on the right and the far right threatening his grip on the prime minister’s office.
The successful formula, repeated over the last decade in office, has always followed a reliable pattern: scare any wavering supporters with the idea that Arab voters might come out in force while grabbing any nationalist votes by promising settlement building, annexation or refusal to withdraw.
Continue reading...Netanyahu vows to annex large parts of occupied West Bank
Israeli PM says he will seek to make move ‘in maximum coordination with Trump’
Benjamin Netanyahu has announced he will annex large swathes of the occupied Palestinian territories if he is re-elected, a decision that for decades has been considered an endgame scenario for Palestinians’ aspirations of statehood.
The Israeli prime minister said on Tuesday that he planned to make the move, which would permanently seize up to one-third of the West Bank, after next week’s election and hinted it may have been approved by Washington.
Continue reading...Iranian female football fan who self-immolated outside court dies
Death of Sahar Khodayari, facing prison for trying to enter stadium, provokes outcry
An Iranian female football fan has died a week after setting herself on fire outside a courtroom, after learning she may face six months in prison for trying to enter a stadium, a news agency reported on Tuesday.
Sahar Khodayari’s death immediately ignited an outcry in Iran, where women are banned from football stadiums, although they are allowed to watch other sports, such as volleyball.
Continue reading...‘Life-saving’: hundreds of refugees to be evacuated from Libya to Rwanda
First group expected to leave dire detention centres in days, as UN denies reports that plan is part of EU strategy to keep refugees from Europe
Hundreds of African refugees and asylum seekers trapped in Libyan detention centres will be evacuated to Rwanda under a “life-saving” agreement reached with Kigali and the African Union, the UN refugee agency said on Tuesday.
The first group of 500 people, including children and young people from Somalia, Eritrea and Sudan, are expected to arrive in Rwanda over the coming days, out of 4,700 now estimated to be in custody in Libya, where conflict is raging. The measure is part of an “emergency transit mechanism”, to evacuate people at risk of harm in detention centres inside the county.
Continue reading...Netanyahu accuses Iran of hiding evidence of nuclear facility
Israel’s opposition says prime minister’s claims are an election campaign stunt
Benjamin Netanyahu has unveiled what he claims was a previously undisclosed Iranian nuclear weapons facility and accused Tehran of destroying the site to hide the evidence.
“This is what I have to say to the tyrants of Tehran,” Netanyahu said. “Israel knows what you’re doing, Israel knows when you’re doing it, and Israel knows where you’re doing it.”
Continue reading...Hezbollah says it has downed Israeli drone over Lebanon
Israel confirms drone loss while claiming an Iran-backed Shia militia fired rockets towards Israel from Syria
Hezbollah has claimed it shot down an Israeli drone that crossed the border into Lebanon, a week after the bitter enemies traded fire for the first time in years, as regional tensions between Israel and Iran and its allies intensify.
The unmanned aircraft was flying near the southern Lebanese town of Ramyah, the Iranian-backed group said, adding that it fighters had removed the wreckage.
Continue reading...Tunisia’s presidential election to put young democracy to the test
Arab spring’s sole democratic state has proved resilient despite anger over price rises
Tunisia will hold its second-ever presidential elections on 15 September in a poll seen as a major test of the only democracy to emerge from the 2011 Arab spring.
The death in July of the country’s president, Beji Caid Essebsi, 92, a secularist who was instrumental in steering the country’s transition to democracy, forced the polls to be held earlier than originally scheduled in November.
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