With the final votes still being counted, both Benjamin Netanyahu's rightwing Likud and Benny Gantz's more centrist Blue and White party have declared victory. Both are currently tied at 35 seats, which is far below the 60 seats required for a majority in the Knesset. But Likud's right-wing coalition partner options are stronger than the left-wing allies available for the Blue and White party, which gives Likud and Netanyahu a slight advantage in the negotiations to come over the next few days.
Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa
Uproar in Algeria as ally of former president named new leader
Appointment of regime stalwart is met with opposition boycott and fresh protests
Algerian lawmakers have appointed a regime stalwart as the country’s first new president in two decades, to the dismay of protesters seeking sweeping change after the resignation of Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
The appointment of Abdelkader Bensalah, the speaker of the upper house, as interim president follows constitutional rules but goes against the demands of demonstrators, who are pushing for him and other veteran politicians to stand down.
Continue reading...Libya crisis: UK officials anxious as blame is laid at doors of Gulf allies
There will be deep unease in Foreign Office over role of Saudi Arabia and UAE
Blame for the renewed Libyan crisis has been laid at the doors of some of Britain’s closest allies in the Gulf, highlighting again how the UK’s commercial interests so often trump its political priorities in the Middle East.
In exchanges in the UK parliament, the shadow foreign secretary, Emily Thornberry, traced the crisis to Nato’s overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, an intervention described even by the government minister Mark Field as “calamitous”. She also accused France of supporting Khalifa Haftar’s attack on Tripoli, an accusation that the Élysée Palace strenuously denies. Other MPs blamed Russian meddling.
Continue reading...Sudan protesters resist attacks by armed militias
Witnesses in Khartoum describe attacks by militia using teargas and firing live ammunition
Thousands of protesters camped in the centre of Khartoum appear to have defied a fresh attempt to clear them by armed militia loyal to the Sudanese dictator Omar al-Bashir.
Civil society groups run by medics reported two dead and many wounded, some critically, in renewed violence in the capital on Tuesday morning. Other groups put the toll as high as five dead, including at least one soldier, and more than a hundred hurt.
Continue reading...Libyan crisis escalates as warplane strikes Tripoli airport
Passengers reported to have been seen leaving terminal after strike by pro-Haftar forces
A warplane has attacked the only functioning airport in Tripoli as fighting between forces loyal to the Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar and rival militias escalated and EU foreign ministers met in Brussels to try to de-escalate the violence.
Mitiga airport, in an eastern suburb of the capital, was closed after it was hit in an airstrike by pro-Haftar forces. Passengers could be seen leaving the terminal, a Reuters correspondent at the airport said. Fighting was also under way at Tripoli’s international airport, 15 miles from the city centre, which has not been functioning since fighting destroyed much of it in 2014.
Continue reading...Trump designates Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as foreign terrorist organization
Statement marks first time US has formally labeled another country’s military a terrorist group
The United States has designated Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards as a foreign terrorist organization, Donald Trump said on Monday, marking the first time Washington has formally named a branch of the armed forces of a foreign government as a terrorist group.
In a statement, Trump said this unprecedented step, “recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a state sponsor of terrorism, but that the [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft”.
Continue reading...‘We’re frightened’: Tripoli braces as fighting reaches suburbs
Violence at edge of capital contrasts with tense calm in city centre as Libyans fear bloodbath
Residents of Tripoli have spoken of their fear and confusion as clashes between UN-backed government forces and troops loyal to the Benghazi strongman Khalifa Haftar continue in its southern suburbs.
“We are sandwiched between the forces, people are wondering what to do, we are frightened,” said one woman, who asked to remain anonymous, living with her family in the southern suburbs.
Continue reading...Sudan: gunfire heard at peaceful protest in Khartoum – video
Sudanese security forces have used teargas in an attempt to disperse protesters in central Khartoum. The demonstrators have been camped for more than two days as they call for the president, Omar al-Bashir, to resign. Protests began in December 2018 after the government raised bread prices, but they have since evolved into nationwide unrest against Bashir's rule.
Continue reading...What does the battle for Tripoli mean for Libya and the region?
Khalifa Haftar is leading an advance on the capital, with far-ranging consequences
Libya is on the brink of an all-out civil war that will upend years of diplomatic efforts to reconcile two rival armed political factions. An advance led by Khalifa Haftar, the warlord from the east of the country, has diplomats scrambling and the UN appealing in vain for a truce. The French government, the European power closest to Haftar, insists it had no prior warning of his assault, which is now less than 20km from the capital, Tripoli. The outcome could shape not just the politics of Libya, but also the security of the Mediterranean, and the relevance of democracy across the Middle East and north Africa.
Continue reading...The secret of Netanyahu’s success? A simple tale of good versus evil | Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
The Israeli prime minister is a master storyteller. But his narrative is raising a generation for whom peace would mean betrayal
Israel is a land of storytellers. Authors such as Amos Oz and David Grossman are acclaimed worldwide, and the political thriller Fauda has the nation well and truly addicted. But the best storyteller in our country is Benjamin Netanyahu. The prime minister’s talent allows him to construct a narrative so realistic, one could actually believe in it. Above all, it is his great skill in manipulating characters that makes him transcend mere politics. In fact, I would hazard a guess that Netanyahu is the best storyteller in the world.
The word “storyteller” might sound disrespectful. In the streets where I grew up, in the heart of Tel Aviv, it was usually used as an insult. Jewish mamas want their sons to be doctors, not storytellers. But storytelling is a very serious business. In the case of Netanyahu, you could say it’s deadly serious.
Continue reading...Israelis go to the polls: what you need to know
Election seen as a referendum on Benjamin Netanyahu, who could almost certainly become Israel’s longest-serving leader
Israelis are due to cast their votes on Tuesday in an election that could end Benjamin Netanyahu’s astonishing 10-year uninterrupted run as prime minister. Or he will be re-elected, virtually guaranteeing him the title of Israel’s longest-ever serving leader.
Continue reading...Battle for Tripoli escalates as fighting nears Libyan capital
Fighting rages between UN-backed Tripoli government and self-styled Libyan National Army
The battle for Tripoli escalated on Sunday as a military assault on the city by the eastern Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar led to 21 deaths and nearly 90 injuries, and international calls for calm were ignored.
As the fighting neared the capital, the UN issued a plea for a temporary ceasefire to allow the wounded to be evacuated. Hours earlier, the US announced it was withdrawing some of its troops from the country, citing deteriorating “security conditions on the ground”. India also withdrew a group of its peacekeepers, saying the situation in Libya had suddenly worsened.
Continue reading...Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal would bury the two-state solution
The Israeli PM’s West Bank annexation idea is likely to have had the nod from Trump
Benjamin Netanyahu’s pledge to expand Israeli sovereignty over the occupied West Bank was short on specifics. It looks, at first glance, like a typical piece of Bibi electoral gamesmanship, designed to attract rightwing and nationalist voters – and boost his hopes of tipping the balance in Tuesday’s closely fought national polls.
But Netanyahu is not simply playing politics. He has previously flirted with annexation of Judea and Samaria, as the Israeli government calls the West Bank, as part of an apparent drive to prevent the creation of a viable Palestinian state. A Haaretz poll last month found 42% of Israelis supported West Bank annexation. Netanyahu also recently suggested that Israel, in extremis, might reoccupy the Gaza Strip.
Continue reading...Netanyahu vows to annex Jewish settlements in occupied West Bank
Israeli prime minister’s pledge seen as a rallying call in tight election race
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has pledged to annex Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories if he wins his country’s election on Tuesday, a dramatic last-minute rallying call to his nationalist base.
In interviews with domestic media ahead of the polls, Netanyahu repeated his promise and said he would prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state by “controlling the entire area”.
Continue reading...As the credits roll on Algeria’s dictator, a timely reminder of why history must not be repeated
The screening of a 1966 film about their country’s bitter colonial conflict has seen Algerians unite in peaceful protest
More than half a century since it was released – and promptly banned by French authorities – The Battle of Algiers, depicting the bloody struggle for Algeria’s independence from France in 1962, still has the power to shock.
On Friday night, the black-and-white, 1966 film relating Algerian anti-colonial guerrilla warfare and its brutal repression by the French military was screened in Paris. London-based musical activists Asian Dub Foundation (ADF) performed a live soundtrack.
Continue reading...Haftar’s advance leaves UN’s hopes for Libya settlement in tatters
Critics say policy of appeasement towards strongman has left country at risk of military rule
After more than half a century in and around Libyan politics, and at the age of 75, Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar stands poised at the gates of Tripoli, as close to imposing a form of military rule across the country than at any time in his mercurial and often violent career.
It may yet be that his grandly titled Libyan National Army – a misnomer for a band of ideologically incoherent militias – will discover that it has overstretched itself, and his advance will be repelled. In a similar, less planned a ttempt by Haftar to seize power in 2014, he only partially succeeded, by taking control of Benghazi, the main town in the east of the country.
Continue reading...Mummified mice found in ‘beautiful, colourful’ Egyptian tomb
Recently discovered tomb of official dating back more than 2,000 years contains dozens of animals and two mummies
Dozens of mummified mice were among the animals found in an ancient Egyptian tomb that was unveiled on Friday.
The well-preserved and finely painted tomb near the Egyptian town of Sohag – a desert area near the Nile about 390km (242 miles) south of Cairo – is thought to be from the early Ptolemaic period, dating back more than 2,000 years.
Continue reading...Fears of Libyan civil war as militias capture 145 Haftar troops
Action escalates fight between western government-allied militias and Libyan National Army
Fears were mounting of renewed civil war in Libya after militias allied to the government in Tripoli captured scores of troops from a powerful rival force, and the UN secretary general, António Guterres, warned he was ending a visit to the country “with a heavy heart and deeply concerned”.
Guterres suggested a key meeting with eastern commander, Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, had not resulted in assurances from the strongman leader to avoid an escalation of tensions.
Continue reading...US-Saudi dual citizens among eight critics of regime detained
First arrests since Jamal Khashoggi killing include women’s rights activists
Saudi Arabia has launched a fresh round of arrests of activists and critics, many of them supporters of jailed civil rights campaigners, in an apparent rebuff to mounting international pressure over its treatment of dissidents.
Eight people, including two US-Saudi citizens, were detained on Thursday in the first such sweep of perceived critics of the country’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, since the killing of writer Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October.
Continue reading...Libyan strongman orders troops to march on Tripoli
Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar says forces’ move will ‘shake the lands under the feet of the unjust bunch’
The strongman who controls two thirds of Libya has ordered his forces to march to Tripoli, the capital of the UN-backed government, raising fears of a major showdown with rival militias.
Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, who commands the “Libya National Army” (LNA) based in the east, described his forces’ move as a “victorious march” to “shake the lands under the feet of the unjust bunch”.
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