MENA countries: re-thinking their future ties with Israel?
Egypt-France relations, violence in Iraqi protests, Iran's nuclear plans, and much more!
Woah ! A lot has happened this past week. It was really hard to select the most important MENA happenings, but here’s what I thought to be the most noteworthy events: ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️
Israel’s prospects for normalising its ties with other countries in the region faced challenges:
🇸🇦 Prince Turki bin Faisal Al Saud criticised Israel at Bahraini security summit, the IISS Manama Dialogue. Highlighting Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and its undeclared nuclear arsenal amongst other issues, the Prince expressed skepticism regarding the possibility of Israel’s future relations with other MENA countries in the absence of an independent Palestinian state.
🇯🇴 Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi met with his Israeli counterpart Gabi Ashkenazi to push for restarting negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians: "There is no alternative to a two-state solution", Safadi told Ashkenazi.
🇧🇭🇮🇱 On a similar note, Bahrain also stated that it would not accept goods imported from Israeli settlements: despite previous claims to the contrary, Bahrain Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani stated that Manama would remain “committed to UN, Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation resolutions regarding settlements in the West Bank and the Golan Heights.”
🇺🇳🇾🇪 UN bodies cut aid to Yemeni health workers, risking to aggravate the humanitarian crisis: out of the $3.2 billion the UN requires to provide adequate assistance in Yemen, donor governments have only provided $1.5 billion. This could lead to an extra 1.4 million Yemeni experiencing food insecurity by June 2021.
🇮🇶 Iraqi protesters continue to face violence by Iraqi security forces: in an ongoing series of anti-government protests in Iraq, last week’s demonstrators in the Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Iraqi Kurdistan, were met with tear gas and water cannons by Iraqi security forces.
🇮🇱✊🏼 Around 30 Israelis were arrested at anti-Netanyahu protests: weekly protests against Israel’s Prime Minister, motivated by political and economic popular grievances and particularly by Netanyahu’s undemocratic practices, have been ongoing for the past six months. The situation is quite easily explained here: https://www.dw.com/en/whats-behind-israels-growing-protests/a-54458406
🇹🇷🇱🇾 A Turkish ship was intercepted by Haftar’s forces: the Turkish ship ⛴(although with a Jamaican flag) was headed to Western Libya (where Turkish-backed Government National Accord (GNA) is based) before being seized by Haftar’s forces off the Eastern Libyan coast 🌊. What will this mean for the current truce between the two sides?
🇮🇷 Iran plans to accelerate uranium enrichment.. unless Washington backs off: according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)💣, Iran plans to install more advanced uranium-enriching centrifuges, breaching the terms of its nuclear deal with major powers (JCPOA). The move is meant to put pressure on new 🇺🇸 US President Joe Biden: how will he react?
🇫🇷 🇪🇬 France took a stance against Egypt’s human rights abuses, but will continue selling arms to them: some might have thought that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s visit to French President Emmanuel Macron would focus on Egypt’s recent human rights abuses. However, the ‘‘mere disagreement’’ over human rights did not affect the sale of French arms to Egypt, as Macron stated that the country plays a pivotal role in fighting terrorism in the Sahel🌍.
🇪🇬 On the other hand, global pressure led to Egypt’s release of human rights activists 📰: the three activists from the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) were released, although an estimate of 60,000 are still being detained in Egypt on dissent-related charges.
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