Your weekly Drops of MENA News💧🗞
Israeli extreminst group ‘Lehava’ marched around Jerusalem’s Old City chanting ‘‘death to Arabs’’..
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🇵🇸 After days of Palestinian protests against Israel’s decision to barricade Damascus Gate plaza in Jerusalem’s Old City during the holy month of Ramadan 🌙(the decision has now been reversed), Israeli extremist group ‘Lehava’ marched around Jerusalem’s Old City chanting ‘‘death to Arabs’’; the march was organised as a call to "restore Jewish dignity" in Jerusalem.
Israeli security forces 🚔 attempted to block the anti-Palestinian march, but eventually, forces started shooting tear gas at the Palestinian counter-protesters, trying to disperse the crowd while utilising horse-mounted officers to push back far-right Israeli activists.
Two days later, Gaza militants responded by firing 36 rockets 🚀 into Israel, the most intense barrage in over a year. Israel retaliated with a series of airstrikes on Hamas targets.
🇦🇪 Last week, the Biden administration told Congress it would proceed with a $23bn+ in weapons 💣 sales to the UAE, which had been initiated by the Trump administration shortly before Biden took office. Rights groups in the US condemned the sales and urged Congress to block the sales due to the UAE’s involvement in the Libyan and Yemeni wars.
🇸🇾 Syria announced their next presidential elections 🗳 will be held on the 26th of May. However, a rule stating that candidates must have lived for the past 10 years in the country excludes all the possible exiled opponents. Both Washington and the weak oppositions in the country have denounced this as another farce designed to legitimate even more Assad’s authoritarianism.
According to Syrian state media, 22 people have submitted their nomination requests so far, including President Bashar al-Assad, who is widely expected to win the elections for a fourth consecutive seven-year term 🧐.
🇮🇷🇸🇦 There are rumors that Saudi and Iranian officials have been holding secret talks in Iraq, hosted and sponsored by the Iraqi government to de-escalate tensions 🤝 between the two regional rivals. While the two have never confirmed officially, at least one meeting in Baghdad’s Green Zone reportedly took place last week and the Yemeni peace process was discussed.
🇹🇷 Turkey’s foreign ministry has summoned the US ambassador in Ankara to protest US President Joe Biden’s labeling of the deportation and killing of Armenians during the Ottoman Empire as a “genocide”. According to the ministry: “The statement does not have legal ground in terms of international law and has hurt the Turkish people, opening a wound that’s hard to fix in our relations.”
🇱🇾 A Libyan cabinet meeting in the city of Benghazi was postponed after gunmen loyal to military commander Khalifa Haftar prevented a government delegation from entering the city after their plane landed at Benina Airport.
🇦🇪 The UAE received Zvi Heifetz, the Israeli envoy to GCC states, to further discuss the implementation of the Abraham Accords, the first step of a normalisation of the relationship between the two countries.
The UAE has declared investments in sectors such as energy and healthcare 🩺, while the two will further cooperate on trade and tourism. Since the Accords last September, as many as 50,000 Israelis have already visited the Emirates.
🇸🇾 The first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been dispatched to northwestern Syria and will soon be inoculated by UN personnel 🇺🇳. Whilst cases in the area have appeared to be lower than other parts of the country, the ongoing conflict does not allow proper tracing (control of northwestern Syria is currently split between stranded jihadist combatants, Turkish military, and Kurdish militias).
You’re all caught up, and it only took you around 5 minutes! 🎉
Written by Zoe Dharma Ciaccio and Filippo Gianoglio.
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