At least two people were killed, and more than 500 injured when a 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck Iran on Saturday night local time.
Iran’s state news agency IRNA said the earthquake hit the city of Khoy, West Azerbaijan province, in northwest Iran, around 9:44 p.m. local time, citing the Iranian Seismological Center in Tehran.
At least 580 people were injured and 70 villages damaged, Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency reported. It said that relief and damage assessment operations are underway.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) also registered the quake as 5.9 magnitude.
“The tremor was so strong that it was felt in many regions of West Azerbaijan Province, causing concern among residents. It was also felt in several cities, including the provincial capital of Tabriz in the neighboring province of East Azerbaijan,” IRNA reported.
Two people were wounded in a shooting attack in Jerusalem on Saturday, emergency services say, the day after a gunman killed at least seven people near a synagogue in the city.
The two men injured in the City of David area of Jerusalem on Saturday, one aged 22 and one in his 40s, are father and son, according to police. A 13-year-old who police say shot and wounded the pair was “neutralized and injured” by “two passers-by carrying licensed weapons.”
Tensions in Israel and the Palestinian territories remain high after Friday’s shooting, which police chief Yaakov Shabtai described as “one of the worst terror attacks in the past few years.” The shooter in that attack was also later killed by police forces, according to police.
“As a result of the shooting attack, the death of 7 civilians was determined and 3 others were injured with additional degrees of injury,” police said.
Five of the shooting victims were pronounced dead at the scene, Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency rescue service said: four men and a woman. Five people were transported to hospitals, where another man and woman were declared dead. Among the wounded is a 15-year-old boy, the MDA said.
The attack occurred around 8:15 p.m. local time on Friday, near a synagogue on Neve Yaakov Street, according to a police statement.
Shabtai said the gunman “started shooting at anyone that was in his way. He got in his car and started a killing spree with a pistol at short range.” He then fled the scene in a vehicle and was killed after a shootout with police forces, police said.
Police identified the gunman as a 21-year-old resident of East Jerusalem, saying in a statement that he appeared to have acted alone. East Jerusalem is a predominantly Palestinian area of the city, which was captured by Israel in 1967.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged people against revenge attacks on Friday night. “I call on the people not to take the law into their own hands. For that purpose we have an army, police and security forces. They act and will act according to the cabinet instructions,” he said.
Friday’s incident came one day after the deadliest day for Palestinians in the West Bank in over a year, according to CNN records.
On Thursday, Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians and wounded several others in the West Bank city of Jenin, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, prompting the Palestinian Authority to suspend security coordination with Israel. A tenth Palestinian was killed that day in what Israel Police called a “violent disturbance” near Jerusalem.
Overnight, on Friday morning local time, Israel launched air strikes on the Gaza strip after rockets were fired towards Israel.
Israel’s controversial National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir visited the scene of the attack on Friday evening, telling people who were chanting angrily that “it cannot continue like this.”
“I can tell you, [the people chanting] you are right. The burden is on us. It cannot continue like this,” Ben Gvir, who also leads the far-right Jewish Power party, said.
Some people on the scene were chanting support for Ben Gvir, saying “You are our voice, we support you.”
CNN’s Hadas Gold and team, who were also at the scene of Friday night’s shooting, heard what sounded like celebratory gunfire and car horns honking from the nearby predominantly Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Hanina.
The White House condemned the “heinous terror attack” at a synagogue in Jerusalem on Friday and said the United States government has extended its “full support” to Israel, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
The US State Department also condemned the “apparent terrorist attack” in Jerusalem “in the strongest terms.”
“This is absolutely horrific,” said State Department Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel. “Our thoughts, prayers and condolences go out to those killed and injured in this heinous act of violence.”
Patel said no change to the schedule of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s upcoming trip to Egypt, Israel and the West Bank was expected.
The European Union, France and the UK also condemned the shooting.
“I am appalled by reports of the terrible attack in Neve Yaakov tonight. Attacking worshippers at a synagogue on Erev Shabat is a particularly horrific act of terrorism. The UK stands with Israel,” Neil Wigan, the British ambassador in Israel wrote on Twitter.
The EU ambassador to Israel, Dimiter Tzantchev, also condemned the “senseless violence,” saying in his tweet, “Terror is never the answer.”
And the French embassy in Israel tweeted that the incident was “all the more despicable as it was committed on this day of international remembrance of the Holocaust.”
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres also condemned Friday’s deadly attack, his spokesman said.
“It is particularly abhorrent that the attack occurred at a place of worship, and on the very day we commemorated International Holocaust Remembrance Day,” he said.
Guterres also expressed worry “about the current escalation of violence in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory,” urging all “to exercise utmost restraint.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to Jerusalem and Ramallah next week has gained new urgency after a wave of deadly violence in Israel and the West Bank.
His trip, which also includes a stop in Egypt, was already expected to be complicated, as it will be the top US diplomat’s first visit to Israel since the new Israeli government, which includes ultra-nationalists and ultra-religious parties, took power.
Now, Blinken is poised to face a rapidly escalating crisis that shows no signs of de-escalation.
At least seven people were killed in a mass shooting at a synagogue in Jerusalem Friday that is being described as a terrorist attack. Israeli police said the gunman, who was killed by police, was a 21-year-old resident of East Jerusalem who appeared to have acted alone.
On Thursday, Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians and wounded several others in a raid on a refugee camp in the West Bank city of Jenin. Another Palestinian man was shot dead by Israeli troops later that day in the town of al-Ram, adding to the death toll on what was the deadliest day for Palestinians in the West Bank in over a year, according to CNN records. Then overnight on Friday Israel launched air strikes on Gaza after rockets were fired towards Israel.
The Palestinian Authority responded to the Jenin raid by announcing that it will cease security coordination with Israel starting immediately.
While US officials have indicated that the days of violence will not upend the top diplomat’s trip, the White House on Friday condemned the “heinous terror attack” on the synagogue and State Department officials on Thursday expressed concern about the security situation following the Jenin raid.
“There is the potential for things to worsen in security terms, in terms of protests or any other kind of kinetic action,” Barbara Leaf, the top State Department official for the region, told reporters on Thursday ahead of the synagogue shooting, adding that the department is in close touch with diplomatic and security personnel on the ground. She also urged the two sides to retain and deepen security coordination.
The Biden administration has been careful in its language and sought to publicly avoid criticizing the new government in Israel, which is led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and includes controversial far-right government ministers. Over the past few weeks, US officials have held numerous engagements with the new government – Blinken’s trip follows visits by national security adviser Jake Sullivan and CIA Director Bill Burns. Israel is one of the US’s staunchest allies and the importance of the relationship was underlined earlier this week as the two nations launched their largest joint military exercise ever on Monday.
Aaron David Miller, who served for two decades at the State Department as an analyst, negotiator and adviser on Middle East issues, told CNN that he has “never seen an administration engage with a new Israeli Government as frequently and as early and at as senior level as this one.”
“I think their strategy was basically to say, ‘OK, you formed this government, your hands are on the wheel. You told us you’re in charge, and we’re now going to engage with you directly and intensely. Because if things head south, you’re the one who’s going to have to be responsible with respect to controlling your own ministers,’” he said. Miller said he predicts the relationship between the two administrations will be publicly non-confrontational, especially as Biden looks to ensure he is seen as pro-Israel ahead of a potential US reelection campaign.
The far-right elements of the new Israeli government, meanwhile, have already exacerbated tensions between Israelis and Palestinians.
The new national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir has previously been convicted for supporting terrorism and inciting anti-Arab racism. Earlier this year, after being named minister, he visited the Jerusalem compound known as Temple Mount by Jews and the Haram al-Sharif or Noble Sanctuary by Muslims, in a move that drew international condemnation.
Although he visited during open hours for non-Muslims, his visit was seen as controversial because Ben Gvir has publicly called for changes to the delicate status quo agreement that governs the compound.
State Department spokesman Ned Price responded at the time by saying that the US believed the visit has “the potential to exacerbate tensions and to provoke violence.”
Although the Biden administration has advocated for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, there has been very little movement and seemingly few active efforts toward that goal. It is something that Blinken will address during his meetings with Israelis and Palestinians, said Leaf, the State Department official.
Miller said he does not expect any progress to be made on this issue during Blinken’s visit, which will instead be more of an “extended condolence call” due to the synagogue attack in Jerusalem Friday.
Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of the advocacy group J-Street, which pushes for a two-state solution, said that he believes Blinken’s trip is well-timed, and sends an important message about American involvement.
He said the administration should try to articulate both privately to the new Israeli government as well as publicly the things that the US would find unacceptable, such as “plans for what amounts to de facto annexation of territory on the West Bank.”
The Justice Department announced new arrests Friday in a plot to kill a New York-based journalist and human rights activist who is critical of the Iranian government.
The three men charged, who are allegedly part of an Eastern European criminal organization with ties to Iran, are facing murder-for-hire and money laundering charges for plotting to kill journalist Masih Alinejad.
All three of the defendants, Attorney General Merrick Garland said Friday, are currently in custody.
“Today’s indictment exposes a dangerous menace to national security – a double threat posed by a vicious transnational crime group operating from what it thought was the safe haven of a rogue nation. That rogue nation is the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said at a news conference unveiling the charges.
Alinejad vowed to continue her activism in a video statement released Friday shortly after the department announced the charges: “Let me make it clear: I’m not scared for my life.”
“I’m going to continue giving voice to brave Iranian leaders, women, men, inside Iran who are trying to save the rest of the world from one of the most dangerous virus(es), which is called Islamic Republic,” she said. “If we don’t take a strong action right now, we will face these terrorists on US soil more and more.”
One of the three men had been arrested this past summer in the Brooklyn neighborhood where Alinejad lives. At the time, he was charged with possessing a firearm after police found in the back seat of his vehicle a suitcase containing a “Norinco AK-47-style assault rifle … loaded with a round in the chamber and a magazine attached, along with a separate second magazine, and a total of approximately 66 rounds of ammunition,” according to a complaint.
The DOJ said in a statement Friday that since at least July, the three men have been “tasked with carrying out” the murder of Alinejad, “who previously has been the target of plots by the government of Iran to intimidate, harass and kidnap” her.
“As recently as 2020 and 2021, Iranian intelligence officials and assets plotted to kidnap the (Alinejad) from within the United States for rendition to Iran in an effort to silence the (Alinejad’s) criticism of the regime,” the department said in a statement.
In a CNN interview last year, Alinejad said that the Iranian government had been targeting her and her family for her efforts to give voice to the protest movement in the country where she was born.
“I’m not scared (for) my life at all because I know what I’m doing. I have only one life, and I dedicated my life to give voice to Iranian people inside Iran who bravely go to the streets – face guns and bullets to protest against Iranian regime – but this is happening in America,” she said at the time.
Alinejad was targeted in another alleged kidnapping plot by Iranian nationals in 2021 after she spoke out against the Islamic Republic. The plot was organized by an Iranian intelligence official, an indictment alleged, but Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied any involvement, calling the accusation “baseless and ridiculous,” according to the semi-official news agency ISNA.
This story has been updated with additional details Friday.
According to news reports, the incident happened in the Neve Yaakov district in the middle of the evening local time. Israeli police said the attacker, identified as a Palestinian from the Shu’fat refugee camp in occupied East Jerusalem, had been “neutralized” at the scene.
In a statement issued by his Spokesperson, António Guterres extended his heartfelt condolences to the families of those killed, and wished a prompt recovery for those injured.
‘Abhorrent’ assault, on Holocaust Memorial Day
“It is particularly abhorrent that the attack occurred at a place of worship, and on the very day we commemorated International Holocaust Remembrance Day”, the statement said.
No excuse for terror
“There is never any excuse for acts of terrorism. They must be clearly condemned and rejected by all.”
Friday’s incident followed on from a worrying escalation in violence in recent months, and the deaths of nine Palestinians, militants and well as several civilians, at a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank town of Jenin on Thursday, following an Israeli raid targeting what they said was an active group of Islamic Jihad militants.
Palestinian militants in Gaza launched rockets into Israel in response, which Israeli forces met with air strikes on the Palestinian enclave.
‘Utmost restraint’ needed
“The Secretary-General is deeply worried about the current escalation of violence in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory”, said the statement. “This is the moment to exercise utmost restraint.”
The Security Council met behind closed doors to discuss the escalating crisis on Friday afternoon in New York.
The High Representative for the UN Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC), Miguel Ángel Moratinos, who is tasked with building bridges between faiths and fighting antisemitism, also issued a statement strongly condemning what he described as an “horrific terrorist attack” on Jewish worshippers, after Friday Sabbath prayers.
“The High-Representative stresses that such a heinous crime is unjustifiable whenever, wherever and by whomsoever committed”, the statement added.
Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians and wounded several others in the West Bank city of Jenin on Thursday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said, prompting the Palestinian Authority to suspend its security coordination with Israel.
Hours after the Jenin raid, a tenth Palestinian was killed in what Israel Police called a “violent disturbance” near Jerusalem.
The death toll makes Thursday the deadliest day for Palestinians in the West Bank in over a year, according to CNN records. It brings the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces this year to 30, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health figures. That toll includes militants being targeted in Israeli raids, individuals who attacked Israelis, and bystanders, CNN reporting shows.
Nine Palestinians, including an elderly woman, were killed during an Israeli raid of the Jenin refugee camp, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.
Israeli security forces said they were operating in Jenin Thursday to apprehend a “terror squad belonging to the Islamic Jihad terror organization,” saying in a statement that it killed three “terrorists.”
“The Islamic Jihad terror operatives were heavily involved in executing and planning multiple major terror attacks, including shooting attacks on IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians,” the joint statement from the Israel Defense Forces, Israel Security Agency and Border Police said.
The statement said two armed suspects were “neutralized” while fleeing and that a third was neutralized at the scene. Another suspect surrendered, they said.
Israeli forces reported no injuries on their side, but said they were aware of “claims regarding additional casualties during the exchange of fire” and were investigating.
The Palestinian Red Crescent (PRC) said Israeli forces initially prevented medics from entering Jenin camp, making it difficult to reach injured individuals, four of whom were in critical condition.
The PRC said Israeli forces also fired tear gas canisters towards the Jenin Government Hospital, causing inhalation injuries among children.
Later on Thursday, a 22-year-old Palestinian man was shot and killed by Israeli troops in Al-Ram near Jerusalem, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said, making him the tenth Palestinian killed that day.
Israel Border Police said they were responding to a “violent disturbance” in the city and that “a terrorist who shot fireworks from a short range at our forces “was neutralized.” The force said in a statement that one of its officers had also fired at and hit a second person who allegedly shot fireworks at them.
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh called on the United Nations and international human rights organizations to “intervene urgently to provide protection … and stop the bloodshed of children, youth and women.”
The Palestinian Authority also announced it will cease security coordination with Israel starting immediately, its Deputy Prime Minister Nabil Abu Rudineh told a news conference in Ramallah in the wake of the raid.
“In light of the repeated aggression against our people and the flouting of the signed agreements, including security ones, we consider that security coordination with the Israeli occupation government no longer exists as of now,” Abu Rudineh said.
Coordination between Israel and the Palestinians involves a range of civilian and security matters, including sharing of some intelligence for security operations targeting militant groups – seen as key to preventing terror attacks.
But Palestinian Authority leadership has come under pressure to cut the coordination, especially over the past year which has seen some of the highest levels of violence and death for both Palestinians and Israelis in years.
The Palestinian Authority previously suspended security coordination for several months in 2020, after Israel announced plans to annex parts of the West Bank as part of former President Donald Trump’s peace plan. The annexation did not proceed and security coordination resumed.
Last year was the deadliest for both Palestinians in the West Bank and for Israelis in nearly two decades, CNN analysis of official statistics on both sides showed.
Israel’s top military officer told CNN “fighting terrorism is a complex mission,” in the wake of Thursday’s fatal Israeli raid. Herzi Halevi, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of staff, was speaking to CNN’s Hadas Gold shortly after the raid, and before he had been fully briefed on it.
An IDF spokesperson later told CNN the military was responding to intelligence about an imminent attack.
“We went into Jenin in daylight,” the spokesperson said, underlining that the decision to operate in daylight rather than overnight, as the IDF usually does, shows how “urgent” the mission was.
When the forces arrived at the targeted building they “came under heavy fire and returned fire.”
The suspects were barricaded in a house when the IDF arrived, “so in addition the forces used an anti-tank shoulder-fired missile.”
“We are aware of reports a woman in her 60s, to our sorrow, was killed during the operation. We do not yet know on whom to assign responsibility, who fired and where she was,” the spokesperson added.
Israel is increasing its defensive posture against Palestinian militant attacks in the wake of the raid, the Ministry of Defense said.
On Friday, the Israel Defense Forces said it had launched air strikes targeting an “underground rocket manufacturing site belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization in Maghazi in the central Gaza Strip.”
“This strike will significantly impede Hamas’ intensification and armament efforts,” it added in a statement posted on the force’s official Telegram channel.
It said the strikes were in response to the launching of three rockets from the Gaza Strip on Thursday. One of the rockets had been intercepted, one had fallen in an open area and another had fallen inside the Gaza Strip, the IDF said.
Israeli forces have killed at least nine Palestinians and wounded 20 during a raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.
Palestinian officials said an elderly woman was among the dead in the latest raid since Israel intensified such operations last year.
An Israeli army statement said its forces conducted a counterterrorism raid to apprehend “a terror squad” belonging to the Islamic Jihad armed group.
Islamic Jihad confirmed battling Israeli forces as they carried out the unusually deep raid into Jenin’s refugee camp. The death toll – the highest in Jenin in years – drew a warning from the group that its truce with Israel, called after a brief exchange of fire across Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip last year, could be in danger.
During the raid, local youths threw rocks at army vehicles from the entrances to the camp’s cramped alleyways. As the Israeli troops withdrew and the smoke and tear gas cleared, civilians streamed into the camp to check on casualties. A two-storey building that had been the focus of the fighting was heavily damaged.
There were no Israeli casualties.
Medics said the situation in the refugee camp was critical and Israeli forces were stopping ambulances from reaching people who were wounded.
The number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces during raids in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem in January has risen to at least 29 people, including five minors. At least 15 of those killed were from Jenin. More than 170 Palestinians were killed in such raids in 2022, many of them civilians.
Criminal charges have been dropped against an Afghan national who served with the US military in Afghanistan and was apprehended after fleeing to the US by crossing the southern border with Mexico.
Abdul Wasi Safi, called Wasi, served alongside US special operations forces in Afghanistan as an Afghan special forces soldier and fled the country after the US’ withdrawal was complete in August 2021. He traveled to the US on his own, and in September 2022 he was detained after he entered over the southern border from Mexico.
Safi’s case has drawn the attention of veteran groups and US lawmakers who pushed for the charges to be dropped and the Biden administration to take action and grant him the right to stay in the country while he awaited a hearing on his asylum claim.
Safi’s immigration attorney, Jennifer Cervantes, told CNN that he intended to seek asylum, but was unfamiliar with the reporting requirements and did not go to an established port of entry.
“He didn’t understand that he needed to go to a port of entry to ask for asylum, otherwise this case would have been very different,” Cervantes said on Wednesday. “Wasi’s not from the southern border, he’s not from Latin America, and so he wasn’t really aware of how to actually present himself for asylum … He thought that he needed to apply as soon as he found a CBP (Customs and Border Protection) official to give him his documents, and that’s exactly what he did.”
Safi was ultimately charged with failing to comply with reporting requirements, but court records show that the charges were dismissed by a Texas judge on Monday.
The news was announced on Tuesday evening by Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee.
“Mr. Safi came across the Rio Grande with a group of migrants after being beaten in another country and desperate to find a way to reach America to see freedom,” Jackson Lee said in a statement on Tuesday. “Unfortunately, his entry was at a non-port of entry and Mr. Safi has been held ever since in detention facilities. What happened over the last couple of weeks was a strategic and forceful effort to bring all agencies together to make the right decision for Mr. Safi.”
Jackson Lee took a role in helping get the charges dropped by reaching out to leadership of US agencies to speak to Safi’s standing as an Afghan soldier and individual who worked alongside US forces, she told CNN on Wednesday.
“I’m very grateful to the leadership of the Department of Defense who answered my call immediately and provided important and valuable information,” she said, though she declined to provide more details on what that assistance looked like.
“I’m grateful to say thank you to my government,” Jackson Lee added. “Thank you to my president, and thank you to the leadership of the different agencies including the Department of Defense that really understood his plight and worked hard to ensure that we moved this process along.”
Sami-ullah Safi, Wasi Safi’s brother who goes by Sami and who also worked alongside the US military in Afghanistan before he became a US citizen in July 2021, celebrated the news on Wednesday but told CNN he still has questions.
“He came to the same country that he fought alongside, and to his surprise he was singled out and treated as a criminal. Is this how America treats its allies and those who sacrificed alongside Americans in Afghanistan?” Sami Safi said. “My service for the military should have been valued. My brother’s service to the military should have been valued.”
According to a letter sent to President Joe Biden by a coalition of US veterans groups, Wasi Safi “served faithfully alongside US Special Operations Forces” and “continued to support the Northern resistance against the Taliban” during the US withdrawal in 2021. But as the Taliban consolidated power, it was clear Wasi Safi would be at extreme risk because of his work with the US special operations community.
Sami Safi previously told CNN that his brother received “multiple voicemails” while he was still in Afghanistan that said his fellow Afghan service members were being captured and killed by the Taliban.
So Wasi Safi began the journey to the US. The letter from the US veterans groups said that he “traveled on foot or by bus through 10 countries, surviving torture, robbery, and attempts on his life, to seek asylum in the United States from the threat on his life and expecting a hero’s welcome from his American allies.” Instead, he was apprehended by Border Patrol and has been in their custody since.
And while the charges against him were dropped, the road for Wasi Safi and his brother is not over.
Cervantes has requested that Customs and Border Patrol drops its retainer on Wasi Safi before he is transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody. The detainer is “fairly common,” she said, because CBP “want him to be transferred to ICE and do a credible fear interview.”
“Right now, we’re kind of going back and forth between CBP – I’m asking CBP to release their detainer and actually issue him an OAR parole (an immigration status for Afghan migrants), which is what the United States issues to most Afghans that they brought in because I think that’s the right thing to do in this case,” Cervantes said. “However, if they don’t do that, he’ll be transferred to ICE custody, and we’ll be trying to get him released from ICE.”
She added that she doesn’t have “any doubt” that Wasi Safi will be able to pass the credible fear interview.
“We’ll hopefully be able to get him released from all custody here shortly,” Cervantes said, “and that the government will really see not only his service to the United States – Wasi worked in counterterrorism, so he was trying to prevent terrorist attacks. So not only will they hopefully see that, but also again the threat to his life.”
Sami Safi said his brother’s immigration status is the next hurdle that he is going to start working on immediately.
“The biggest challenge that I have to now start working on would be his immigration status – what status America is willing to give him with all his sacrifice,” he said.
“I cannot feed bridges to my children,” says Muhammad, a driver living in the Nile Delta, in reference to the Egyptian government’s large infrastructure building drive, as the country suffers from a cost-of-living crisis.
“I can hardly afford the most basic necessities. This government has been in power for over eight years. They have done nothing for the average person,” he said angrily.
“This government treated me [when I had] the hepatitis C virus for free,” retorted his friend, Sami, referring to a campaign launched by the Egyptian government in 2014 to treat people living with hepatitis C virus (HCV), one of Egypt’s biggest health challenges.
These heated discussions over inflation and currency devaluations have become commonplace in many Arab countries.
In September, the Tunisian dinar reached a record low versus the United States dollar, as the country’s president struggles to deal with an ongoing economic and political crisis.
Meanwhile, the currencies of other countries, including Syria, Sudan, Lebanon and Egypt, were among the world’s worst-performing currencies in 2022.
These devaluations, coupled with rising prices around the world, have contributed to sky-high levels of inflation.
According to the Central Bank of Egypt, headline inflation was 21.3 percent in 2022, while core inflation, which excludes volatile fuel and food prices, reached 24.5 percent. These numbers pale in comparison to Lebanon’s jaw-dropping triple-digit inflation over the past couple of years, according to the World Bank.
Some people are blaming their governments for inflation. Governments, on the other hand, have tended to point the finger at external factors beyond their control, such as the war in Ukraine, the COVID-19 pandemic and interest rate hikes in the US.
US rate hikes and the Ukraine war
Several countries in the region, such as Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon, have suffered from a depletion of foreign currency, due to plummeting tourism revenues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as rising food prices triggered by the war in Ukraine.
Currency devaluations are a result of a number of factors, including trade deficits and foreign debt.
“A persistent trade deficit results in a loss of foreign reserves which is often necessary to service foreign lending,” said Dennis McCornac, assistant professor of economics at Georgetown University in Qatar.
Rising inflation around the world has prompted the US Federal Reserve to raise interest rates to control rising prices. Higher interest rates make it more expensive to borrow money, so they discourage people from spending. When spending declines, demand falls and the prices of goods and services follow.
Higher interest rates in the US also lure investors away from risky assets in developing countries.
“Rising interest rates in the US make the US dollar more attractive as an investment safe haven,” said Zouheir el-Sahli, assistant professor of economics at Qatar University.
And when foreign investors in local debt instruments exit a market, they sell their local currency to buy US dollars, causing a drop in the value of the local currency, as Moamen Gouda, professor of Middle East economics at Hankuk University, explained.
“[This leads] to devaluation unless the government intervenes to prop up its currency to avoid social instability due to rising prices,” Gouda said.
Chronic structural problems
Egypt has now turned to the International Monetary Fund for help for the fourth time in six years. To secure IMF funding, Cairo had to move to a flexible exchange rate regime in which supply and demand determine the currency’s value, something successive Egyptian governments have always resisted.
An inflexible exchange rate regime is only one of the many structural problems hindering economic progress in many Middle Eastern countries.
“Egypt, for instance, is not attracting a lot of foreign direct investment [FDI] due to a loss of confidence in the current economic policies,” said el-Sahli.
The lack of FDI has contributed to a foreign currency crunch and, eventually, the devaluation of the Egyptian pound.
Gouda agrees with other economists that the main problem with the Egyptian economy is structural. According to him, the war in Ukraine and US interest rate hikes only exposed the fragility of the economic systems of several countries in the region and the need to embark on deep and painful structural reforms.
According to him, Egypt has failed to attract FDI by signalling that the private sector, which has consistently contracted over the past eight years, is not welcome. “Over the past eight years, the military has crowded out the private sector in almost every aspect of economic life,” Gouda said.
A reduction in the military’s oversized role in the economy was one of the main reforms requested by the IMF. In its January 2023 report on Egypt, the IMF said the Egyptian authorities have committed to reducing the role of the state in the economy and levelling the playing field between the public and private sectors.
Lebanon has its own particular issues. “In addition to having chronic deficits, the country suffers from a political deadlock that has prevented it from sealing a deal with the IMF to extend a lifeline to the economy,” explained el-Sahli.
“Lebanon has run its economy like a Ponzi scheme,” where new money is borrowed to pay off the debt owed to investors, said Mohammad Fadel, a professor of law at the University of Toronto. “Lebanese banks were attracting deposits from Lebanese people abroad with ridiculously high interest rates,” he added.
The World Bank agrees with this reading and has said the Lebanese state ultimately used “excessive debt accumulation” to give an “illusion of wealth” and encourage investments. These depositors did not understand the risks they were taking on by depositing their money in Lebanon.
And once political turmoil on the ground in Lebanon contributed to foreign investment drying up, the whole system collapsed.
Currency devaluation can actually greatly benefit an economy in the long term.
“It would be expected to decrease export prices and increase import prices, which hopefully slows down the loss of foreign reserves,” said McCornac.
But without meaningful structural reforms, devaluations end up being a missed opportunity to increase exports, narrow the trade deficit and spur growth.
BEIRUT (AP) — The judge investigating Beirut’s massive 2020 port blast resumed work Monday after a nearly 13-month halt, ordering the release of some detainees and announcing plans to charge others, including two top generals, judicial officials said.
Judge Tarek Bitar’s work had been blocked since December 2021 pending a Court of Cassation ruling after three former Cabinet ministers filed legal challenges against him. The court is the highest in the land.
Despite there being no ruling by the court, Bitar resumed working on the case Monday based on legal justifications he gave, the judicial officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. They did not elaborate.
Bitar did not respond to calls by The Associated Press for comment.
The Aug. 4, 2020 disaster happened when hundreds of tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate, a material used in fertilizers, detonated at Beirut’s port killing more than 200, injuring over 6,000 and damaging large parts of Beirut. The explosion is considered one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history.
It later emerged that the ammonium nitrate had been shipped to Lebanon in 2013 and stored improperly at a port warehouse ever since. Senior political and security officials knew of its presence but did nothing.
The judicial officials said Bitar decided to release five people who had been detained for more than two years. They include former customs chief Shafeek Merhi; Sami Hussein, the head of port’s operations at the time of the blast, and a Syrian worker. Twelve people will remain in custody, including the head of the port authority and the head of the Lebanese customs at the time of the blast.
The move by Bitar to order the release of some of the 17 people who have been held since shortly after the blast came days after protests by family members in Beirut demanding all 17 be set free.
“What Bitar did today is that he committed a major violation of international laws” says Celine Atallah, attorney for detainee Badri Daher, who was customs chief at the time of the blast. “If he believes that he has authority to release some of the detainees it means he has and must release all seventeen detained.
“Under international conventions that Lebanon ratified and human rights laws, their detention is unlawful. I put him responsible that he is holding the seventeen as hostages,” Atallah, a Lebanese-American, told The AP.
The officials said Bitar is expected to charge eight people, including top intelligence officials Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim and Maj. Gen. Tony Saliba. Bitar previously charged three ex-ministers who had refused to show up for questioning several times and lodged legal complaints to stall the probe.
Paul Naggear, a survivor of the devastating blast who lost his 3-year-old daughter Alexandra, said the news was unexpected.
“Obviously it’s very positive. This is all that we’ve been asking for,” he told the AP. “We are pleased for the decision (to revive the investigation), whether they (the authorities) stop him very soon or not.”
Naggear is among a handful of relatives of blast victims who have been campaigning for Bitar and advocating for a robust investigation. In recent weeks, they have protested more frequently outside the Justice Palace and Parliament building in Beirut calling for the investigation to continue.
Some politicians have challenged Bitar in court, accusing him of violating the constitution or of showing bias. There were also reports of threats leveled against the judge and the government vowed in late 2021 to increase his security.
Bitar was also challenged by some family members of blast victims, including Ibrahim Hoteit who lost his younger brother in the blast. Hoteit had said that Bitar has become a hurdle to finding out the truth in the case.
Bitar has been the subject of harsh criticism by Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Nasrallah called Bitar’s investigation a “big mistake” and said it was biased. He asked authorities to remove Bitar.
Bitar is the second judge to take the case. The first judge, Fadi Sawwan, was forced out after complaints of bias by two Cabinet ministers. If the same happens to Bitar, it could be the final blow to the investigation.
Beyoncé also performed some of her greatest hits like “Crazy in Love,” “Beautiful Liar,” and “Naughty Girl,” all while her husband Jay-Z looked on from a hotel room balcony in the audience. She opened the show with a cover of Etta James’ “At Last” as fireworks erupted around her.
Beyond her music, her costume changes also created a buzz. Beyoncé wore multiple lavish ensembles, including a Nicolas Jebran bodysuit emblazoned with gold detail and a massive headpiece.
The last full concert Beyoncé performed was in 2018 for the Global Citizen Festival.
There to cheer her on were stars like Rebel Wilson, Kendall Jenner, Simon Huck, and Jonathan Cheban. Several celebrities took to social media before and after the performance to reveal that filming on their phones was not allowed during the show.
Turkish president announces the date for the country’s presidential and parliamentary polls.
Turkey’s president has announced May 14 as the date for the country’s next parliamentary and presidential elections.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who plans to seek re-election, made the announcement during a Saturday youth conference in the northwestern Bursa province. A video of the event was released Sunday.
“I thank God that we are destined to share our path with you, our valued youth, who will vote for the first time in the elections that will be held on May 14,” said Erdogan, who had hinted at the date last week.
He said in Bursa that he would make the formal call on March 10, after which Turkey’s Supreme Election Council would prepare for the elections.
If no candidate secures more than 50 percent of the vote, a second round of voting would be held on May 28.
Opposition yet to name candidate
Erdogan, who has been in office since 2003 – first as prime minister, then as president since 2014 – faces his biggest test in his two decades at the reins of the regional military power, NATO member and major emerging market economy.
A six-party opposition alliance has yet to put forth a presidential candidate. A pro-Kurdish party that is the third-largest in parliament has so far been excluded from the alliance and said it might field its own candidate.
The opposition has blamed Turkey’s economic downturn and an erosion of civil rights and freedoms on the 68-year-old Erdogan, saying the revised government system amounts to “one-man rule”.
In 2018, Erdogan introduced a system of governance that abolished the office of the prime minister and concentrated most powers in the hands of the president. The office of the president was largely a ceremonial post before then. Under the new system, presidential and parliamentary elections are held on the same day.
The presidential and parliamentary elections were scheduled to be held on June 18, but Erdogan has previously signalled that the vote could be brought forward. An official of his AK Party has previously said that an election in June would coincide with the summer holiday season when people are travelling.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired a key Cabinet ally on Sunday, heeding a Supreme Court ruling commanding him to do so and deepening a rift over the power of the courts.
Netanyahu announced he was firing Aryeh Deri, who serves as Interior and Health Minister, at a meeting of his Cabinet. Israel’s Supreme Court decided last week Deri could not serve as a Cabinet minister because of a conviction last year over tax offenses.
The court ruling came as Israel is mired in a dispute over the power of the judiciary. Netanyahu’s far-right government wants to weaken the Supreme Court, limit judicial oversight and grant more power to politicians. Critics say the move upends the country’s system of checks and balances and imperils Israel’s democratic fundamentals.
According to his office, Netanyahu told Deri he was removing him from his post with “a heavy heart and great sorrow.”
“This unfortunate decision ignores the people’s will,” Netanyahu told Deri. “I intend to find any legal way for you to continue to contribute to the state of Israel.”
Deri said he would continue to lead his party and assist the government in advancing its agenda, including the legal overhaul.
Deri’s firing is also expected to shake Netanyahu’s governing coalition, a union buoyed by ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox parties, including Deri’s Shas, which is the third largest party in the government. While some Shas lawmakers threatened to bolt the fledgling coalition in the aftermath of the court ruling, it is expected to survive Deri’s absence and to attempt to craft legislation that would pave the way for his swift return.
Netanyahu is now expected to appoint other Shas members to replace Deri, at least temporarily.
Deri has long been a kingmaker in Israeli politics and has become a key ally of Netanyahu’s who has relied on him repeatedly to join his governments and back his agenda.
Netanyahu’s government, the most right-wing in Israeli history, has made overhauling the country’s judiciary a centerpiece of its agenda. It says a power imbalance has given judges and government legal advisers too much sway over lawmaking and governance. Critics say the overhaul could help Netanyahu, himself on trial for corruption charges, evade conviction or see his trial disappear entirely.
The plan has drawn fierce criticism from top legal officials, the chief justice of the Supreme Court, former lawmakers and tens of thousands of Israelis who have come out repeatedly to protest the overhaul.
In a move that was seen as crucial to bringing the governing coalition together, Israeli legislators last month changed a law that prohibited a convict on probation from being a Cabinet minister. That cleared the way for Deri to join the government but prompted the Supreme Court challenge.
Deri has faced legal problems in the past. He was sentenced to three years in prison for bribery, fraud and breach of trust in 2000 during a stint as interior minister in the 1990s. He served 22 months in prison but made a political comeback and retook the reins of Shas in 2013.
A senior White House official asked US tech company Cloudflare to help circumvent internet censorship in Iran after protests erupted in that country last September but US sanctions prevented the firm from doing so, Cloudflare CEO Mathew Prince said Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“I got a call from a senior official in the White House who said, ‘Can you do in Iran what you’re doing in Russia?’” said Prince, whose company makes software that protects users from cyberattacks and allows activists in authoritarian regimes to bypass censorship, during a panel discussion on security and technology. “And I said, ‘No.’ And [they] said, ‘Why not?’ And I said, ‘Because sanctions prevented us from ever putting our equipment in Iran.’”
The Iranian government moved to block internet access as hundreds of protesters were killed in clashes with Iran’s security forces last fall, according to human rights activists.
The anecdote underscores the prominent role that large tech firms can play in US foreign policy.
US officials have, for example, tried to broker a deal with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to provide crucial satellite communications for Ukrainian troops during the war while also encouraging SpaceX to provide satellite service to Iran.
In the case of San Francisco-based Cloudflare, Prince said the White House official suggested the company could be given a “license” to operate in Iran, but Prince replied that it was “too late” for that.
Prince did not name the White House official.
CNN has requested comment from the White House National Security Council.
The Biden administration in September granted certain exceptions to US sanctions on Iran for tech firms that provide tools for everyday Iranians to communicate, such as cloud computing or social media services.
But that move was long overdue, digital rights activists previously told CNN, and US sanctions unwittingly accelerated Iran’s development of an internal communications network.
Despite heavy US sanctions imposed on Russia after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February, Prince said Cloudflare’s prior presence on the ground in Russia means people there can use Cloudflare technology to circumvent Moscow’s censors to read credible news about the war. About 10% of Russian households use that anti-censorship Cloudflare technology, Prince claimed.
The phone call from the White House, Prince said, illustrated a difficult “tradeoff” between sanctions meant to punish human rights-flouting regimes and the need to get technology into the hands of dissidents.
Asked to respond to Prince’s comments during the panel discussion, FBI Director Christopher Wray said, “We engage in those tradeoffs every day.”
Many technologies present “great opportunity, but great dangers in the wrong hands,” Wray said.
While Cloudflare touts its record protecting dissidents abroad, it has also drawn heavy criticism from human rights activists for the firm’s willingness to provide services to controversial platforms such as messaging board 8chan (Cloudflare pulled its support for 8chan in 2019).
Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Saturday that a planned visit by his Swedish counterpart to Ankara has been canceled after Swedish authorities granted permission for protests in Stockholm.
Protests in Stockholm on Saturday against Turkey and Sweden’s bid to join NATO, including the burning of a copy of the Quran, sharply heightened tensions with Turkey at a time when the Nordic country needs Ankara’s backing to gain entry to the military alliance.
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms the vile attack on our holy book … Permitting this anti-Islam act, which targets Muslims and insults our sacred values, under the guise of freedom of expression is completely unacceptable,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.
Its statement was issued after an anti-immigrant politician from the far-right fringe burned a copy of the Quran near the Turkish Embassy. The Turkish ministry urged Sweden to take necessary actions against the perpetrators and invited all countries to take concrete steps against Islamophobia.
A separate protest took place in the city supporting Kurds and against Sweden’s bid to join NATO. A group of pro-Turkish demonstrators also held a rally outside the embassy. All three events had police permits.
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said that Islamophobic provocations were appalling.
“Sweden has a far-reaching freedom of expression, but it does not imply that the Swedish Government, or myself, support the opinions expressed,” Billstrom said on Twitter.
The Quran-burning was carried out by Rasmus Paludan, leader of Danish far-right political party Hard Line. Paludan, who also has Swedish citizenship, has held a number of demonstrations in the past where he has burned the Quran.
Paludan could not immediately be reached by email for a comment. In the permit he obtained from police, it says his protest was held against Islam and what it called Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s attempt to influence freedom of expression in Sweden.
Several Arab countries including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Kuwait denounced the Koran-burning. “Saudi Arabia calls for spreading the values of dialogue, tolerance, and coexistence, and rejects hatred and extremism,” the Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Sweden and Finland applied last year to join NATO following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but all 30 member states must approve their bids. Turkey has said Sweden in particular must first take a clearer stance against what it sees as terrorists, mainly Kurdish militants and a group it blames for a 2016 coup attempt.
At the demonstration to protest Sweden’s NATO bid and to show support for Kurds, speakers stood in front of a large red banner reading “We are all PKK”, referring to the Kurdistan Workers Party that is outlawed in Turkey, Sweden, and the United States among other countries, and addressed several hundred pro-Kurdish and left-wing supporters.
“We will continue our opposition to the Swedish NATO application,” Thomas Pettersson, spokesperson for Alliance Against NATO and one of organizers of the demonstration, told Reuters.
Police said the situation was calm at all three demonstrations.
Earlier on Saturday, Turkey said that due to lack of measures to restrict protests, it had canceled a planned visit to Ankara by the Swedish defence minister.
“At this point, the visit of Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson to Turkey on January 27 has become meaningless. So we canceled the visit,” Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said.
The attack on al-Tanf, where US troops are based, injures two allied Syrian opposition fighters, the coalition says.
A drone attack hit a US-led coalition base in southern Syria, the US military’s Central Command has said.
“Three one-way attack drones attacked the al-Tanf Garrison in Syria,” a CENTCOM statement said on Friday.
Two of the drones were shot down by the coalition, but the third hit the compound, wounding two allied Syrian opposition fighters who received treatment, the statement added.
“Attacks of this kind are unacceptable,” CENTCOM spokesperson Joe Buccino said, without specifying who carried it out.
“They place our troops and our partners at risk and jeopardise the fight against ISIL.”
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
Iran-backed forces are deployed in close proximity to al-Tanf, a desert garrison on the strategically important Baghdad-Damascus highway, near the border with Iraq and Jordan.
Iran is a key ally of the Syrian government and the coalition has disrupted similar attacks on al-Tanf in the past.
Sleeper cells of the armed ISIL (ISIS) group are also active in the area.
The coalition set up the base in 2016 to train Syrian fighters for the war against ISIL.
It retained the facility even after the fighters’ last Syrian outpost was overrun by Kurdish-led forces in March 2019.
Roughly 900 US troops remain at al-Tanf and other bases in the Kurdish-controlled northeast as part of the coalition’s continuing campaign against ISIL remnants.
The US has previously carried out attacks targeting what it says were infrastructure facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The raids, it said, were in response to attacks allegedly launched by Iranian-backed fighters targeting al-Tanf.
The Syrian government has constantly expressed its opposition to the US role in Syria, and demanded that US forces withdraw.
Editor’s Note: A version of this story appears in today’s Meanwhile in the Middle East newsletter, CNN’s three-times-a-week look inside the region’s biggest stories. Sign up here.
Jerusalem CNN
—
Israel’s highest court this week ordered Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to fire a key ally, a dramatic move amid an unprecedented confrontation between his government and the judiciary.
The High Court ruled 10-1 on Wednesday that it was unreasonable for Aryeh Deri, leader of the Sephardic ultra-Orthodox party Shas, to serve as a minister. He was appointed interior and health minister just three weeks ahead of the ruling.
But so far, Netanyahu has not taken any action, as political tensions mount. Israel media reported Friday Deri and Netanyahu are in the midst of negotiations over the situation.
Deri has several convictions on his record, most recently on tax charges. Last year he struck a plea bargain with the courts, which saw him serve a suspended sentence after he resigned from parliament and pledged not to return to public office.
Under Israeli law, people convicted of crimes cannot serve as ministers. But Netanyahu’s government passed an amendment to that law earlier this month that essentially created a loophole for Deri.
In Wednesday’s ruling, the justices narrowly focused on Netanyahu’s appointment of Deri despite his assertion he would leave political life as part of the deal for the suspended sentence.
But less than a year after that plea bargain was struck, Netanyahu has now been told he needs to fire Deri – whose 11 seats in parliament he needs to stay in power.
“This is a dramatic decision. The decision is aimed at the prime minister, not Deri,” said Yaniv Roznai, an associate professor and co-director at the Rubinstein Center for Constitutional Challenges, Reichman University in Israel.
Since the ruling, Netanyahu hasn’t reacted much beyond going to see Deri and issuing general words of support. CNN has reached out to his office for further comment.
“When my brother is in distress – I come to him,” Netanyahu said as he went to visit Deri after the ruling on Wednesday.
In a joint statement the same day, the heads of the coalition parties led by Netanyahu’s party Likud said: “We will act in any legal way that is available to us and without delay, to correct the injustice and the serious damage caused to the democratic decision and the sovereignty of the people.”
Deri has seemingly vowed to find a way around the ruling, proclaiming: “They will close the door for us, we will enter through the window. They will close the window for us, we will break through the ceiling.”
But most political and legal experts believe it’s extremely unlikely that Netanyahu or Deri would defy the court’s ruling, or that Deri will pull his Shas party out of Netanyahu’s coalition, a move that would cause the government to fall.
Yonatan Green, executive director of the Israel Law and Liberty Forum, told reporters in a briefing that while he thinks Netanyahu is expected to follow the court order in this case, it sets the stage for future defiance.
“Each successive case of this kind probably brings us a little bit closer to that particular brink,” Green said.
And so experts say one of the most likely paths forward is for Netanyahu to fire Deri, and for the government to bulldoze through judicial reforms that it has already announced.
The Deri ruling comes amid an ongoing battle that has been raging over the judiciary. Netanyahu’s justice minister, Yariv Levin, announced in early January a series of judicial reforms that would give parliament (and by extension the parties in power) the ability to overturn supreme court rulings, appoint judges, and remove from ministries legal advisers whose legal advice is binding.
If parliament gets such powers, it could create a path for Deri to return. But critics say it could also help Netanyahu end his ongoing corruption trial. Netanyahu has repeatedly denied in multiple interviews that the changes would be for his own benefit.
Backers of the reforms have long accused the high court of overreach and elitism. They say the changes would restore balance between the branches of government.
But opponents including former Prime Minister Yair Lapid and the President of the Israeli supreme court Esther Hayut say it will erode Israel’s independent judiciary, weaken the checks and balances between the branches and spell the beginning of the end of Israel’s democracy.
“If Aryeh Deri is not fired, the Israeli government is breaking the law. A government that does not obey the law is an illegal government,” Lapid tweeted.
It was these proposed judicial reforms that drove some 80,000 people onto the streets of Tel Aviv in pouring rain on Saturday to protest the changes.
Organizers hope the protest spurs a movement and mounting public pressure on Netanyahu to back off or limit the scope of the proposed reforms.
UAE and India discussing settling non-oil trade in rupees
The United Arab Emirates is in early discussions with India to trade non-oil commodities in Indian rupees, Reuters cited Emirati Minister for Foreign Trade Thani Al Zeyoudi as saying on Thursday.
Background: The UAE last year signed a wide-ranging free trade agreement with India, which, along with China, is among the biggest trade partners for Gulf Arab oil and gas producers, most of whose currencies are pegged to the US dollar. The large majority of Gulf trade is conducted in US dollars but countries such as India and China are increasingly seeking to pay in local currencies for reasons including lowering transaction costs.
Why it matters: Other countries, including China, have also raised the issue of settling non-oil trade payments in local currencies, the minister said, but discussions weren’t at an advanced stage. China’s president in December visited Saudi Arabia where he participated in a Gulf Arab summit and called for oil trade in yuan as Beijing seeks to establish its currency internationally. The Saudi finance minister said this week that the kingdom would be open to trade in other currencies aside from the US dollar.
Turkey’s opposition to announce presidential candidate to challenge Erdogan
Turkey’s opposition alliance is set to announce in February their presidential candidate to challenge President Tayyip Erdogan’s 20-year rule in elections set for May, Reuters cited an opposition party official as saying on Friday. The six-party alliance is seeking to forge a united platform but has yet to agree a candidate to challenge Erdogan for the presidency.
Background: Turkey’s two main opposition parties, the secularist CHP and center-right nationalist IYI Party, have allied themselves with four smaller parties under a platform that would seek to dismantle Erdogan’s executive presidency in favor of the previous parliamentary system.
Why it matters: Turkey is heading towards one of the most consequential votes in the century-long history of the modern republic and Erdogan signaled on Wednesday that the presidential and parliament elections would be on May 14, a month ahead of schedule.
Kuwaiti leader frees jailed critics in effort to build political cohesion
Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Sabah has pardoned dozens of jailed critics under a new amnesty in an effort to end political feuding that has hampered fiscal reforms as tensions surface between the new government and parliament, Reuters reported. The amnesty pardoned 34 Kuwaitis, most of them convicted for voicing public criticism.
Background: Kuwait has the region’s liveliest parliament and tolerates criticism to a degree that is rare among Gulf Arab states, but the emir has the final say in state affairs and criticizing him is a jailable offence. The cabinet on Tuesday voiced hope that the latest amnesty, which followed the pardoning of dozens of political dissidents in 2021 in a nod to opposition demands, would “create an atmosphere of fruitful cooperation”.
Why it matters: Opposition members made big gains in elections held in September. Tensions recently resurfaced as lawmakers pressed the government for a debt relief bill under which the state would buy citizens’ personal loans – a measure that past governments have taken but which comes as the oil producer seeks to push through fiscal reforms to bolster state finances.
Conservative Gulf Arab states rarely send contestants to international beauty pageants, many of which include segments where women are presented in revealing swimsuits.
But one contestant from the tiny Gulf state of Bahrain avoided that taboo by participating in this year’s Miss Universe in New Orleans in a pink burkini swimsuit that covered her from the neck down, including her arms.
As 24-year-old Evlin Khalifa walked down the catwalk, she unfurled a cape with a flag of Bahrain and the word “equality” in Arabic. A message in English read: “Arab women should be represented… A Muslim woman can also become a Miss Universe.”
The pianist and taekwondo black-belt told the UAE’s The National newspaper that she decided to participate in order to “break stereotypes.”
“Arab women are kind, passionate and brave and they are ready to embrace the challenges of life,” she said. “They can become beauty queens in modesty and can shine in modern pageantry.”
The exhibition match was played in Saudi Arabia’s capital and saw the two superstars renew their storied rivalry for possibly the last time.
Despite being a friendly, the game was played at a furious pace as a packed out crowd inside the King Fahd Stadium was treated to a goal-fest between the French champion and a team consisting of the best players from Saudi’s domestic league.
It was Messi who opened the scoring with a well taken finish within three minutes before Ronaldo equalized from the penalty spot after colliding with PSG goalkeeper Keylor Navas.
Juan Bernat was then sent off for the French giant after bringing down Salem Al Dawsari as the last man, before defender Marquinhos reestablished PSG’s lead by turning in a wonderful cross from Kylian Mbappé.
The breathtaking action continued with Neymar seeing his penalty saved before Ronaldo leveled the scores 2-2 before the break when he reacted quickest after his initial header hit the post.
The Portugal international has yet to make his debut since moving to Al Nassr after the World Cup, but he delighted the crowds on Thursday by performing his trademark celebration.
The 37-year-old is set to make his debut on Sunday as Al Nassr hosts Ettifaq at Mrsool Park.
There was no let up in the second half with Sergio Ramos putting PSG back ahead after more brilliant work from Mbappé, before Jang Hyun-soo’s header leveled proceedings again.
Mbappé then got on the score sheet himself after converting another penalty before both Ronaldo and Messi were substituted after the hour mark.
Even without the two big names on the pitch, the game continued at a frantic pace and youngster Hugo Ekitike eventually put PSG out of sight after calmly finishing off a counterattack.
There was still time, though, for Anderson Talisca to convert a long-range effort which ended up serving as little more than a consolation.
The exhibition game was more than organizers could have dreamed of with all the biggest stars playing a part in a thrilling encounter.
“Players from our league relished the opportunity to pit their talents against some of the best players in the world, such as Kylian Mbappé, Neymar, Achraf Hakimi, and, of course, Lionel Messi,” Saudi Pro League chairman AdbulAziz Al-Afaleq said in a statement.
“Backed by an incredibly passionate crowd at the King Fahd International Stadium, the Saudi Pro League players truly put in a performance to be proud of that showcased the strength of Saudi Arabian football.”
However, the match has been criticized by Amnesty International, which says the game was another example of sportswashing – a phenomenon whereby corrupt or autocratic regimes invest in sport and sports events to whitewash their international reputation – from both Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which bankrolls PSG through the company Qatar Sports Investments.
“Ronaldo’s big-money transfer to Al Nassr and Messi’s engagement by the Saudi authorities as a tourism ambassador are both part of Riyadh’s aggressive sportswashing programme, with the authorities seeking to exploit the celebrity appeal of elite sport to deflect attention from the country’s appalling human rights record,” Peter Frankental, Amnesty UK’s economic affairs director, said in a statement.
He added: “Saudi Arabia’s extensive use of sport as an exercise in soft power is well-known, but with Qatari-owned PSG appearing in Riyadh we effectively have two sportswashing superpowers – Saudi Arabia and Qatar – flexing their muscles.
“Saudi Arabia and Qatar have both poured vast amounts of money into sporting ventures in a bid to rebrand themselves and switch international attention away from their human rights records – efforts which have been only partially successful.
“Footballers like Ronaldo and Messi have huge profiles and we’d like to see them resisting being used as the famous faces of sportswashing, including by speaking out about human rights issues in both Saudi Arabia and Qatar.”
BERLIN — News this month that the number of German soldiers declaring themselves conscientious objectors rose fivefold in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine created little more than a ripple in Germany.
For many Germans it’s perfectly natural for members of the Bundeswehr, the army, to renege on the pledge they made to defend their country; if Germans themselves don’t want to fight, why should their troops?
Indeed, in Germany, a soldier isn’t a soldier but a “citizen in uniform.” It’s an apposite euphemism for a populace that has lived comfortably under the U.S. security umbrella for more than seven decades and goes a long way toward explaining how Germany became NATO’s problem child since the war in Ukraine began, delaying and frustrating the Western effort to get Ukraine the weaponry it needs to defend itself against an unprovoked Russian onslaught.
The latest installment in this saga (it began just hours after the February invasion when Germany’s finance minister told Ukraine’s ambassador there was no point in sending aid because his country would only survive for a few hours anyway) concerns the question of delivering main battle tanks to Ukraine. Germany, one of the largest producers of such tanks alongside the U.S., has steadfastly refused to do so for months, arguing that providing Ukraine with Western tanks could trigger a broader war.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has also tried to hide behind the U.S., noting that Washington has also not sent any tanks. (Scholz has conveniently ignored the detail that the U.S. has provided Ukraine with $25 billion in military aid so far, more than 10 times what Germany has.)
Germany’s allies, including Washington, often ascribe German recalcitrance to a knee-jerk pacifism born of the lessons learned from its “dark past.”
In other words, the German strategy — do nothing, blame the Nazis — is working.
Of course, Germany’s conscience doesn’t really drive its foreign policy, its corporations do. While it hangs back from supporting Ukraine in a fight to defend its democracy from invasion by a tyrant, it has no qualms about selling to authoritarian regimes, like those in the Middle East, where it does brisk business selling weapons to countries such as Egypt and Qatar.
Despite everything that’s happened over the past year, Berlin is still holding out hope that Ukraine can somehow patch things up with Russia so that Germany can resume business as usual and switch the gas back on. Even if Germany ends up sending tanks to Ukraine — as many now anticipate — it will deliver as few as it can get away with and only after exhausting every possible option to delay.
Much attention in recent years has focused on Nord Stream 2, the ill-fated Russo-German natural gas project. Yet tensions between the U.S. and Germany over the latter’s entanglement with Russian energy interests date back to the late 1950s, when it first began supplying the Soviet Union with large-diameter piping.
Throughout the Cold War, Germany’s involvement with NATO was driven by a strategy to take advantage of the protection the alliance afforded, delivering no more than the absolute minimum, while also expanding commercial relations with the Soviets.
In 1955, the weekly Die Zeit described what it called the “fireside fantasy of West German industry” to normalize trade relations with the Soviet Union. Within years, that dream became a reality, driven in large measure by Chancellor Willy Brandt’s détente policies, known as Ostpolitik.
Joe Biden, eager to reverse the diplomatic damage inflicted during the Trump years, reversed course and has gone out of his way to show his appreciation for all things German | Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images
That’s one reason the Germans so feared U.S. President Ronald Reagan and his hard line against the Soviets. Far from welcoming his “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” demand, both the German public and industry were terrified by it, worried that Reagan would upset the apple cart and destroy their business in the east.
By the time the Berlin Wall fell a couple of years later, West German exports to the Soviet Union had reached nearly 12 billion deutsche mark, a record.
That’s why Germany’s handling of Ukraine isn’t a departure from the norm; it is the norm.
Germany’s dithering over aid to Ukraine is a logical extension of a strategy that has served its economy well from the Cold War to the decision to block Ukraine’s NATO accession in 2008 to Nord Stream.
Just last week, as the Russians were raining terror on Dnipro, the minister president of Saxony, Michael Kretschmer, called for the repair of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which was blown up by unknown saboteurs last year, so that Germany “keeps the option” to purchase Russian gas after war ends.
One can’t blame him for trying. If one accepts that German policy is driven by economic logic rather than moral imperative, the fickleness of its political leaders makes complete sense — all the more so considering how well it has worked.
The money Germany has saved on defense has enabled it to finance one of the world’s most generous welfare states. When Germany was under pressure from allies a few years ago to finally meet NATO’s 2 percent of GDP spending target, then-Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel called the goal “absurd.” And from a German perspective, he was right; why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?
Of course, the Germans have had a lot of help milking, especially from the U.S.
American presidents have been chastising Germany over its lackluster contribution to the Western alliance going as far back as Dwight D. Eisenhower, only to do nothing about it.
The exception that proves the rule is Donald Trump, whose plan to withdraw most U.S. troops from Germany was thwarted by his election loss.
Joe Biden, eager to reverse the diplomatic damage inflicted during the Trump years, reversed course and has gone out of his way to show his appreciation for all things German.
Biden’s decision to court the Germans instead of castigating them for failing to meet their commitments taught Berlin that it merely needs to wait out crises in the transatlantic relationship and the problems will fix themselves. Under pressure from Trump to buy American liquefied natural gas, then-Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed in 2018 to support the construction of the necessary infrastructure. After Trump, those plans were put on ice, only to revive them amid the current energy crisis.
By virtue of its size and geographical position at the center of Europe, Germany will always be important for the U.S., if not as a true ally, at least as an erstwhile partner and staging ground for the American military.
Who cares that the Bundeswehr has become a punchline or that Germany remains years away from meeting its NATO spending targets?
In Washington’s view, Germany might be a bad ally, but at least it’s America’s bad ally.
And no one understands the benefits of that status better than the Germans themselves.
A prominent Pakistani lawyer and human rights activist was shot dead on Monday at a courtbuilding in the northwestern city of Peshawar, according to police and a witness.
Abdul Latif Afridi, 79, a former president of Pakistan’s Supreme Court bar association, was shot six times in a break room at the Peshawar High Court, Capital City police officer Muhammad Ijaz Khan told CNN.
Khan identified the suspect as junior lawyer Adnan Sami Afridi, 24, not directly related to the deceased Afridi, and said he was taken into custody.
Witness Hayat Roghani said the alleged gunman raised his hands to surrender after the shooting, saying he had taken revenge for his father’s death. Police also told CNN the alleged gunman said it was a revenge killing.
The suspect’s father, lawyer Samiullah Afridi, was killed by unknown gunmen in 2015. At the time, two militant groups claimed responsibility for killing Afridi, who worked for the doctor who helped the CIA look for Osama bin Laden.
Though a heavy police contingent is normally deployed at the Peshawar court, lawyers are not body searched on entry. Security arrangement at the court have previously been questioned, especially after a teenage boy shot and killed a US national of Pakistani origin who was on trial on blasphemy charges inside the courtroom in 2020.
Latif Afridi, also a former lawmaker, had been a vocal critic of the powerful military’s alleged interference in Pakistani politics and of Islamist militancy.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif issued a statement on Twitter expressing his grief and “deep sorrow” over Latif Afridi’s death.
He also condemned what he called the “worsening law and order situation” in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, of which Peshawar is the capital.
