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Tag: Middle East

  • Armenian museum reopens in Jerusalem’s Old City

    Armenian museum reopens in Jerusalem’s Old City

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    JERUSALEM (AP) — A hundred years after taking in scores of children whose parents were killed in the Armenian genocide, a 19th-century orphanage in Jerusalem’s Armenian Quarter has reopened its doors as a museum documenting the community’s rich, if pained, history.

    The Mardigian Museum showcases Armenian culture and tells of the community’s centuries-long connection to the holy city. At the same time, it is a memorial to around 1.5 million Armenians killed by the Ottoman Turks around World War I, in what many scholars consider the 20th century’s first genocide.

    Turkey denies the deaths constituted genocide, saying the toll has been inflated and that those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.

    Director Tzoghig Karakashian said the museum is meant to serve as “a passport for people to know about the Armenians” and to understand their part of Jerusalem’s history.

    The museum reopened in late 2022 after a more than five-year renovation project. Before that, the building — originally a pilgrim guesthouse built in the 1850s — served as a monastery, an orphanage for children who survived the genocide, a seminary and ultimately a small museum and library.

    Jerusalem is home to a community of around 6,000 Armenians, many of them descendants of people who fled the genocide. Many inhabit one of the historic Old City’s main quarters, a mostly enclosed compound abutting the 12th-century Armenian cathedral of St. James.

    But the Armenians’ link to the holy city stretches back centuries, from monks and pilgrims during the late Roman Empire to Armenian queens of Crusader Jerusalem.

    The museum’s centerpiece, filling the sunlit courtyard, is an exquisite 5th or 6th century mosaic adorned with exotic birds and vines discovered in 1894 on the grounds of an ancient Armenian monastery complex. It bears an inscription in Armenian dedicated to “the memorial and salvation of all Armenians whose names the Lord knows.”

    For decades, the mosaic remained in a small museum near the Old City’s Damascus Gate. In 2019, the Israeli Antiquities Authority and the Armenian Patriarchate undertook the laborious task of removing the mosaic floor and transporting it across town to the newly refurbished museum.

    From elaborately carved stone crosses known as “khachkars” to iconic painted tiles and priestly vestments, the museum showcases Armenian material art, while also excelling in telling the Armenian story of survival. While Jerusalem changed hands as empires rose and fell, the Armenians remained.

    “Surviving means to not be seen,” said Arek Kahkedjian, a museum tour guide. “We survived without people knowing what or who we are, and today we feel ready to show you and teach about the history and heritage, about the culture, and to show you how we advance and modernize with the times.”

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  • American held in Iran launches hunger strike and writes to Biden asking him to do more for detainees | CNN Politics

    American held in Iran launches hunger strike and writes to Biden asking him to do more for detainees | CNN Politics

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    Washington
    CNN
     — 

    An American wrongfully detained in Iran is calling on President Joe Biden to take notice of US detainees there, launching a hunger strike Monday to mark seven years since he was left behind in a prisoner swap that brought other Americans home.

    In a letter to Biden, Siamak Namazi called on the US president to think of him every day for the seven days he intends to carry out the hunger strike commemorating the grim milestone.

    “In the past I implored you to reach for your moral compass and find the resolve to bring the US hostages in Iran home. To no avail. Not only do we remain Iran’s prisoners, but you have not so much as granted our families a meeting,” wrote Namazi, who is one of three Americans who remain wrongfully detained in Iran. Emad Shargi and Morad Tahbaz have also been imprisoned there for years.

    “All I want sir, is one minute of your days’ time for the next seven days devoted to thinking about the tribulations of the U.S. hostages in Iran,” Namazi wrote to Biden. “Just a single minute of your time for each year of my life that I lost in Evin prison after the U.S. Government could have saved me but didn’t. That is all.”

    “Alas, given I am in this cage all I have to offer you in return is my additional suffering. Therefore, I will deny myself food for the same seven days, in the hope that by doing so you won’t deny me this small request,” he said.

    Namazi was blocked from leaving Iran after visiting in July 2015 and underwent months of interrogations before being arrested in October 2015. He was not included in the prisoner swap with Iran in January 2016 that led to the release of Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, Marine veteran Amir Hekmati and Christian pastor Saeed Abedini. A fifth American was also separately released at that time.

    “When the Obama Administration unconscionably left me in peril and freed the other American citizens Iran held hostage on January 16, 2016, the U.S. Government promised my family to have me safely home within weeks,” Namazi wrote in his letter Monday. “Yet seven years and two presidents later, I remain caged in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, holding that long overdue IOU along with the unenviable title of the longest held Iranian-American hostage in history.”

    A National Security Council spokesperson said the Biden administration remains “committed to securing the freedom of Siamak Namazi and we are working tirelessly to bring him home along with all US citizens who are wrongfully detained in Iran, including Emad Shargi and Morad Tahbaz.”

    The spokesperson added that it is “outrageous” for Iran to detain US citizens for political leverage.

    “Our priority is bringing all our wrongfully detained citizens home safely and as soon as possible and resolving the cases of missing and abducted US citizens,” the spokesperson said.

    The US does not have diplomatic relations with the Iranian regime, though it has called on the government there to release the detained Americans. Tensions between Tehran and the West have further ratcheted in the wake of brutal crackdowns against protests in Iran and the executions of protesters. Over the weekend, Western governments condemned the execution of Alireza Akbari, a dual British-Iranian citizen who was hanged after being accused of espionage and corruption.

    Namazi’s brother, Babak Namazi, told CNN that this week is especially painful for his family every year.

    “It’s just a horrific week, as to think that seven years, seven whole years have gone by, which could have been avoided if at that time Siamak would have been included with the five other Americans,” Babak said.

    In February 2016, Namazi’s father Baquer was lured to Iran under the false premise that he would be able to see his son. He was instead immediately taken into custody at that time. Siamak and Baquer Namazi were sentenced to 10 years in prison in October 2016. Baquer was released from Iran after more than six years in October 2022. That same month, Siamak was granted furlough from Evin Prison, but was forced to return a short time later.

    Babak said his “family is of course gravely concerned for Siamak’s health and distraught that he has resorted to such desperate measures” as a hunger strike.”

    “President Biden, Siamak is begging you, my family is imploring you. Please, please, take what it takes to make those courageous decisions that we know you are capable of,” Babak told CNN.

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  • Former Afghan lawmaker Mursal Nabizada shot dead at her home in Kabul | CNN

    Former Afghan lawmaker Mursal Nabizada shot dead at her home in Kabul | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Former Afghan lawmaker Mursal Nabizada and her security guard were shot dead her home in Kabul early Sunday morning, according to Kabul police.

    Nabizada represented Kabul in Afghanistan’s parliament from 2019 until the government was deposed by the Taliban in August 2021. She was one of the few female former lawmakers who remained in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover.

    Nabizada’s brother was also wounded in the attack, said Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran, who added that an investigation to determine who carried out the attack is underway.

    The shooting took place around 3 a.m., local time on Sunday, according to local police chief Molvi Hamidullah Khalid.

    Sunday’s shooting is the first time a lawmaker from the previous administration has been killed in the city since the Taliban seized power, but there have been signs of a deteriorating security situation in the country’s capital.

    Last week, at least five people were killed in an explosion near the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday, according to police in Kabul.

    “Rising insecurity is of grave concern,” the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan wrote in a statement condemning the attack. “Violence is not part of any solution to bring lasting peace to Afghanistan.”

    Since the Taliban took control of the country, multiple attacks have claimed dozens of lives in the capital.

    In September last year, a suicide bomber killed at least 25 people, mostly young women, at an education center in Kabul.

    Earlier that month, six people including two Russian Embassy employees were killed in a suicide blast near the Russian Embassy.

    In August, an explosion at a mosque during evening prayers killed 21 people and injured 33.

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  • More than 80,000 people turn out for Tel Aviv protest against Netanyahu government | CNN

    More than 80,000 people turn out for Tel Aviv protest against Netanyahu government | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Tens of thousands of people protested in Tel Aviv Saturday night against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government’s proposed changes to the Israeli judicial system.

    Despite pouring rain over the city, police estimated that more than 80,000 people flooded central Tel Aviv’s HaBima square and surrounding streets, according to Israeli media, while others took to the streets in Jerusalem for parallel protests.

    Attendees held signs comparing Netanyahu to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and saying Israel was turning into the likes of semi-democratic Hungary and theocratic Iran.

    Protesters told CNN they came out of fear for Israel’s future and to send a message to Netanyahu that the public wouldn’t stand for what they see as the dismantling of Israeli democracy.

    Esther Hayut, the president of Israel’s Supreme Court, on Thursday attacked the proposed changes as “an unbridled attack on the legal system” and said they were “designed to force a fatal blow on the independence of the judicial system.”

    The proposed reforms, announced last week by Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin, would seek to reform Supreme Court nominations via a review committee, and enable parliament to overturn Supreme Court rulings.

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  • UK condemns Iran’s execution of dual British-Iranian citizen Alireza Akbari | CNN

    UK condemns Iran’s execution of dual British-Iranian citizen Alireza Akbari | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A dual British-Iranian citizen was hanged by Iran on charges of espionage and corruption, a state-affiliated media outlet reported Saturday, the latest in a string of executions carried out by a regime grappling with unprecedented protests across the country.

    The Iranian official, Alireza Akbari, was executed for crimes including “corruption on earth,” according the Iranian judiciary-affiliated outlet Mizan. Akbari was charged with working as a spy for MI6, the British intelligence agency, and reportedly paid more than $2 million in various currencies – 1.805 million euros, 265,000 British pounds and $50,000 – Iranian state media reported Saturday.

    British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he was “appalled by the execution.” He added on Twitter: “This was a callous and cowardly act, carried out by a barbaric regime with no respect for the human rights of their own people. My thoughts are with Alireza’s friends and family.”

    Akbari allegedly provided information to foreign officials about 178 Iranian figures, including country’s chief nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, Iranian media reported. Fakhrizadeh was killed by a remote-controlled machine gun operating out of a car in 2020, according to state-affiliated Fars News. Iran’s top officials accused Israel of masterminding the plot at the time, without providing evidence.

    Akbari purportedly carried out his intelligence work through the veneer of a private company focused on research and trade activities, working directly with research institutes in London that Iran claimed were headed by intelligence officials, Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported. IRNA also cited allegations that Akbari had meetings with an MI6 intelligence officer and former British Ambassador to Iran Richard Dalton.

    Iran’s Supreme Court upheld the death penalty handed down to Akbari after deeming it to be based on “substantiated evidence,” according to IRNA.

    Mizan did not specify when the execution was carried out. Akbari’s death sentence was announced just days ago, on January 11, after his conviction on spying for the United Kingdom. Akbari had denied the charges.

    According to allegations published in Mizan on Wednesday, Akbari had been arrested “some time ago.” The BBC reported Akbari was arrested in 2019.

    “On this basis and after filing an indictment against the accused, the file was referred to court and hearings were held in the presence of the accused’s lawyer and based on the valid documents in this person’s file, he was sentenced to death for spying for the UK,” Mizan said.

    Akbari previously served as Iran’s deputy defense minister and was the head of the Strategic Research Institute, as well as a member of the military organization that implemented the United Nations resolution that ended the Iran-Iraq war, according to Iranian pro-reform outlet Shargh Daily. He served under Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, a reformist who was in office from 1997 to 2005, according to the BBC.

    Though Iran does not recognize dual nationality, the execution of an individual holding British citizenship will likely further fuel tensions between Tehran and Western democracies, which have been critical of the regime’s response to anti-government demonstrations that began in September last year.

    Iran has long ranked among the world’s top executioners, and Akbari is one of three individuals to receive a death sentence in the first weeks of 2023. Two young men, a karate champion and a volunteer children’s coach, were hanged last weekend after being convicted of killing a member of the country’s Basij paramilitary force. Both had allegedly taken part in the protests that began after a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman, Mahsa Amini, died while in custody of the country’s morality police.

    Amini’s death sparked massive nationwide demonstrations against a regime often criticized as theocratic and dictatorial.

    Critics have accused Tehran of responding to protests with excessive force – activist groups HRANA and Iran Human Rights say that 481 protesters have been killed – and using the country’s unjust judicial system to intimidate would-be demonstrators. United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk alleged that Tehran was “weaponizing” criminal procedures to carry out “state-sanctioned killing” of protesters.

    As many as 41 more protesters have received death sentences in recent months, according to statements from both Iranian officials and in Iranian media reviewed by CNN and 1500Tasvir, but the number could be much higher.

    Iranian state media has reported that dozens of government agents, from security officials to officers of the basij paramilitary force, have been killed in the unrest.

    Thousands of people have taken to the streets since Mahsa Amini's death in September.

    Though Akbari’s execution was, on its surface, unrelated to the recent protests, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverley alleged that the act was “politically motivated.” He said Iran’s charge d’affaires would be summoned over the execution “to make clear our disgust at Iran’s actions.”

    “The execution of British-Iranian Alireza Akbari is a barbaric act that deserves condemnation in the strongest possible terms. Through this politically motivated act, the Iranian regime has once again shown its callous disregard for human life,” Cleverly said on Twitter. “This will not stand unchallenged.”

    The UK government had urged Iran not to execute Akbari, and the Foreign Office said it would continue to support his family.

    Amnesty International called Akbari’s execution “particularly horrific” and an “abhorrent assault on the right to life.” The rights group claimed that Akbari had said he was forcibly administered chemical substances, held in prolonged solitary confinement and forced to make recorded “confessions” repeatedly.

    Amnesty urged the UK government to “fully investigate” these allegations of torture and ill treatment and “pursue all avenues to hold the Iranian authorities to account.”

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  • UN chief: Rule of law risks becoming `Rule of Lawlessness’

    UN chief: Rule of law risks becoming `Rule of Lawlessness’

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    UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Thursday that the rule of law is at grave risk of becoming “the Rule of Lawlessness,” pointing to a host of unlawful actions across the globe from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and coups in Africa’s Sahel region to North Korea’s illegal nuclear weapons program and Afghanistan’s unprecedented attacks on women’s and girls’ rights.

    The U.N. chief also cited as examples the breakdown of the rule of law in Myanmar since the military ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021 leading to “a cycle of violence, repression and severe human rights violations,” and the weak rule of law in Haiti which is beset by widespread rights abuses, soaring crime rates, corruption and transnational crime.

    “From the smallest village to the global stage, the rule of law is all that stands between peace and stability and a brutal struggle for power and resources,” Guterres told the U.N. Security Council.

    The secretary-general lamented, however, that in every region of the world civilians are suffering the effects of conflicts, killings, rising poverty and hunger while countries continue “to flout international law with impunity” including by illegally using force and developing nuclear weapons.

    As an example of the rule of law being violated, Guterres pointed first to Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.

    The Ukraine conflict has created “a humanitarian and human rights catastrophe, traumatized a generation of children, and accelerated the global food and energy crisis,” the secretary-general said. And referring to Russia’s annexation of four regions in Ukraine in late September as well as its 2014 annexation of Crimea, he said any annexation resulting from the threat or use of force is a violation of the U.N. Charter and international law.

    The U.N. chief then condemned unlawful killings and extremist acts against Palestinians and Israelis in 2022, and said Israel’s expansion of settlements — which the U.N. has repeatedly denounced as a violation of international law — “are driving anger and despair.”

    Guterres said he is “very concerned” by unilateral initiatives in recent days by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new conservative government, which is implementing an ultra-nationalist agenda that could threaten a two-state solution.

    “The rule of law is at the heart of achieving a just and comprehensive peace, based on a two-state solution, in line with U.N. resolutions, international law and previous agreements,” he stressed.

    More broadly, the secretary-general said the rule of law is the foundation of the United Nations, and key to its efforts to find peaceful solutions to these conflicts and other crises.

    He urged all 193 U.N. member states to uphold “the vision and the values” of the U.N. Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to abide by international law, and to settle disputes peacefully.

    The council meeting on strengthening the rule of law, presided over by Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi whose country decided on the topic, sparked clashes, especially over the war in Ukraine, between Russia and Western supporters of the Kyiv government. Nearly 80 countries spoke.

    “Today, we are beset by the war of aggression in Europe and conflicts, violence, terrorism and geopolitical tensions, ranging from Africa to the Middle East to Latin America to Asia Pacific,” Hayashi said.

    “We, the member states, should unite for the rule of law and cooperate with each other to stand up against violations of the Charter such as aggression” and “the acquisition of territory by force from a member state,” he said in a clear reference to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

    U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the council “an ironclad commitment” for the U.S. and a fundamental principle of the United Nations is that “no person, no prime minister or president, no state or country is above the law.”

    Despite “unparalleled” advancements toward peace and prosperity since the U.N. was founded on the ashes of World War II, she said some countries are failing in their commitment to the U.N. Charter’s principles — “the most glaring example” Russia — or are “enabling rule breakers to carry on without accountability.”

    Thomas-Greenfield called for those who don’t respect sovereignty, territorial integrity, human rights and fundamental freedoms to be held accountable, naming Russia, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Myanmar, Belarus, Cuba, Sudan and Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers.

    Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused the West of using the council meeting “to sell the narrative about the apparent responsibility of Russia for causing threats to international peace and security, ignoring, however, their own egregious violations.”

    He said that before last Feb. 24, “international law was repeatedly flouted,” claiming the roots of the current situation “lie in the astonishing desire of Washington to play a role of global policeman.”

    Nebenzia pointed to numerous instances including NATO bombings in former Yugoslavia and Libya, the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq “using a false pretext” of the presence of weapons of mass destruction, of the “war on terror” in Afghanistan — and he blamed the West for what Moscow calls the current “special military operation.”

    Ukraine’s First Deputy Foreign Minister Emine Dzhaparova said “it’s very black and white” that Russia is responsible for the crimes in Ukraine and should be held accountable.”

    She also warned the Security Council: “The law of force that Russia has been barbarically practicing today over Ukraine gives a very clear signal to everyone in this room: No one is secure any more.”

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  • Nighttime Israeli arrests haunt Palestinian kids, families

    Nighttime Israeli arrests haunt Palestinian kids, families

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    BALATA REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank (AP) — Yousef Mesheh was sleeping in his bunk bed when Israeli forces stormed into his home at 3 a.m.

    Within moments, the 15-year-old Palestinian said he was lying on the floor as troops punched him, shouting insults. A soldier struck his mother’s chest with his rifle butt and locked her in the bedroom, where she screamed for her sons.

    Yousef and his 16-year-old brother, Wael, were hauled out of their home in Balata refugee camp in the northern West Bank. Yousef was in a sleeveless undershirt and couldn’t see without his glasses.

    “I can’t forget that night,” Yousef told The Associated Press from his living room, decorated with photos of Wael, who remains in detention. “When I go to sleep I still hear the shooting and screaming.”

    The Israeli military arrested and interrogated hundreds of Palestinian teenagers in 2022 in the occupied West Bank, without ever issuing a summons or notifying their families, according to an upcoming report by the Israeli human rights organization HaMoked.

    The charges against those being arrested ranged from being in Israel without a permit to throwing stones or Molotov cocktails. Some teens say they were arrested to obtain information about neighbors or family members.

    In the vast majority of the military’s pre-planned arrests of minors last year, children were taken from their homes in the dead of the night, HaMoked said. After being yanked out of bed, children as young as 14 were interrogated while sleep-deprived and disoriented. Water, food and access to toilets were often withheld. Yousef said soldiers beat him when he asked to relieve himself during his seven-hour journey to the detention center.

    The Israeli army argues it has the legal authority to arrest minors at its discretion during late-night raids.

    Lawyers and advocates say the tactic runs counter to Israel’s legal promises to alert parents about their children’s alleged offenses.

    In response to a petition to the Supreme Court by HaMoked two years ago, there had been some small improvement when Israel asked the military to first summon Palestinian parents about their accused children. But the progress was short-lived. Last year, the Israeli military rounded up hundreds of Palestinians in the West Bank ages 12-17 in late-night arrests, according to HaMoked. Rights activists say they believe such tactics are meant to create fear.

    “The fact that the military is making no effort to reduce these traumatic night arrests indicates to us that the trauma is part of the point,” said Jessica Montell, director of HaMoked. “This intimidation and terrorizing of communities seems actually part of the policy.”

    According to figures reported to the Supreme Court, the army summoned Palestinian parents to question their children only a handful of times in 2021. Last year, not a single family received a summons in nearly 300 cases HaMoked tracked in the West Bank.

    Petty offenses and cases where children were released without charge — as happened to Yousef — were no exception. HaMoked said the numbers are incomplete because it believes scores of similar cases are never reported.

    “They are not implementing the procedure they created themselves,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director for Defense for Children International in the Palestinian territories. “The beating and mistreatment of children during night arrests is really what we’re concerned about.”

    In response to a request for comment, the Israeli military said it tries to summon Palestinian children suspected of minor offenses who have no history of serious criminal convictions. But, the army argued, this policy does not apply to serious offenses or “when a summons to an investigation would harm its purpose.”

    The army would not comment on Yousef’s arrest, but said his brother, Wael, faces charges related to “serious financial crimes,” including “contacting the enemy,” “illegally bringing in money” and helping “an illegal organization.” These charges typically reflect cases of Palestinians communicating with people in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

    Although HaMoked found most cases were soon dropped, the late-night arrests haunted children long after.

    Since his Nov. 7 arrest, Yousef “is not like he was before,” said his mother, Hanadi Mesheh, who also recounted her ordeal to the AP. He can’t focus in school. He no longer plays soccer. She sleeps beside him some nights, holding him during his nightmares.

    “I feel like I’m always being watched,” Yousef said. “I’m frightened when my mother wakes me in the morning for school.”

    Similar stories abound in the area. The northern city of Nablus emerged as a major flashpoint for violence last year after Israel began a crackdown in the West Bank in response to a spate of Palestinian attacks in Israel.

    Last year Israeli forces killed at least 146 Palestinians, including 34 children, the Israeli rights group B’Tselem reported, making 2022 the deadliest for Palestinians in the West Bank in 18 years. According to the Israeli army, most of the Palestinians killed have been militants. But youths protesting the incursions and others not involved in confrontations have also been killed. Palestinian attacks, meanwhile, killed at least 31 Israelis last year.

    Israel says the operations are meant to dismantle militant networks and thwart future attacks. The Palestinians have decried the raids as collective punishment aimed at cementing Israel’s open-ended 55-year-old occupation of lands they want for a future state. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

    Nighttime arrest raids are not limited to the West Bank. Israeli police also carry out regular raids in Palestinian neighborhoods of east Jerusalem.

    Last fall in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina, Rania Elias heard pounding on the door before dawn. Her youngest son, 16-year-old Shadi Khoury, was sleeping in his underwear. Israeli police burst into their home, shoved Khoury to the floor and pummeled his face. Blood was everywhere, she said, as police dragged him to a Jerusalem detention center for interrogation.

    “You can’t imagine what it’s like to feel helpless to save your child,” Elias said.

    In response to a request for comment, the Israeli police said they charged Khoury with being part of a group that threw stones at a Jewish family’s car on Oct. 12, wounding a passenger.

    Under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new ultra-nationalist government, parents say they fear for their children more than ever. Some of the most powerful ministers are Israeli settlers who promise a hard-line stance against the Palestinians.

    “This is the darkest moment,” said activist Murad Shitawi, whose 17-year-old son Khaled was arrested last March in a night raid on their home in the West Bank town of Kfar Qaddum. “I’m worried for my sons.”

    ___

    Associated Press writer Sam McNeil in Balata refugee camp, West Bank, contributed to this report.

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  • Iran hangs former defence ministry official for spying for UK

    Iran hangs former defence ministry official for spying for UK

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    BREAKING,

    Akbari was a former deputy defence minister, whom Iran alleges shared information on senior officials.

    Tehran, Iran – Iran has executed a former deputy defence minister on allegations of spying for the UK.

    The judiciary’s official news outlet confirmed on Saturday morning that Alireza Akbari Akbari, a British-Iranian dual national, was hanged after being convicted of “corruption on Earth” and acting against national security by spying for British intelligence.

    It added that Akbari was sentenced to death for “harming the country’s internal and external security by passing on intelligence”.

    “The actions of the British spy service in this case have shown the value of the convict, the importance of his access and the enemy’s trust in him,” it added.

    It claimed he had received training from the MI-6, established shell companies to thwart Iranian intelligence services, had intelligence meetings in various countries, including Austria and the UAE, and received British citizenship as a reward for “betraying” his country.

    British Foreign Minister James Cleverly had previously called for a halt to Akbari’s execution, saying “this is a politically motivated act by a barbaric regime that has total disregard for human life”. The United States had also called for stopping the execution.

    Akbari was alleged to have passed on information about dozens of senior Iranian officials, including Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a top nuclear scientist assassinated in a town near Tehran in 2020. Iran blamed the attack on Israel.

    According to the Iranian judiciary, Akbari began working with British intelligence in 2004 for five years before leaving the country. In 2009, he was allegedly advised by Britain to leave Iran.

    Akbari then allegedly re-entered Iran several years later to continue his activities, and was ultimately arrested.

    The judiciary did not announce the date of his arrest but he was reportedly taken into custody in 2019.

    Earlier this week, the state-run IRNA news website released a video purporting to show “confessions” by Akbari, who is said to have been a close ally of Ali Shamkhani, Iran’s current security chief and former defence minister from 1997 to 2005, when Akbari was his deputy.

    Akbari’s family had told British media he was innocent and had fallen victim to “political games” inside Iran.

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  • Biden admin preparing to ask Congress to approve sale of F-16 jets to Turkey | CNN Politics

    Biden admin preparing to ask Congress to approve sale of F-16 jets to Turkey | CNN Politics

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    Washington
    CNN
     — 

    The Biden administration is preparing to ask Congress to approve the sale of 40 F-16 fighter jets to Turkey, after weighing a Turkish request for the planes for more than a year, congressional sources familiar with the deliberations told CNN.

    If approved, the sale would be among the largest arms sales in years. The administration is also discussing a separate sale of 40 F-35 warplanes to Greece. There are longstanding tensions between Turkey and Greece.

    Turkey was removed from the F-35 program in 2019 in response to Ankara’s decision to purchase the Russian-made S-400 missile system.

    The sale to Turkey could put pressure on Ankara to approve the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO, a process that Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been blocking since last year.

    Finland and Sweden were officially invited to join the alliance at the NATO summit in June last year, but as a NATO member Turkey could block them from joining.

    A Finnish official told CNN that Finland has “not been part of any discussions” when it comes to the American F-16s.

    “Finland has implemented everything that was agreed in Madrid in June. Now we hope all NATO members help us get our accession process over the finishing line. What comes to American F-16s, we obviously have not been part of any discussions. It is an internal US matter,” the Finnish official said.

    It is not clear when the administration plans to make a formal request to Congress, as required by law for foreign military sales. But on Thursday night, the administration sent informal notifications about the prospective sale to the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign Relations committees, kicking off the committee review process, the sources said.

    The Wall Street Journal first reported the news.

    Most administrations typically give Congress informal notification of proposed sales weeks before taking formal action. The informal notification process is a common practice in which the relevant committees get a heads up on planned sales, allowing committee leadership to raise concerns, give their input, or place holds.

    Once the administration formally notifies the full Congress of the intended sale, lawmakers then have 30 days to block the deal, which they can do by passing a joint resolution of disapproval.

    Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez said on Friday that he would not approve any proposed sale of F-16 aircraft to Turkey, continuing his longstanding opposition to providing the weaponry to Ankara.

    “As I have repeatedly made clear, I strongly oppose the Biden administration’s proposed sale of new F-16 aircraft to Turkey,” the New Jersey Democrat said. “President Erdogan continues to undermine international law, disregard human rights and democratic norms, and engage in alarming and destabilizing behavior in Turkey and against neighboring NATO allies.”

    Menendez has been highly critical of Turkey’s targeting of the Kurds and threatened incursions into northern Syria. He has slammed Ankara’s closeness with Moscow and warned the Turks against purchasing any more S-400 missile systems from Russia. Additionally, Menendez has accused Turkey of repeatedly violating Greek airspace with provocative overflights in the Aegean Sea, calling it “unacceptable behavior from a NATO country” in remarks in Athens last year.

    “Until Erdogan ceases his threats, improves his human rights record at home – including by releasing journalists and political opposition – and begins to act like a trusted ally should, I will not approve this sale,” Menendez said.

    At the same time, the New Jersey Democrat said he welcomed “the news of the sale of new F-35 fighter aircraft to Greece.”

    “This defense capability is not only critical for a trusted NATO ally and enduring partner’s efforts to advance security and stability in the Eastern Mediterranean, but also strengthens our two nations’ abilities to defend shared principles including our collective defense, democracy, human rights, and the rule of law,” he said Friday.

    A National Security Council spokesperson referred CNN to the State Department for comment.

    “As a matter of policy, the Department is not going to comment on proposed defense sales or transfers until they’ve been formally notified to Congress,” State Department principal deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said at a briefing Friday.

    “But what I would say is that Turkey and Greece both are vital, vital, NATO Allies,” he added, noting that the US has “a history of supporting their security apparatuses.”

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  • Iran’s top diplomat says talks with Saudis could restore ties

    Iran’s top diplomat says talks with Saudis could restore ties

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    Iranian foreign minister says he hopes diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia can be restored via dialogue after years of tensions.

    Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has expressed hope that diplomatic ties between Tehran and Riyadh could be restored through dialogue between the two regional rivals.

    Saudi Arabia cut ties with Iran in January 2016 after protesters attacked the Saudi embassy in Tehran following Riyadh’s execution of the Shia leader Nimr al-Nimr.

    Amir-Abdollahian told a news conference in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, on Friday that he hoped “diplomatic missions or embassies in Tehran and Riyadh will reopen within the framework of dialogue that should continue between the two countries”.

    Iran and Saudi Arabia back opposing sides in several conflicts in the Middle East region, including in Syria and Yemen, where Tehran has supported the Houthi rebels.

    Since April 2021, Iraq has hosted five rounds of fence-mending meetings between the two sides, but the talks have stalled in recent months, and no meetings have been publicly announced since April 2022.

    Iran wields influence in political life in Lebanon and Iraq, where it also supports armed groups.

    On Friday, Amir-Abdollahian met with officials including his counterpart Abdallah Bou Habib and caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

    In a meeting with Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, the pair discussed “possible threats arising from the formation of a government of corrupt people and extremists” in Israel, according to a statement from the Tehran-backed group.

    Israel in late December inaugurated the most right-wing government in its history, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

    The move has sparked fears of heightened tensions between Israel and the Palestinians, and of a potential military escalation in the occupied West Bank, where daily raids and violence by the Israeli army are a common occurrence.

    ‘Dialogue’

    Abdollahian also hailed a potential rapprochement between Iranian ally Syria and Turkey, after their defence ministers met last month.

    Syria’s pro-government Al-Watan newspaper said Amir-Abdollahian would visit Damascus on Saturday.

    “We are happy with this dialogue that is taking place between Syria and Turkey,” Amir-Abdollahian said.

    “We believe that this dialogue should have positive repercussions benefitting these two countries.”

    Ankara had long backed rebels opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

    But after more than a decade of war that has seen Damascus claw back territory with Russian and Iranian support, ties between Syria and Turkey have begun to thaw.

    In late December, Syrian and Turkish defence ministers held landmark negotiations in Moscow – the first such meeting since 2011.

    Assad had said on Thursday that a Moscow-brokered rapprochement with Turkey should aim for “the end of occupation” by Ankara of parts of Syria.

    The defence ministers’ meeting is to be followed by talks between the three countries’ top diplomats, Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday.

    The mooted reconciliation has alarmed Syrian opposition leaders and supporters who reside mostly in the northern parts of the war-torn country under Ankara’s indirect control.

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  • US rolls out tool for Afghans in US to reunify with family members | CNN Politics

    US rolls out tool for Afghans in US to reunify with family members | CNN Politics

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    Washington
    CNN
     — 

    The US State Department rolled out a tool for Afghans in the US under parolee status to begin the process of reunifying with their family members on Thursday, a State Department spokesperson told CNN.

    During the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 many Afghans fled the country on evacuation flights, fearful of the Taliban takeover. Due to the chaotic rush out of the country, which proved deadly for many Afghans, many families were separated from their loved ones.

    With this new form tens of thousands of Afghans who came to the US around that time are eligible to apply for reunification with their immediate relatives. This specifically includes an Afghan’s spouse and unmarried children under the age of 21, according to the State Department.

    “In November, the Department of State announced the launch of a new resource for individuals in the United States who are seeking to reunify with their family members, depending on their immigration status or method of entry to the United States. Today, we launch Form DS-4317 for parolees to file to seek family reunification, including those subsequently granted temporary protected status,” the department spokesperson said.

    The new form has been posted by the State Department.

    Until now these Afghans in the US did not have a legal way to bring their family members into the country to join them.

    “The purpose of these reunification resources, including the parolee form is to help those families that are still separated,” the spokesperson said.

    The announcement was welcomed by an organization that supports Afghans settling in the US.

    “This impacts every Afghan the US brought here under parole status who still has family in Afghanistan eligible for reunification. Afghans who fit that description should complete the form now and Afghans in other categories should visit the family reunification landing page and follow the instructions there,” said Shawn VanDiver, a Navy veteran and founder of #AfghanEvac.

    “It took longer to get this done than anyone would have liked, but #AfghanEvac is proud to have worked tirelessly with the State Department to bridge the gap in the interim through our grassroots efforts,” VanDiver added.

    It is unclear how long it will take for family reunifications to happen once the Afghans fill out these forms, but VanDiver told CNN that it is proof that interagency efforts can come to fruition.

    One primary concern going ahead is the departure flights from Afghanistan that enable relocation to begin. While those flights have resumed this month – after being halted during the World Cup last year in Qatar – there are concerns among those involved in the effort that the flights could be halted by the Taliban in the future.

    This story has been updated with additional details.

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  • Australia pulls out of Afghanistan cricket series over Taliban’s restrictions on women | CNN

    Australia pulls out of Afghanistan cricket series over Taliban’s restrictions on women | CNN

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    Sydney
    CNN
     — 

    Australia’s men’s cricket team has withdrawn from a series of upcoming matches against Afghanistan in protest over the ruling Taliban’s restrictions on women and girls’ education and employment, Cricket Australia (CA) said in a statement Thursday.

    The teams were scheduled to play three One Day International (ODI) games in the United Arab Emirates in March, but CA decided to cancel the series after “extensive consultation” with “several stakeholders including the Australian government,” the statement said.

    “CA is committed to supporting growing the game for women and men around the world, including in Afghanistan, and will continue to engage with the Afghanistan Cricket Board in anticipation of improved conditions for women and girls in the country,” it added.

    In December, the Taliban announced the suspension of university education for all female students. The move followed a decision in March to bar girls from returning to secondary schools, following months-long closures that had been in place since the hardline Islamist group took over Afghanistan in August 2021.

    Later that month, the Taliban ordered all local and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to stop their female employees from coming to work, warning that non-compliance would result in the revocation of their licenses.

    Cricket Australia had previously backed out of a proposed Test match against Afghanistan due to be hosted in Tasmania in November of 2021 over the Taliban’s ban on women participating in sports.

    “Driving the growth of women’s cricket globally is incredibly important to Cricket Australia. Our vision for cricket is that it is a sport for all, and we support the game unequivocally for women at every level,” CA said at the time.

    Australia’s sports minister Anika Wells on Thursday said Canberra supports Cricket Australia’s move.

    “The Australian government welcomes Cricket Australia’s decision to withdraw from the upcoming men’s One Day International series against Afghanistan, following the Taliban’s increased suppression of women and girls’ rights,” she tweeted.

    Although the Taliban repeatedly claimed it would protect the rights of girls and women, the group has done the opposite, stripping away the hard-won freedoms for which women have fought tirelessly over the past two decades.

    The United Nations and at least half a dozen major foreign aid groups have said they are temporarily suspending their operations in Afghanistan following the ban on female NGO employees.

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  • Israeli army kills 21-year-old Palestinian during West Bank raid

    Israeli army kills 21-year-old Palestinian during West Bank raid

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    The death of Ahmed Abu Junaid brings the toll of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire so far in 2023 to five, including three children.

    Israeli forces killed a 21-year-old Palestinian man on Wednesday during an incursion into the West Bank, Palestinian health officials said, the latest casualty as violence continues to surge in the occupied territory.

    The Palestinian Ministry of Health said that Ahmed Abu Junaid, 21, succumbed to a head wound from a bullet during an Israeli army raid into the Balata refugee camp in the city of Nablus, in the northern West Bank.

    His death brings the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire so far in 2023 to five, including three children.

    The Israeli army said it was carrying out arrest raids across the West Bank early on Wednesday. In the Balata refugee camp, a gunfight erupted between Palestinian fighters and Israeli security forces, the army claimed, acknowledging that a Palestinian was hit.

    Palestinian health officials said that Israeli special forces surrounded a house in the congested camp and unleashed live fire, tear gas and stun grenades at a crowd of young men.

    The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade – an armed coalition affiliated with Fatah, the secular political party that controls the Palestinian Authority – claimed Abu Junaid as a fighter.

    Since March 2022, Israeli military raids have surged in the West Bank as the army cracked down on Palestinian men mostly in refugee camps.

    Several developments on the ground during the past year have indicated that the occupied West Bank is approaching a serious shift in the currently unsustainable political and security status quo, analysts told Al Jazeera.

    At least 146 Palestinians were killed by Israeli security forces in 2022 in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to Israeli human-rights group B’Tselem.

    Last year’s death toll was the highest since 2004, during the second Intifada, or Palestinian uprising.

    While many of those killed during the past year were civilians, the Israeli army raids and killings are being conducted under the banner of crushing Palestinian armed resistance in the northern occupied West Bank.

    The Palestinians have viewed them as further entrenchment of Israel’s 55-year, open-ended occupation of the West Bank.

    A new, far-right Israeli government sworn in last month has taken punitive measures against Palestinians, including a ban on their flag in public spaces.

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  • Executions aren’t new in Iran, but this time they’re different | CNN

    Executions aren’t new in Iran, but this time they’re different | CNN

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    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.


    New York and Amman
    CNN
     — 

    The Islamic Republic of Iran has long ranked among the world’s top executioners. But with the recent death sentences handed down to protesters, critics say the regime has taken capital punishment to a new level.

    Last weekend, Iran executed two more protesters charged with killing security personnel, causing an international outcry. Critics said that the executions were a result of hasty sham trials.

    The regime executed 314 people in 2021, 20% more than the previous year, rights group Amnesty International said in a report from May 2022. Many of those had to do with drug-related crimes.

    This year, a number of protesters are entangled in Iran’s court system, many of whom face a particularly unjust judicial process, according to activists.

    Human rights activists have warned there’s a real risk that many of them could become another number in the growing list of those executed by the Islamic Republic. At least 43 people are currently facing execution in Iran, according to a CNN count, but activist group 1500Tasvir says the number could be as high as 100.

    “Defendants are systematically deprived of access to lawyers of their choice during the trial, are subjected to tortured and coerced confessions and then rushed to the gallows,” Tara Sepehri Far, an Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch, told CNN.

    United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk on Tuesday accused Iran of “weaponizing” criminal procedures, saying it amounts to “state sanctioned killing”

    With this round of protests, critics say, the authorities are using charges that carry the death penalty more liberally than they have before, widening the application of such laws to cover protesters.

    According to Iranian state media, dozens of government agents, from security officials to officers of the basij paramilitary force, have been killed in the protests. Activist groups HRANA and Iran Human Rights say that 481 protesters have been killed.

    Security personnel have died in previous protests as well, Sepehri Far said, “but it is crucial to point out in this (time) round Iranian authorities are using the death penalty way beyond (the) intentional killing of security officers.”

    The regime appears to have capitalized on the executions, using them as a deterrent to people eager to speak out and flood the streets, as was seen after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Jina Amini in the custody of the nation’s morality police.

    “The trials and executions are yet another piece of the repression machine serving to demonstrate power and control and spread fear and publicize (the) government’s narrative about protesters,” Sepehri Far explained.

    Iran has used Islamic Sharia law to prosecute protesters with crimes carrying the death penalty, namely “waging war against God” or “moharebeh” and “corruption on earth,” according to the UN Office of Human Rights.

    The process has been criticized within the country too.

    Mohsen Borhani, a professor at Tehran University and an expert in Islamic jurisprudence, has also challenged the use of such religiously based charges against protesters. In a television debate last month, he argued that the protesters executed were charged with waging war against God when their role in the protests did not in fact merit such a charge.

    The brandishing of weapons by protesters, he said, was meant to intimidate, not injure security personnel. “This is fundamentally out of the realm of moharebeh because the person’s opposition is towards the government, not civilians.”

    Sepehri Far said that Mohsen Shekari, one of the first protesters to be executed, was accused of injuring an officer. “Others have received the death penalty for extremely vague charges such as destruction and arson of public property or using a weapon to spread terror,” she said.

    Activists say Iranian authorities have developed sophisticated methods of spreading disinformation on how, why and when executions will be carried out. Civil rights activist Atena Daemi said in a tweet, for example, that several Iranian news outlets had reported that activists on death row had been released, news that was refuted by the prisoners’ families.

    Activists have said that condemning the protests is not enough. The European Union has taken note, and as the bloc continues to discuss imposing a fourth round of sanctions on Iran, some members have supported moves to classify its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization.

    Saudi Arabia to lift restrictions on pilgrim numbers for 2023 Hajj season

    Saudi Arabia aims to host a pre-pandemic number of Muslim pilgrims for the Hajj in 2023, the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah said in a tweet on Monday. No age limits will be imposed on Hajj pilgrims this season, which starts on June 26.

    • Background: The kingdom had limited the number of pilgrims to 1,000 in 2020 and in 2021 increased the quota to almost 60,000, but only for residents of Saudi Arabia. In 2022, the kingdom authorized one million Muslims to perform the rites. The holy sites in the cities of Mecca and Medina normally host over 2 million people during the pilgrimage.
    • Why it matters: Performing the Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam which all able-bodied Muslims are required to perform at least once in their lives. Saudi Arabia has identified the pilgrimage as a key component of a plan to diversify its economy. According to Mastercard’s latest Global Destination Cities Index, Mecca attracted $20 billion in tourist dollars in 2018.

    Egypt commits to IMF to slow projects, increase fuel prices

    Egypt committed to a flexible currency, a greater role for the private sector and a range of monetary and fiscal reforms when it agreed to a $3 billion financial support package with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Reuters reported, citing an IMF staff report released on Tuesday. Among its pledges is one to slow investment in public projects, including national projects, so as to reduce inflation and conserve foreign currency, without specifying where cuts might fall. Egypt also said it would allow most fuel product prices to rise until they were in line with the country’s fuel index mechanism to make up for a slowdown in such increases over the last fiscal year.

    • Background: In a letter of intent to the IMF, Egypt said it sought support after the war in Ukraine increased existing vulnerabilities amid tighter global financial conditions and higher commodity prices. Under the support, the IMF will provide Egypt with about $700 million in the fiscal year that ends in June.
    • Why it matters: Egypt is already suffering from economic hardship and rising inflation that has caused discontent at home. The 2011 revolution was partly triggered by economic matters and the cost of living.

    Saudi Arabia plans to use domestic uranium for nuclear fuel

    Saudi Arabia plans to use domestically-sourced uranium to build up its nuclear power industry, Reuters cited Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman as saying on Wednesday. He added that recent exploration had shown a diverse portfolio of uranium.

    • Background: Saudi Arabia has a nascent nuclear program that it wants to expand to eventually include uranium enrichment, a sensitive area given its role in nuclear weapons. Riyadh has said it wants to use nuclear power to diversify its energy mix.
    • Why it matters: Atomic reactors need uranium enriched to around 5% purity, but the same technology in this process can also be used to enrich the heavy metal to higher, weapons-grade levels. This issue has been at the heart of Western and regional concerns about Iran’s nuclear program. It is unclear where Saudi Arabia’s ambitions end, since Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in 2018 that the kingdom would develop nuclear weapons if Iran did. The neighboring United Arab Emirates has committed not to enrich uranium itself and not to reprocess spent fuel.

    German exports to Iran rose by 12.7% last year, Reuters reported. Despite a significant deterioration in political ties between the two countries due to Iran’s brutal crackdown on protesters, trade ties remained intact, with the value of trade climbing to $1.6 billion between January and November. Berlin is currently pushing for a fourth package of European Union sanctions on Iran.

    The Gulf nation of Oman become the latest in the small group of countries that are considering a move to a four-day workweek.

    The government has said that it is studying the possibility of expanding weekends to three days instead of two, citing other nations’ success in pilots to test the move.

    Salem bin Muslim Al Busaidi, an undersecretary at the labor ministry, told local media that the nation’s workforce has already increased flexibility, adopting remote work, part-time work and other initiatives to modernize the work environment.

    Several countries have experimented with a four-day work week, including Iceland, Spain and Ireland, and the trials suggest that the move improves productivity.

    Oman’s neighbor, the UAE, has seen some of the most dramatic changes to the country’s work environment. Besides shifting the country’s weekend to Saturday and Sunday instead of Friday and Saturday, the country adopted a four-and-a-half-day workweek in 2022.

    The UAE emirate of Sharjah took that a step further by adopting a four-day work week across all government sectors and allowing private companies to do the same.

    The emirate reported a 40% drop in traffic accidents in the first 8 months, a boost in employee productivity, and a drop in gas emissions due to the decrease in commutes, according to local media.

    The onset of Covid-19 drastically changed the working environment of the Gulf region as companies were forced to adapt to new ways of working under restrictions.

    By Mohammed Abdelbary

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  • Missing teenage girls in Pakistan ran away to meet BTS, police say | CNN

    Missing teenage girls in Pakistan ran away to meet BTS, police say | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Two teenage girls reported missing in Pakistan last week have been found more than 750 miles from home after attempting to travel to South Korea to meet K-pop super band BTS, police in the South Asian country said.

    The two girls, aged 13 and 14, went missing on Saturday from Korangi in Karachi city, said Abraiz Ali Abbasi, a senior police superintendent of the area.

    During a search of their homes, police found a diary that revealed their plans to travel to South Korea to meet the supergroup BTS, Abbasi said in a video statement.

    “From the diary we saw mentions of train timetables and that they had been planning to run away with another friend of theirs … who we then interviewed,” Abassi said.

    “We started tracking them aggressively and found out they were in custody of the police in the city of Lahore where they had traveled by train.”

    Abbasi said arrangements for the girls to be taken back home to Karachi have been made in coordination with police in Lahore.

    And he made an appeal for parents to “please monitor their children’s screen time,” so they’re more aware of what their children are viewing online.

    “It isn’t a surprise that two teenagers took this risk because ‘stans’ are capable of doing this for their idols,” said culture journalist Rabia Mehmood, using a colloquial term for loyal fans. “But if we had more safe organized fan-girling spaces, younger fans could engage openly and freely with each other about their favorites instead of taking such risks.”

    K-pop has a huge following all over the world, including Pakistan, with fans spanning age groups and genders. BTS posters and albums are sold all over the South Asian country, while Korean dramas are gaining popularity as well.

    The seven-member Korean sensation BTS took a hiatus late last year, as its oldest member began mandatory military service last month. Jin, 30, started his military service on December 13, a commitment expected to last 18 months.

    BTS is set to be kept apart until at least 2025 as other members of the group come of age to enter military bootcamps. The band has said they will use this time to pursue solo projects.

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  • US intercepts Iranian shipment of 2,000 assault rifles destined for Yemen | CNN Politics

    US intercepts Iranian shipment of 2,000 assault rifles destined for Yemen | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    The US intercepted a shipment of more than 2,000 Iranian assault rifles destined for Yemen, according to a statement from the US military.

    The interception took place in international waters in the Gulf of Oman on Monday, US Central Command said. A team from the USS Chinook, a patrol coastal vessel, boarded the other ship along a route historically used to smuggle weapons from Iran to the Houthis in Yemen.

    A photo from the USS The Sullivans shows the 2,116 assault rifles covering the deck of the guided missile destroyer.

    “The illegal flow of weapons from Iran through international waterways has a destabilizing effect on the region,” said Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, the commander of US Central Command.

    Yemen has been engulfed in a devastating civil war since 2015, which has plunged the Gulf country into what has long been identified by aid groups as one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Iran has supported the Houthis, a rebel group who overthrew the government at the start of the war, against a coalition led by Saudi Arabia and aided by US military support. The war between the two factions has brutalized the country, leading to widespread poverty and famine, and tens of thousands of civilian casualties.

    Tensions between the US and Iran have increased in recent months due to the crackdowns on civil unrest throughout the country. Additional US sanctions on Iranian officials were announced just last week over their involvement in the production of drones being used by Russia in their war against Ukraine.

    The US has intercepted other shipments of weapons and explosives before along similar routes.

    In November, the Navy seized what it described as a “large quantity” of explosives from a fishing vessel in the Gulf of Oman. The shipment included 70 tons of ammonium perchlorate and 100 tons of urea fertilizer, which are used to make explosives and rocket fuel. US forces sunk the vessel after determining it was a hazard to navigation for commercial shipping.

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  • How Gulf tensions drove Qatar to seek friends in Brussels

    How Gulf tensions drove Qatar to seek friends in Brussels

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    Voiced by artificial intelligence.

    They’re dazzlingly rich, and they expect to be in charge for a long, long time.

    The monarchs leading Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia might seem from the outside like a trio of like-minded Persian Gulf autocrats. Yet their regional rivalry is intense, and Western capitals have become a key venue in a reputational battle royale.

    “All of these governments … really want to have the largest mindspace among Western governments,” said Jon B. Alterman, director of the Middle East Program at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

    As the Gulf states seek to wean themselves off the oil that made them rich, they know they’ll need friends to help transform their economies (and modernize their societies).

    “They think it’s important not to be tarred as mere hydrocarbon producers who are ruining the planet,” Alterman added.

    With an erstwhile vice president of the European Parliament in jail and Belgian prosecutors asking to revoke immunity from more MEPs, allegations of cash kickbacks and undue influence by Qatari interests look likely to ensnare more Brussels power players.

    The Qatari government categorically denies any unlawful behavior, saying it “works through institution-to-institution engagement and operates in full compliance with international laws and regulations.”

    Against the background of regional rivalries, that engagement has become increasingly robust. While tensions with Riyadh have eased over the past few years, Qatar’s mutual antagonism with the United Arab Emirates has been particularly severe.

    Qatar’s survival strategy

    Regional rivalries burst beyond the Middle East in 2017 in a standoff that would reshape regional dynamics.

    Until then, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had been essentially frenemies. As members of the Gulf Coordination Council, they’d been working toward building a common market and currency in the region — not so different from the European Union.

    But different responses to the Arab Spring frayed relations to a breaking point.

    The Qatar-based Al Jazeera news network gave a platform to the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist party that rode a wave of unrest into power in Egypt and challenged governments throughout the Arab world. And Doha didn’t just offer a bullhorn — it gave the Muslim Brotherhood direct financial backing.

    Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, meanwhile, considered the Muslim Brotherhood to be a terrorist group.

    Along with Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE severed diplomatic ties with Doha in June 2017, barring Qatar’s access to airspace and sea routes; Saudi Arabia closed its border, blocking Qatar’s only land crossing.

    Among the demands: close Al Jazeera, end military coordination with Turkey and step away from Iran. Qatar refused — even though it was crunch time for building infrastructure ahead of the 2022 World Cup and 40 percent of Qatar’s food supplies came through Saudi Arabia.

    Fighting what it called an illegal “blockade” became an existential mission for Doha.

    “The only thing Qatar could do was make sure everyone knew Qatar exists and is a nice place,” said MEP Hannah Neumann, chair of the Parliament’s delegation for relations with the Arab Peninsula (DARP).

    “They really stepped up the diplomatic efforts all around the world to also show, ‘We are the good ones,’” said Neumann, of the German Greens.

    Qatar needed Brussels because it had already lost an even bigger ally: Washington. Not only did then-President Donald Trump take the side of Qatar’s rivals in the fight; he also appeared to take credit for the idea of isolating Qatar — even though the U.S.’s largest military base in the region is just southwest of Doha.

    Elsewhere, Qatar had already been working with the London-headquartered consultancy Portland Communications since at least 2014 — as its World Cup hosting coup was becoming a PR nightmare, with stories emerging over bribed FIFA officials and exploited migrant workers.

    Exploding onto the EU scene

    In Brussels, Doha leaned on the head of its EU Mission, Abdulrahman Mohammed Al-Khulaifi, who had moved to Belgium in 2017 from Germany, to step up European relations.

    Within days of the fissure, Al-Khulaifi appeared in meetings at NATO, and within months opened a think tank called the Middle East Dialogue Center to hone Doha’s image as an open promoter of debate (in contrast, it contended, to its neighbors) and pressure the EU to intervene in the Mideast.

    By the next year, he was speaking on panels about combating violent extremism — alongside Dutch and Belgian federal police. By late 2019, Al-Khulaifi hosted the first meeting of embassy’s Qatar-EU friendship group with a “working dinner.”

    “The situation following the blockade has pushed Qatar to establish closer relations outside the context of the regional crisis with, for example, the European Union,” Pier Antonio Panzeri, then chair of the Parliament’s human rights subcommittee, told Euractiv in 2018.

    The following year, Panzeri would attend the Qatari-hosted “International Conference on National, Regional and International Mechanisms to Combat Impunity and Ensure Accountability under International Law,” and heap praise on the country’s human rights record.

    Panzeri is now in a Belgian prison, facing corruption charges; his NGO, Fight Impunity, is under intense scrutiny for being a possible front.

    Neumann said that Qatar’s survival strategy has paid off. “Absolutely, it worked,” she said. “I think it’s fair enough, if they didn’t do it with illegal means.”

    Directly or indirectly, Qatar clocked several big victories during this period, including multiple resolutions in Parliament on human rights in Saudi Arabia and a call to end arms exports to Riyadh in the wake of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Doha also inked a cooperation arrangement with the EU in March 2018, setting the stage for closer ties.

    Frenemies once again

    Since Saudi Arabia and Qatar signed a deal to end the crisis two years ago, Riyadh-Doha relations have generally thawed. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, 37, traveled to Qatar in November for the World Cup and embraced Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, 42, while wearing a scarf in the host’s colors.

    However, relations between Qatar and the United Arab Emirates — led by Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, 61 — remain chilly.  

    As the Gulf transforms, the United Arab Emirates “has come to see that role as being a status quo power,” said Alterman. On the part of its neighbor, “Qatar has come to see that role as aligning with forces of change in the region, and that’s created a certain amount of mutual resentment.”

    Qatar’s smaller scale contributes to Doha’s sense of internal security, fueling its openness to engaging with groups that others see as an existential threat.

    Qataris see themselves as “champions of the Davids against the Goliath,” said Andreas Krieg, an assistant professor at King’s College London who has worked in the past as a consultant for the Qatari armed forces. Civil society organizations founded by “a range of different opposition figures, Saudi opposition figures in the West, have been supported financially by Qatar as well,” Krieg added. (Khashoggi, one of the era’s most prominent Saudi opposition figures, had connections to the state-backed Qatar Foundation.) “Hence why Qatar was always seen as sort of a thorn in the side of its neighbors.”

    And while the €1.5 million cash haul confiscated by Belgian federal police looks like an eye-popping sum, it certainly pales in comparison to the amount the Gulf states spend on legal lobbying in Brussels. And that sum, in turn, pales in comparison to what those countries spend in Washington.

    “Brussels isn’t that important,” Krieg said. “If you look at the money that these Gulf countries spend in Washington, these are tens of millions of dollars every year on think tanks, academics … creating their own media outlets, investing strategically into Fox News, investing into massive PR operations.”

    Nonetheless, the EU remains a key target. Abu Dhabi is strengthening its “long-standing partnership” with Brussels on economic and regional security matters “through deep, strategic cooperation with EU institutions and Member States,” said a UAE official, in a statement. 

    “Brussels was always a hub to create a narrative,” said Krieg.

    And right now, each of the region’s power players is deeply motivated to change that narrative.

    Alterman invoked a broad impression of the Gulf countries as “people who have more money than God who want to take the world back to the 7th Century.”

    But that’s wrong, he said. “This is all about shaping the future with remarkably high stakes, profound discomfort about how the world will relate to them over the next 30 to 50 years — and frankly, a series of rulers who see themselves being in power for the next 30 to 50 years.”

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  • Iran sentences daughter of former president to five years in prison | CNN

    Iran sentences daughter of former president to five years in prison | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The daughter of former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has been sentenced to five years in prison, her lawyer said Tuesday.

    The verdict against Faezeh Hashemi, who is a known Iranian activist, is “not final,” the lawyer, Neda Shams, said in a tweet. “The client is still in prison and there are other cases against her,” Shams added.

    Hashemi was indicted last year by Tehran’s public prosecutor on charges of “propaganda against the system,” state-aligned news agency ISNA said on Tuesday.

    She was arrested and transferred to Evin prison in September, according to ISNA.

    Iran has detained a number of high-profile activists in recent months, including writer and poet Mona Borzouei, singer Shervin Hajipour and Iranian football player Hossein Mahini, as anti-government protests rocked the country.

    Over the past decade, Hashemi has been jailed several times for making anti-government statements and participating in protests.

    She spent months in prison after a 2012 arrest for making anti-government statements.

    Her father was a revolutionary who fought the Shah’s regime and its Western-leaning social and economic policies but pushed for liberalization and privatization programs when he became president a year after the end of the Iran-Iraq war.

    Rafsanjani died in 2017 aged 82.

    As many as 41 more protesters have received death sentences in recent months as officials attempt to crack down on the swell of angry public sentiment across Iran, according to statements from both Iranian officials and in Iranian media reviewed by CNN and 1500Tasvir, but the true number could be much higher.

    The executions on Saturday of two young men in Iran, one a karate champion, the other a volunteer children’s coach, in connection with the nationwide protests, sparked outrage around the world.

    The total number of people now known to have been executed in connection with the protests, sparked by the death of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini in police custody in September, has reached four.

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  • WhatsApp’s Pegasus spyware lawsuit can go ahead: US top court

    WhatsApp’s Pegasus spyware lawsuit can go ahead: US top court

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    Israeli firm NSO Group’s spyware has been linked to state surveillance of human rights activists and dissidents.

    The United States Supreme Court has allowed the WhatsApp messaging platform to pursue a lawsuit against Israel’s NSO Group, which makes the Pegasus spyware linked to state surveillance of journalists, human rights advocates and dissidents around the world.

    The top court’s justices on Monday left in place lower court rulings against the Israeli company, which had argued it should be recognised as a foreign government agent and, therefore, be entitled to immunity under US law limiting lawsuits against foreign countries.

    WhatsApp, which is owned by Meta and is among a number of tech companies and individuals pursuing legal action against the Israeli firm, has alleged that NSO Group surveilled about 1,400 people through the messaging platform.

    The company’s 2019 lawsuit seeks to block the NSO Group from Meta platforms and servers and recover unspecified damages.

    Meta, which owns both WhatsApp and Facebook, on Monday welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision to deny what it called a “baseless” appeal.

    “NSO’s spyware has enabled cyberattacks targeting human rights activists, journalists and government officials,” Meta said in a statement. “We firmly believe that their operations violate US law and they must be held to account for their unlawful operations.”

    The administration of President Joe Biden had previously recommended that the court turn away the appeal, with the Department of Justice arguing that “NSO plainly is not entitled to immunity here”.

    The US Department of Commerce in 2021 blacklisted the Israeli firm for complicity in “transnational repression”, a move that limited NSO Group’s access to US technology.

    WhatsApp has alleged that at least 100 of the targeted users connected to its lawsuit were journalists, rights activists and civil society members.

    An investigation published in 2021 by 17 media organisations, led by the Paris-based non-profit journalism group Forbidden Stories, found that the spyware had been used in attempted and successful hacks of smartphones belonging to journalists, government officials and human rights activists on a global scale.

    Palestinian rights workers, Thai democracy activists, El Salvador media workers and the inner circle of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi were allegedly among those targeted by state actors using Pegasus spyware.

    “Today’s decision clears the path for lawsuits brought by the tech companies as well as for suits brought by journalists and human rights advocates who have been victims of spyware attacks,” Carrie DeCell, a senior staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute who is representing journalists in a separate lawsuit against NSO Group, said on Monday.

    For its part, the NSO Group has argued that Pegasus helps law enforcement and intelligence agencies fight crime and protect national security. It has said the technology is intended to help catch “terrorists”, paedophiles and criminals.

    The firm, which does not disclose its clients, has maintained that only law enforcement agencies can purchase the product and all sales are approved by Israel’s Ministry of Defense. It has said it does not have control of how the technology is used after it is sold.

    After Monday’s ruling, the Israeli company said in a statement: “We are confident that the court will determine that the use of Pegasus by its customers was legal.”

    The NSO Group also is being sued by iPhone maker Apple, which has accused the firm of violating its user terms and services agreement by breaking into its products.

    Apple has previously called NSO’s employees “amoral 21st century mercenaries”.

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  • Iraqis celebrate their comeback with soccer tournament after decades of isolation | CNN

    Iraqis celebrate their comeback with soccer tournament after decades of isolation | CNN

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    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.


    Baghdad and Abu Dhabi
    CNN
     — 

    Iraq is holding its first international soccer tournament in more than four decades, hosting its Gulf Arab neighbors for a two-week competition as it emerges from its worst and longest political deadlock in years.

    The tournament, analysts say, is a glimmer of hope for a struggling population, but also holds a political message – Iraq is signaling to its neighbors and the world that it is ready to move past decades of turmoil.

    After more than 30 years of global isolation due to wars and sanctions, for many Iraqis the Arabian Gulf Cup – the tournament started on Friday and will run until January 19 – is something of a tonic.

    “Iraq is a football-mad country that has been lobbying for years for the right to host competitive international games,” said Patrick Osgood, associate director of the Control Risks consultancy firm in Dubai.

    This is the first time Iraq has hosted the Gulf Cup since 1979, when it was held in the capital Baghdad. This time, the tournament is being held in the southern port city of Basra, with teams from Saudi Arabia, Oman, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Yemen also competing.

    Since it last hosted the Gulf Cup, the nation has faced two devastating wars, a regime change, an occupation and a militant insurgency that impacted the once thriving Basra as it did the rest of the country. Of late, the city’s residents have encountered severe energy and food shortages that have led to unrest.

    “The practical effect in a city in dire need of investment is likely to be small,” Osgood told CNN. “But Iraqis deserve nice things, to participate with others, to be able to exercise hospitality.”

    There is excitement and fervor in Basra about the tournament. Murals adorn the city’s walls and fans were seen joining long queues for tickets. Flags flutter from every participating nation in streets and there are welcoming posters reading, “Basra welcomes you” and “Basra is your home.”

    “We’ve been waiting for this moment for 40 years,” said 29-year-old Mohammed Ali, a taxi driver in Basra, adding that the city feels very secure and its residents are filled with joy for the occasion.

    “We have experienced problems, but we always say that sport unites people,” he told CNN. “We are seeing many people from the Gulf, and we can tell that they too have missed Basra.”

    The last Gulf Cup was held in Qatar in 2019, with Bahrain emerging as the winner.

    Gulf Arabs rarely travel to Iraq for tourism. Of all the Gulf states, only the travel hubs of Doha and Dubai have direct flights to the country, catering largely to connecting passengers and Shiite Muslim pilgrims. Gulf states’ ties with the Iraqi government have warmed over the past few years, but that hasn’t trickled down to the public level. In Saudi Arabia, government permission is required for travel to Iraq, which is only given to men above 40.

    Major General Saad Maan, head of public relations at the Iraqi interior ministry, told CNN that he expects “tens of thousands of fans to arrive in Basra” and that all security measures have been taken to assure the safety of both residents and fans.

    “Iraq is saying that there is great political stability,” said Ihsan Al-Shammari, a politics professor at Baghdad University and head of the Iraqi Centre for Political Thought. “It also speaks to the security situation, especially if the tournament is successfully completed without any security incidents.”

    Iraq also hopes that the event will bolster its image to investors and political partners, said Al-Shammari, as well as bring it closer to its Gulf Arab neighbors with whom it has had frosty relations since Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

    The opening ceremony on Friday started with a spectacular fireworks display and a theatrical performance chronicling the nation’s 5,000-year history, though the showpiece occasion wasn’t without controversy.

    The Iraqi Football Association apologized to Kuwait for a brawl that took place in the Basra International Stadium’s VIP section that prevented the Kuwaiti ruler’s representative from entering. That prompted the rest of the delegation to leave the event. The Kuwait FA said it will continue participation in the tournament after being given security guarantees from Iraq.

    Iraq drifted into chaos after a 2003 US-led invasion toppled longtime ruler Saddam Hussein, and around the end of 2021 fell into its longest political stalemate as the country’s various political factions – divided mainly between Shiite blocs and their Iran-backed rivals – failed to form a government.

    The deadlock was only broken last October with the election of a new president and premier, but experts remain skeptical about whether the new government can prevent further stability and instill serious reforms.

    The country’s economy is still in crisis, much of its infrastructure is in ruins and its ties with neighboring states are strained as Iran continues to support prominent political factions and their armed militias.

    While not the center of most violence, Basra has its own issues.

    “Basra city experiences security issues around crime and protest activity,” said Osgood, “but neither issue is prohibitive, and the government has surged security provision to mitigate threats.”

    “On balance, there’s unlikely to be major security disruption during the tournament,” he said, adding that “there are significant socio-economic issues in Basra that drive unrest, but there’s also significant goodwill around the tournament – no one wants to spoil it.”

    The tournament is not on the international soccer radar but it is a heated topic in the Gulf region and has often been reflective of the region’s geopolitical scene.

    Iraq last hosted the Gulf Cup 44 years ago, when it won the tournament. The nation was banned from it for about a decade after Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait and was prevented from hosting it since due to security reasons.

    Despite the hiccups, residents of Basra are optimistic about the tournament in their city.

    “The whole of Basra is joyous, opening its doors to the Gulf and other provinces (of Iraq),” said 46-year-old Ali Salman of Basra.

    “We want to say to visitors from the Gulf and other provinces of Iraq: don’t rent hotels, the doors of our homes are open.”

    Iran executes two more men amid crackdown on protests

    Iran executed two men – one a karate champion, the other a volunteer children’s coach – in connection with nationwide protests, sparking outrage around the world. The European Union said in a statement Saturday that it was “appalled” by the executions, calling it “yet another sign of the Iranian authorities’ violent repression of civilian demonstrations.”

    • Background: The pair were alleged to have participated in anti-regime protests and were convicted of killing a member of the country’s Basij paramilitary force, were hanged early Saturday morning, according to state-affiliated media.
    • Why it matters: The total number of people now known to have been executed in connection with the protests has reached four. As many as 41 more protesters have received death sentences in recent months, according to statements from both Iranian officials and in Iranian media reviewed by CNN and 1500Tasvir, but the number could be much higher.

    Sweden says it can’t meet all of Turkey’s NATO demands

    Sweden is confident that Turkey will approve its application to join the NATO military alliance, but will not meet all the conditions Ankara has set for its support, Reuters cited Sweden’s prime minister as saying on Sunday. “Turkey both confirms that we have done what we said we would do, but they also say that they want things that we cannot or do not want to give them,” Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told a defence think-tank conference in Sweden.

    • Background: Finland and Sweden signed a three-way agreement with Turkey in 2022 aimed at overcoming Ankara’s objections to their membership of the alliance. They applied to join NATO in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but Turkey objected and accused the countries of harboring militants. New entrants require the consensus of all existing members.
    • Why it matters: It is unclear if the steps taken by the two candidates will satisfy Turkey, which has delayed the accession of the two countries to extract concessions from them. The move has been seen as benefiting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ahead of elections this year.

    Israel arrests two teens over Jerusalem Christian cemetery vandalism

    Israel Police arrested two teenagers suspected of vandalizing at least 28 tombstones and damaging a Protestant cemetery near Jerusalem’s Mount Zion, they announced on Friday. The suspects, aged 18 and 14, from central Israel, will be brought before a judge to decide on an extension of their detention following their arrest late on Thursday. “The investigation continues with the aim of bringing them to justice,” a statement from Israel’s police spokesperson in Jerusalem said.

    • Background: The Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East said in a statement earlier last week that “vandals” had “purposely and relentlessly smashed more than thirty gravestones, many of them historic,” in the cemetery. The church said there was clear indication that “these criminal acts were motivated by religious bigotry and hatred against Christians.” Israel Police said the vandalism took place on Sunday, January 1.
    • Why it matters: The attack on the cemetery and Israel’s handling of it is likely to be in the spotlight after the country swore in the most right-wing government in its history last month. Police did not name the suspects or comment on a possible motive, but Chief Superintendent Assaf Harel said: “Any damage to religious institutions and sites is serious and damages the unique and delicate fabric of life that exists in the city for members of all religions and denominations.”

    London’s first Arabic bookstore bid farewell as it closed its doors in 2023, marking the end of a 44-year-old era for Arabic literature in Europe.

    Citing economic difficulties, the advent of electronic reading and logistical challenges brought on by Brexit, the founders of Al Saqi Bookstore found the burden of keeping its doors open too heavy.

    Regarded as Europe’s leading Arabic bookstore, Al Saqi, which means water seller in Arabic, was founded in 1978 by lifelong friends André Gaspard and Mai Ghoussoub. They opened the store after fleeing the Lebanese Civil War that started in 1975 and lasted until 1990.

    The shop at first only carried books in Arabic, later expanding its collection to English, for Europeans who wanted to learn about Arabic culture. It also runs a publishing house in London and Beirut, which will continue to operate.

    “It was home for us misfits” the founder’s daughter and publisher Lynn Gaspard told the BBC in an interview.

    London is home to a large Arab diaspora. For decades, the city has been a refuge for Arabs fleeing war, economic turmoil and political persecution. But it is also a major hub for tourists, with many Gulf Arabs keeping summer homes in the city.

    For many, Al Saqi was the place to find books banned in the Middle East, with Arab travelers to Europe often making a stop in London to stock up.

    But as Al Saqi’s door closes, another one may open as the store’s legacy has inspired one of its own employees to carry the torch.

    Mohammad Masoud, a bookseller at the store, is now crowdfunding for a new initiative called “Maqam” that aims to open a similar shop.

    “This is what Maqam is about. It exists for people who are in need of Arabic content and are searching for belonging,” he told Al Jazeera.

    By Mohammed Abdelbary

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