Tag: Persian Gulf

Paramount goes hostile in bid for Warner Bros., challenging a $72 billion offer by Netflix

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NEW YORK (AP) — Paramount on Monday launched a hostile takeover offer for Warner Bros. Discovery, initiating a potentially bruising battle with rival bidder Netflix to buy the company behind HBO, CNN and a famed movie studio along with the power to reshape much of the nation’s entertainment landscape.

Emerging just days after top Warner managers agreed to Netflix’s $72 billion purchase, the Paramount bid seeks to go over the heads of those leaders by appealing directly to Warner shareholders with more money — $77.9 billion — and a plan to buy all of Warner’s business, including the cable business that Netflix does not want.

Paramount said its decision to go hostile came after it made several earlier offers that Warner management “never engaged meaningfully” with following the company’s October announcement that it was open to selling itself.

In its appeal to shareholders, Paramount noted its offer also contains more cash than Netflix’s bid — $18 billion more — and argued that it’s more likely to pass scrutiny from President Donald Trump’s administration, a big concern given his habit of injecting himself in American business decisions.

AP AUDIO: Paramount goes hostile in bid for Warner Bros., challenging a $72 billion offer by Netflix

AP’s Lisa Dwyer reports on a hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery.

Over the weekend, Trump said the Netflix-Warner combo “could be a problem” because of the size of the combined market share and that he planned to review the deal personally.

For its part, Netflix says it is confident Warner will reject the Paramount bid and that regulators, and Trump, will back its deal, citing multiple conversations that co-CEO Ted Sarandos has had with him about the streaming company’s expansion and hiring.

“I think the president’s interest in this is the same as ours, which is to create and protect jobs,” Sarandos said Monday at an investor conference.

Battle draws political attention in Washington

The fight for Warner drew strong reaction in Washington, with politicians from both major parties weighing in on the likely impact on streaming prices, movie theater employment and the diversity of entertainment choices and political views.

Paramount, run by David Ellison, whose family is closely allied with Trump, said it had submitted six proposals to Warner over a 12-week period before the latest offer.

“We believe our offer will create a stronger Hollywood. It is in the best interests of the creative community, consumers and the movie theater industry,” the Paramount CEO said in a statement. Ellison added that his deal would lead to more competition in the industry, not less, and more movies in theaters.

A regulatory document released Monday suggested another possible Paramount advantage to win over Trump: An investment firm run by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner would be investing in the deal, too.

Also participating would be funds controlled by the governments of three unnamed Persian Gulf countries, widely reported as Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar. Trump’s family company has struck deals this year for buildings and resorts that bear his name in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, partnering in the former with a company closely tied to the government and in the latter with the government fund itself.

Also possibly in Paramount’s favor are recent changes at CBS News since its October purchase of the news and commentary website The Free Press. The site’s founder, Bari Weiss, who has a reputation for fighting “woke” culture, was then installed as editor-in-chief in a signal Ellison intended to shake up the storied network of Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather and “60 Minutes,” long viewed by many conservatives as the personification of a liberal media establishment.

Trump is a wild card

Still, Trump is a wild card given his tendency to make decisions based on gut and his personal mood.

On Monday, he lashed out at Paramount for allowing “60 Minutes” to interview his ally-turned-enemy Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, writing on social media that “THEY ARE NO BETTER THAN THE OLD OWNERSHIP.”

The drama surrounding control of Warner began Friday when Netflix made the surprise announcement that it had struck a deal with its management to buy the Hollywood giant behind “Harry Potter,” HBO Max and DC Studios.

The cash and stock proposal was valued at $27.75 per Warner share, giving it a total enterprise value of $82.7 billion, including debt that will be assumed in the deal. By contrast, the Paramount offer is for $30 per Warner share, and worth $108 billion, included assumed debt. Paramount’s offer is set to expire on Jan. 8 unless it’s extended.

But comparing the two deals is complicated because they are not buying the same thing. The Netflix offer, if it goes through, will only close after Warner completes its previously announced separation of its cable operations. Not included in the deal, which is unlikely to close for at least a year, are networks such as CNN and Discovery.

The federal government has the authority to kill any big media deals if it has antitrust concerns, but such matters are usually left to experts at the Department of Justice. In his decision to get involved personally, Trump has decided, as he has with other government norms, to make a sharp break with precedent.

That worries Usha Haley, a Wichita State University specialist in international business strategy, who noted that Ellison is the son of longtime Trump supporter Larry Ellison, the world’s second-richest person.

“He said he’s going to be involved in the decision. We should take him at face value,” Haley said of Trump. “For him, it’s just greater control over the media.”

But others are uncertain how big a role Trump will play.

John Mayo, an antitrust expert at Georgetown University, said the scrutiny will be serious whichever offer is approved by shareholders and goes before the DOJ, and that he thinks experts there will keep partisanship out of their decisions despite the politically charged atmosphere.

“That may affect at least the rhetoric that occurs in the press,” he said, “though I doubt it will affect the analysis that occurs at the Department of Justice.”

Shares of Paramount surged 9% on Monday while Netflix fell 3.4%, and Warner Bros. closed up 4.4%.

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Associated Press writers Matt Sedensky, David Bauder and Charles Sheehan in New York and Michael Liedtke in San Francisco contributed to this report.

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December 10, 2025
Jimmy Kimmel reacts to Trump’s Persian Gulf claim: ‘Unless you’re Jesus’

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Jimmy Kimmel took aim at President Donald Trump on Tuesday’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! after the president made a puzzling claim about Middle Eastern geography.

During a press briefing, Trump suggested that Iran and Qatar are close enough to walk between. In reality, the two countries are separated by the Persian Gulf, with the closest point across the water approximately 119 miles. Kimmel quipped, “Unless you’re Jesus, you cannot walk there.” The remarks came days after Trump received praise for brokering a Gaza ceasefire and ahead of his visit to Israel on October 12.

Newsweek has reached out to the White House via email for comment.

Why It Matters

Kimmel’s jab comes amid a long-running, highly public feud with the president. Viewers were surprised to see him mock Trump just weeks after his show was suspended over remarks about the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk last month.

ABC initially announced Jimmy Kimmel Live! would go “off air indefinitely,” but it returned five days later, resuming episodes on September 23. The host’s continued satire amid these tensions underscores the clash between entertainment, political commentary, and presidential sensitivity, highlighting the cultural significance of late-night comedy in American discourse.

What To Know

Speaking to reporters on board Air Force One, Trump claimed that Qatar and Iran were “within walking distance,” while praising Qatar’s Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, calling him an “amazing man.” He added, “Other countries are there, but they’re an hour or hour and a half away, big difference. You can literally walk over from Iran to Qatar. You go ‘boom boom’ and now you’re in Qatar. That’s tough territory.” The statement drew immediate attention online for its factual inaccuracy.

Kimmel’s Sharp Response

Kimmel seized the moment for satire, highlighting the impossibility of Trump’s claim. “One can perhaps swim 150 miles, but unless you’re Jesus, you cannot walk there,” he said. He also mocked the president’s use of an oversized Sharpie to sign the Gaza ceasefire, joking, “Trump took part in a signing ceremony, the first U.S. president to sign a ceasefire agreement with a Sharpie the size of a subway sandwich.”

Kimmel further poked fun at Trump’s self-proclaimed Middle East expertise and ridiculed his habit of exaggerating accomplishments in foreign policy.

Return to the Spotlight

Kimmel’s remarks came shortly after his brief suspension, marking a quick comeback that allowed him to continue critiquing Trump while navigating heightened tensions between late-night hosts and the president. The incident demonstrates how quickly late-night comedy can pivot to respond to real-time political events.

Trump has repeatedly targeted late-night hosts. He previously said, “[Stephen] Colbert has no talent. [Jimmy] Fallon has no talent. Kimmel has no talent.” The latter has remained undeterred, using humor to hold the president accountable and entertain viewers, reinforcing the role of satire in American political culture.

What People Are Saying

President Donald Trump: “You can literally walk over from Iran to Qatar. You go ‘boom boom’ and now you’re in Qatar. That’s tough territory,”

TV host Jimmy Kimmel: “One can perhaps swim 150 miles, but unless you’re Jesus, you cannot walk there.”

What Happens Next

Kimmel’s ongoing jokes highlight debates over leadership, credibility, and the role of humor in politics, while raising the question of how the president might respond to the critiques. He has even suggested he might use his Italian citizenship to leave the U.S. if tensions under Trump’s administration escalate.

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October 15, 2025
Faked video targeting France and UAE likely Russian despite Moscow’s links to Gulf Arab states

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A fake video that ricocheted across the internet claiming tensions between France and the United Arab Emirates after Telegram CEO Pavel Durov’s detention in Paris likely came from Russia, an analysis by The Associated Press shows, despite Moscow’s efforts to maintain crucial ties to the UAE.

It remains unclear why Russian operatives would choose to publish such a video falsely claiming the Emirates halted a French arms sale, which appears to be the first noticeable effort by Moscow to target the UAE with a disinformation campaign. The Emirates remains one of the few locations to still have direct flights to Moscow, while Russian money has flooded into Dubai’s booming real estate market since President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

France, however, remains one of the key backers of Ukraine and its President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as the war grinds on. Meanwhile, Russia likely remains highly interested in what happens to Telegram, an app believed to be used widely by its military in the war and one that’s also been used by activists in the past. And the move comes amid concerns in the United States over Russia, Iran and China interfering in the upcoming U.S. presidential election.

Russia’s Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.

The fake video began circulating online Aug. 27, bearing the logos of the Qatar-based satellite news network Al Jazeera and attempting to copy the channel’s style. It falsely claimed the Emirati government had halted a previously announced purchase of 80 Rafale fighter jets from France worth 16 billion euros ($18 billion) at the time, the largest-ever French weapons contract for export. It also sought to link Dubai’s ruler and his crown prince son to the decision, as Durov holds an Emirati passport and has lived in Dubai.

Such a decision, however, was never made. The UAE and France maintain close relations, with the French military operating a naval base in the country. French warplanes and personnel also are stationed in a major facility outside the Emirati capital, Abu Dhabi.

Reached for comment, Al Jazeera told the AP that the footage was “fake and we refute this attribution to the media network.” The network never aired any such claim when reporting on Durov’s detention as well, according to an AP check. On the social platform X, a note later appended by the company to some posts with the video identified it as “manipulated media.”

The video also appeared to seek to exploit the low-level suspicion still gripping the Gulf Arab states following the yearslong Qatar diplomatic crisis by falsely attributing it to the news network. State-funded Al Jazeera has drawn criticism in the past from Gulf nations over its coverage of the 2011 Arab Spring, from the United States for airing videos from al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and most recently in Israel, where authorities closed its operation over its coverage of the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The social media account that first spread the video did not respond to questions from the AP and later deleted its post. That account linked to another on the Telegram message app that repeatedly shared graphic images of dead Ukrainian soldiers and pro-Russian messages.

Such accounts have proliferated since the war began and bear the hallmark of past Russian disinformation campaigns.

In Ukraine, the Center for Countering Disinformation in Kyiv, a government project there focused on countering such Russian campaigns, told the AP that the account engaged in “systematic cross-quoting and reposting of content” associated with Russian state media and its government.

That indicates the account “is aimed at an international audience for the purpose of informational influence,” the center said. It “probably belongs to the Russian network of subversive information activities abroad.”

Other experts assessed the video to be likely Russian disinformation.

The Emirati government declined to comment. The French Embassy in Abu Dhabi did not respond to AP’s request to comment.

Durov is now free on 5 million euros bail after being questioned by French authorities and preliminarily charged for allegedly allowing Telegram to be used for criminal activity. He has disputed the charges and promised to step up efforts to fight criminality on the messaging app.

Despite the video being flagged as fake online, captions and versions of the video continue to circulate, showing the challenge of trying to refute such messages. Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov just attended a meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council in Saudi Arabia attended by the UAE. Both Saudi Arabia and the UAE have mediated prisoner exchanges amid the war.

Given those close ties, the UAE likely will or has reached out quietly to Moscow over the video, said Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a research fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute who has long studied the region.

“It may be that this is a part of the Russian playbook which is to seek to create wedges between political and security partners, in a bid to create divisions and sow uncertainty,” Ulrichsen said.

“The importance of the UAE to Russia post-2022 does make it unusual, but it may be that the campaign is aimed primarily at France and that any impact on the UAE’s image and reputation is a secondary issue as far as those behind the video are concerned.”

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Associated Press writer Volodymr Yurchuk in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed to this report.

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September 15, 2024
Mexico’s costly Maya Train draws few passengers in its first six months of partial operation

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MEXICO CITY (AP) — The pet rail project of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador could wind up costing as much as $30 billion, is only half finished as he heads into the final 2 1/2 months of his term, and has wreaked major damage on the environment.

But the most damning judgments on the Maya Train tourist line, which runs in a loop around the Yucatan Peninsula, are the ridership figures on about half the railway that is now open: only about 1,200 people per day use the train, according to government figures released Monday.

Most ride it only on short stretches between the city of Merida and Cancun, or the nearby city of Campeche. The big hope for paying the train’s massive cost was that tourists would use it to depart from the resort of Cancun and explore the whole 950-mile (1,500-kilometer) route to visit the Mayan archaeological sites that dot the peninsula.

But a round-trip route from Cancun to the well-known Mayan temple complex of Palenque has drawn only about 100 passengers per day each way in the first six months of operation. That is a volume that a bus or two per day could handle far more cheaply.

The government had originally promised the train would carry between 22,000 and 37,000 people per day. Current ridership is about 3-5% of that, with three of the four most popular stations — Cancun, Merida, Palenque and Campeche — already in service.

Admittedly, the rail line down the heavily traveled corridor linking Cancun and the resorts of Playa del Carmen and Tulum — an area known as the Riviera Maya — isn’t finished yet, and only 17 trains are operating; three times as many may eventually be added.

But critics say there is little evidence the Cancun-Tulum line will make the project profitable, because it doesn’t run particularly near any of the resort towns it is supposed to serve.

The Cancun-Tulum railway was originally supposed to run on an elevated line over the coastal highway, where most hotels are. But facing technical difficulties, the government changed the route by cutting a 68-mile (110-kilometer) swath through the jungle and moving the tracks about 4½ miles (7 kilometers) inland.

So instead of hopping one of the micro-buses that run constantly down the coastal highway, tourists or resort workers would have to take a taxi to the train station, wait for one of the few daily trains, and then take another taxi to the resorts once they reach their destination.

“The uselessness of this project was foreseeable,” said Jose “Pepe” Urbina, a local diver who opposes the train because its steel pilings have damaged the caverns he has explored for decades. “In reality, the train doesn’t go anywhere you couldn’t get to by highway before.”

“These are rail lines that don’t provide any useful service for workers, for students, for any daily use,” Urbina said.

One thing the railway project did create was jobs: Manuel Merino, the governor of the Gulf coast state of Tabasco, said the Maya Train had created 20,000 direct or indirect jobs in his state and lowered the unemployment rate by 40%.

“This makes it truly a motor for developing the south,” a historically poorer and undeveloped part of Mexico, Merino said. But most of those jobs will be gone once construction is finished, and federal officials are also casting around for ways to try to make the railway pay for itself.

Officials have suggested freight trains may run on the tracks as well, but there is little industry in the region, and thus freight demand is limited.

It’s not clear whether the government ever thought the railway would be profitable. López Obrador had already decided to build it before feasibility studies were carried out. According to a 2019 government study, the railway was going to cost $8.5 billion, and the estimated benefits would be about $10.5 billion.

But those “estimated benefits” always included a lot of intangibles, like reduced traffic on highways, quicker travel or increased tourism revenues, all of which either didn’t happen or were unrelated to the train.

Moody’s Analytics Director Alfredo Coutiño noted that cost overruns are common on such projects.

“As was expected, the Maya Train project was not finished as planned and the cost was much higher than the original budget,” Coutiño wrote.

“The question that still must be resolved is if this project will be profitable in the medium term when it is expected to be fully functional, operating at full capacity and managed as a government concern and not as a private enterprise.”

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July 27, 2024
U.S. sending U.S. carrier strike group, additional air defense systems to Persian Gulf

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As tensions heighten in the Middle East amid the escalating Israel-Hamas war, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced late Saturday that the U.S. will redeploy one of its strike groups to the Persian Gulf, as well as send additional air defense systems to the region.

Austin also said that he has placed additional U.S. forces on “prepare to deploy orders,” but did not detail how many. Austin earlier this week ordered 2,000 troops to be prepared to deploy to the Middle East.

The latest decision followed “detailed discussions with President Biden on recent escalations by Iran and its proxy forces across the Middle East,” Austin said in a statement.

The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and its strike group — which last weekend Austin had announced was being deployed to the eastern Mediterranean Sea to join the USS Gerald R. Ford — will instead be heading to the Persian Gulf, Austin disclosed Saturday.

Austin also said he ordered a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile battery, and Patriot missile defense system battalions, to the Persian Gulf as well.

The moves come as U.S. military bases in Iraq and Syria have seen an increase in attacks by Iran-backed Shia militia groups in the days since Hamas militants invaded southern Israel on Oct. 7.

The USS Gerald R. Ford and its strike group was deployed from the western to eastern Mediterranean two days after that attack.

Before reversing course Saturday, Austin last weekend said the Eisenhower strike group would join it in the eastern Mediterranean in an effort to “deter hostile actions against Israel or any efforts toward widening this war following Hamas’ attack on Israel.”

Hamas’ attack on Israel left at least 1,400 people dead and 3,500 wounded. More than 200 people were taken hostage, included several Americans, two of whom were freed Friday.

The death toll from Israel’s retaliatory airstrikes on Gaza is at least 4,385, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, with more than 13,000 wounded.

U.S. officials have said Iran provides financial support and backing to both Hamas and the militant group Hezbollah, which is based in Lebanon.

— David Martin, S. Dev, Kathryn Watson and Khaled Wassef contributed to this report.

Israel & Hamas At War

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October 21, 2023
Dubai To Build World’s First 3D-Printed Mosque

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Dubai has announced the construction of a 3D-printed concrete mosque to accommodate 600 worshippers and cover 2,000 square meters over two floors, with construction planned to begin by the end of year and completed in the first quarter of 2025. What do you think?

“How many slaves will that technology put out of jobs?”

Kathy Ursache, Deputy Secretary

High School Student, Teacher Applying For Same Summer Waitressing Job

“I always thought Dubai leaned more Presbyterian.”

Andy Harmon, Funeral Singer

“Finally, a viable technology for constructing buildings.”

Ben Tan, Fry Cook

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May 10, 2023
Iran airs video of commandos descending from helicopter to seize oil tanker bound for Texas

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Masked Iranian navy commandos conducted a helicopter-borne raid to seize a U.S.-bound oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman, footage aired by Iran’s state television showed Friday.

The capture on Thursday of the Turkish-managed, Chinese-owned Advantage Sweet represents the latest seizure by Iran amid tensions with the U.S. over advancing nuclear program. While Tehran says the tanker was seized after it ran into another Iranian vessel, it has provided no evidence yet to support the claim — and the Islamic Republic has taken other ships as bargaining chips in negotiations with the West.

In this frame grab from video footage released Friday April 28, 2023 by the Iranian Navy, Iranian marines rappel onto the Advantage Sweet, a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker’s deck in the Gulf of Oman.

/ AP

The footage showed the commandos descending on the deck of the Advantage Sweet by ropes from a hovering helicopter. A photograph showed one commando with his fist in the air after apparently taking the vessel.

“Advantage Sweet was seized by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy while transiting international waters in the Gulf of Oman,” U.S. Naval Forces Central Command said in a statement Thursday. “Iran’s actions are contrary to international law and disruptive to regional security and stability. The Iranian government should immediately release the oil tanker.”

The U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet has said the Iranian seizure was at least the fifth commercial vessel taken by Tehran in the last two years.

“Iran’s continued harassment of vessels and interference with navigational rights in regional waters are a threat to maritime security and the global economy,” it added.

Iran claimed the tanker had crashed into one of its vessels, leaving two Iranian crew members missing, and injuring several others.

The vessel’s manager, a Turkish firm called Advantage Tankers, issued a statement acknowledging the Advantage Sweet was “being escorted by the Iranian navy to a port on the basis of an international dispute.” All the ship’s 24 crew members are Indian.

“The safety and welfare of our valued crew members is our No. 1 priority,” the firm said. “Similar experiences show that crew members of vessels taken under such circumstances are in no danger.”

The vessel had picked up oil from Kuwait and was chartered by Chevron Corp, an Advantage Tankers spokesperson said. It was bound for Houston, Texas, according to the MarineTraffic tracking website.

Thursday’s seizure was the latest incident in the sensitive waters of the Gulf, which carry about a third of the world’s seaborne oil.

Such incidents have grown more frequent since 2018 when the U.S. withdrew from a landmark nuclear agreement between Iran and major powers and reimposed crippling sanctions. Marathon efforts to restore the deal have stalled.

The latest seizure came only days after Western governments toughened sanctions on Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

Last December, an Iranian patrol boat allegedly “attempted to blind” two U.S. vessels that were conducting “a routine transit in international waters.” That incident occurred in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital chokepoint that connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. It’s considered the world’s most important oil transit route, since about one-fifth of the world’s oil supplies travel through the strait each day.

Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker Advantage Sweet sails at Marmara sea near Istanbul, Turkey January 10, 2023.

YORUK ISIK / REUTERS

AFP contributed to this report.

Iran: Crisis In The Middle East

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April 28, 2023
Where are the Gulf Arab tourists? Israel’s hopes fall short

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JERUSALEM (AP) — When Israel struck an agreement with the United Arab Emirates to open diplomatic ties in 2020, it brought an electrifying sense of achievement to a country long ostracized in the Middle East.

Officials insisted that Israel’s new ties with the UAE, and soon after with Bahrain, would go beyond governments and become society-wide pacts, stoking mass tourism and friendly exchanges between people long at odds.

But over two years since the breakthrough accords, the expected flood of Gulf Arab tourists to Israel has been little more than a trickle. Although more than half a million Israelis have flocked to oil-rich Abu Dhabi and skyscraper-studded Dubai, just 1,600 Emirati citizens have visited Israel since it lifted coronavirus travel restrictions last year, the Israeli Tourism Ministry told The Associated Press.

The ministry does not know how many Bahrainis have visited Israel because, it said, “the numbers are too small.”

“It’s still a very weird and sensitive situation,” said Morsi Hija, head of the forum for Arabic-speaking tour guides in Israel. “The Emiratis feel like they’ve done something wrong in coming here.”

The lack of Emirati and Bahraini tourists reflects Israel’s long-standing image problem in the Arab world and reveals the limits of the Abraham Accords, experts say.

Even as bilateral trade between Israel and the UAE has exploded from $11.2 million in 2019 to $1.2 billion last year, the popularity of the agreements in the UAE and Bahrain has plummeted since the deals were signed, according to a survey by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, an American think tank.

In the UAE, support fell to 25% from 47% in the last two years. In Bahrain, just 20% of the population supports the deal, down from 45% in 2020. In that time, Israel and Gaza militants fought a devastating war and violence in the occupied West Bank surged to its highest levels in years.

Israeli officials say Gulf Arab tourism to Israel is a missing piece that would move the agreements beyond security and diplomatic ties. Tourist visits from Egypt and Jordan, the first two countries to reach peace with Israel, also are virtually nonexistent.

“We need to encourage (Emiratis) to come for the first time. It’s an important mission,” Amir Hayek, Israeli ambassador to the UAE, told the AP. “We need to promote tourism so people will know each other and understand each other.”

Israeli tourism officials flew to the UAE last month in a marketing push to spread the word that Israel is a safe and attractive destination. The ministry said it’s now pitching Tel Aviv — Israel’s commercial and entertainment hub — as a big draw for Emiratis.

Tour agents say that so far, betting on Jerusalem has backfired. The turmoil of the contested city has turned off Emiratis and Bahrainis, some of whom have faced backlash from Palestinians who see normalization as a betrayal of their cause. The Palestinian struggle for independence from Israel enjoys broad support across the Arab world.

“There’s still a lot of hesitation coming from the Arab world,” said Dan Feferman, director of Sharaka, a group that promotes people-to-people exchanges between Israel and the Arab world. “They expect (Israel) to be a conflict zone, they expect to be discriminated against.” After leading two trips of Bahrainis and Emiratis to Israel, Sharaka struggled to find more Gulf Arab citizens interested in visiting, he said.

When a group of Emirati and Bahraini social media influencers in 2020 visited the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, the third-holiest site in Islam, they were spat on and pelted with shoes in Jerusalem’s Old City, said Hija, their tour guide.

When another group of Emirati officials visited the flashpoint site accompanied by Israeli police, they drew the ire of the grand mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, who issued a religious edict against Emiratis visiting the mosque under Israeli supervision.

Most Emiratis and Bahrainis who have visited Israel say they forgo their national dress and headscarves in order not to attract attention.

The Islamic Waqf, which administers the mosque, declined to answer questions about the number of Emirati and Bahraini visitors and their treatment at the compound.

Palestinian rage against Emiratis is not confined to the sacred esplanade. Emirati citizens visiting and studying in Israel say they face frequent death threats and online attacks.

“Not everyone can handle the pressure,” said Sumaiiah Almehiri, a 31-year-old Emirati from Dubai studying to be a nurse at the University of Haifa. “I didn’t give into the threats, but fear is preventing a lot of Emiratis from going.”

The fear of anti-Arab racism in Israel can also drive Gulf Arabs away. Israeli police mistakenly arrested two Emirati tourists in Tel Aviv last summer while hunting for a criminal who carried out a drive-by shooting. Some Emiratis have complained on social media about drawing unwanted scrutiny from security officials at Israel’s Ben-Gurion Airport.

“If you bring them here and don’t treat them in a sensitive way, they’ll never come back and tell all their friends to stay away,” Hija said.

Benjamin Netanyahu, who returned for a sixth term as prime minister last week, has pledged to strengthen agreements with Bahrain, Morocco, the UAE and Sudan. Formal ties with Sudan remain elusive in the wake of a military coup and in the absence of a parliament to ratify its U.S.-brokered normalization deal with Israel.

As a chief architect of the accords, Netanyahu also hopes to expand the circle of countries and reach a similar deal with Saudi Arabia.

Yet experts fear his new government — the most ultranationalist and religiously conservative in Israel’s history — could further deter Gulf Arab tourists and even jeopardize the agreements. His government has vowed to expand West Bank settlements and pledged to annex the entire territory, a step that was put on hold as a condition of the initial agreement with the UAE.

“We have a reason to be worried about any deterioration in relations,” said Moran Zaga, an expert in Gulf Arab states at the University of Haifa in Israel.

So far, Gulf Arab governments have offered no reason for concern.

The Emirati ambassador was photographed warmly embracing Itamar Ben-Gvir, one of the coalition’s most radical members, at a national day celebration last month. And over the weekend, the UAE’s leader, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, called Netanyahu to congratulate him and invite him to visit.

It’s a different story among those who are not in the officialdom.

“I hope that Netanyahu and those with him will not set foot on the land of the Emirates,” Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a prominent Emirati political scientist, wrote on Twitter. “I think it is appropriate to freeze the Abraham Accords temporarily.”

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January 3, 2023
Top lawmaker suspended amid lobbying scandal at EU assembly

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BRUSSELS — A vice president of the European Union’s parliament was suspended Friday by her party group after Belgian police carried out several raids linked to an investigation into suspected influence peddling at the EU assembly by a Gulf state.

The center-left Socialists and Democrats group in the European Parliament said that it “has taken the decision to suspend MEP Eva Kaili’s membership of the S&D Group with immediate effect, in response to the ongoing investigations.”

Kaili, a 44-year-old former Greek TV news anchor, was also suspended by her party at home — the Greek Socialist party, Pasok-Movement for Change. Pasok said it acted “following the latest developments and the investigation by the Belgian authorities into the corruption of European officials.”

Pasok and the S&D declined to provide further details.

Kaili’s suspension came after police staged 16 raids across Belgium’s capital, Brussels, on Friday as part of a probe into corruption and money laundering involving the EU assembly and a Gulf country, the federal prosecutor’s office said. Prosecutors declined to name the country concerned.

In a statement, the Left group in the EU parliament demanded that what it called “the unfolding Qatar lobbying scandal” should be added to the assembly’s agenda next week so that further details about the affair can be established and an appropriate response considered” by lawmakers.

Pasok publicly distanced itself from comments made by Kaili at the EU parliament last month, in which she praised Qatar and said that the soccer World Cup there is “proof, actually, of how sports diplomacy can achieve a historical transformation of a country with reforms that inspired the Arab world.”

Belgian prosecutors said four people were detained for questioning, and investigators recovered around 600,000 euros ($633,500) in cash and seized computer equipment and mobile telephones during the Brussels raids.

The prosecutors did not identify the four but said one was a former member of the EU parliament.

The raids targeted in particular assistants working for EU lawmakers, the statement said. The EU assembly has 705 elected members from the bloc’s 27 member nations. Each lawmaker has a number of assistants.

Prosecutors said Belgium’s federal judicial police suspect the unspecified Gulf country of trying “to influence the economic and political decisions of the European Parliament.”

It said this was allegedly done “by paying large sums of money or offering large gifts to third parties with a significant political and/or strategic position within the European Parliament.”

The EU parliament’s press service declined to comment on the raids while an investigation was underway, but said the assembly was cooperating fully with Belgian police.

Kaili was elected in January as one of 14 vice presidents at the EU assembly, where she has served as a member since 2014.

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Associated Press writer Derek Gatopoulos in Athens contributed to this report.

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December 9, 2022
Qatar to supply liquefied natural gas to Germany from 2026

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DOHA, Qatar — Qatar is to supply liquefied natural gas to Germany under a 15-year deal signed Tuesday as the European economic powerhouse scrambles to replace Russian gas supplies that have been cut during the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Officials gave no dollar value for the deal, which would begin in 2026. Under the agreement, Qatar would send up to 2 million tons of the gas to Germany through an under-construction terminal at Brunsbuettel.

The deal involves both Qatar Energy, the nation’s state-run firm, and ConocoPhillips, which has stakes in Qatar’s offshore natural gas field in the Persian Gulf that it shares with Iran.

As European countries have supported Ukraine after Russia’s invasion in February, Moscow has slashed supplies of natural gas used to heat homes, generate electricity and power industry. That has created an energy crisis that is fueling inflation and increasing pressure on companies as prices have risen.

Germany, which got more than half its gas from Russia before the war, hasn’t received any gas from Russia since the end of August.

The country is building five liquefied natural gas terminals as a key part of its plan to replace Russian supplies, and the first are expected to go into service shortly. Much of Germany’s current gas supply comes from or via Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium.

Germany’s drive to prevent a short-term energy crunch also includes temporarily reactivating old oil- and coal-fired power stations and extending the life of the country’s last three nuclear power plants, which were supposed to be switched off at the end of this year, until mid-April.

German Economy Minister Robert Habeck, who is also responsible for energy, visited Qatar in March — about a month after Russia invaded Ukraine — as part of the government’s effort to diversify gas supplies. Chancellor Olaf Scholz was there in September.

Habeck said Tuesday he wouldn’t say much about the deal because “the political talks were always only framework talks; the companies remained in contact after that.”

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November 29, 2022