Middle East
The Trump administration understands the need for Israel to have “overriding security control” in the West Bank in any future peace deal with the Palestinians, said U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman.
“[U.S. President Donald] Trump’s move is important in that it teaches a lesson to Arab leaders: The longer you wait to make peace with Israel, the less you’re going to get,” said David Weinberg, vice president of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security.
Brazilian politician Jamal Harfoush slams [King] Salman of Saudi Arabia and Gulf state leader for allegedly supporting U.S. embassy move to Jerusalem: “Pigs and apes, offspring of Mordechai!”
The “Arab Spring” largely passed Jordan by, in part because the local branch of the Muslim Brotherhood supported King Abdullah, who now has to juggle the contradictory demands of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Bedouin and the country’s Palestinian majority.
U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry met with Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz in Houston at the annual CERAWeek conference, which focuses on challenges facing the energy industry.
Following Bashar Assad’s deadly use of military force against the opposition in his country, the Arab world had sanctioned Damascus, expelled Syria from the Arab League, and most of the Arab countries backed opposition fighters in Syria.
The king also met with U.S. Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan to discuss defense and military cooperation with Jordan.
Senior Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) Commander Khaled Batarfi accuses Arab, Gulf State governments of hastening to normalize relations with Israel and calls on Muslims to confront them militarily.
Iraq has supported Iran’s quest for regional hegemony, from allowing it to manufacture and upgrade missiles to threatening Americans.
A study by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics revealed that Jewish and Arab women are marrying at older ages than they were 10 years ago, and that Israel still suffers from a substantial wage gap.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said during a discussion with students in Iowa that he planned to travel to Lebanon, Israel and Kuwait.
In 2016, Akram al-Kaabi of the Iraqi Shi’ite paramilitary group Harakat al-Nujaba met with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and declared their two organizations to be “twins of the resistance.”
