Middle East politics - Page 8

Iran has been putting increasing pressure on Hamas by reducing financial aid to the terrorist group over the past two months, an Arab intelligence source told Breitbart Jerusalem.

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas said that the Palestinians will seek full membership in the United Nations and join dozens of additional international organizations in response to the recent US policy changes on Jerusalem.

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, back in Beirut after a mysterious odyssey that saw him announce his resignation in Saudi Arabia, told cheering supporters on Wednesday that he was staying.

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s prime minister Saad Hariri returned to his home country late Tuesday, on the eve of its independence day and after a nearly three-week absence dominated by his surprise resignation.

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri said Sunday that he is a “free man” and will return to his country “within days.”

The suggestion by Prince Charles that an “influx of foreign, European Jews” was a cause of turmoil in the Middle East has been challenged by a host of dissenting voices.

When Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced his resignation in a televised speech from Saudi Arabia last weekend, it stunned his country and created a mystery that lasted for more than a week. On Sunday, another TV appearance by Hariri was filled with bizarre moments.

TEL AVIV — The Palestinian “resistance” in Gaza will not be disarmed as part of the recent reconciliation deal between the Strip and the government in Ramallah, according to Fatah official Abbas Zaki who spoke to Palestinian media.

Iran is building a permanent military base in Syria just south of Damascus, the BBC reported Friday, citing a Western intelligence official. The British broadcaster commissioned a series of satellite pictures that indicate widespread construction at the site.

Saudi Arabia on Thursday urged its citizens to leave Lebanon “immediately” and to avoid traveling to the country. “The kingdom advised all citizens not to travel to Lebanon from any other international destinations,” said the statement reported by Al-Arabiya.

TEL AVIV — Saudi officials who were arrested in recent days in a corruption crackdown are expected to receive prison sentences of 3-10 years, Saudi news outlet Al Watan has reported.

Two-thirds of Arab Israelis believe Israel has “no right” to define itself as the Jewish nation state, while a majority of Jewish Israelis (58 percent) say those who reject that definition of Israel should have their citizenship revoked, according to a new poll underlining deep divisions between the two communities.

Iran has presented Hamas and Islamic Jihad with a list of conditions in order to renew financial support to the two organizations to what it was a few years ago, an Arab intelligence source has told Breitbart Jerusalem.

RIYADH – Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman accused Iran on Tuesday of “direct military aggression” against the kingdom by supplying Yemen’s Huthi rebels with ballistic missiles, state media reported.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir on Monday warned Tehran the kingdom would not tolerate “any infringement” on its national security, following a weekend missile attack on Riyadh by Iran-backed rebels in Yemen.

TEL AVIV — Prominent social media users in the Gulf have been posting extensively regarding developments in the Saudi royal family after the arrest of dozens of officials in the country, including 11 princes from the royal family, as part of an ongoing fight against corruption.

RIYADH – Saudi King Salman met on Monday with former Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri, less than 48 hours after he resigned as premier in a televised address from Riyadh.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres expressed concern Sunday over the resignation of Lebanese premier Saad Hariri, calling for security and stability in the country.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said on Sunday the previous day’s resignation of the country’s premier Saad Hariri had been “imposed” by Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia has arrested dozens of princes, senior military officers, businessmen and top officials, including a well-known royal billionaire with extensive holdings in Western companies, as part of a sweeping purported anti-corruption probe that further cements control in the hands of its young crown prince.

An assassination attempt on Lebanon’s prime minister Saad Hariri was reportedly thwarted just days before he announced his resignation during a trip to Saudi Arabia on Saturday, citing threats on his life.

BEIRUT — Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri resigned from his post Saturday during a trip to Saudi Arabia in a surprise move that plunged the country into uncertainty amid heightened regional tensions.

Iran on Saturday displayed a surface-to-surface missile as part of events marking the anniversary of the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover and hostage crisis amid uncertainty about its nuclear deal with world powers.

Iran’s proxy in Lebanon, the Shia terrorist movement Hezbollah, has become the “most powerful non-state armed force on the planet,” a report by a group of former senior military officials and diplomats, many of them from NATO member states, concluded this week.

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s official IRNA news agency says the Iranian air force is holding its annual military exercise to show off its ability to safeguard the country’s airspace.

KUWAIT CITY — Kuwait’s ruling emir ordered his cabinet be dissolved Monday, heading off a potentially embarrassing no-confidence vote by parliament against one of his ministers as political turmoil continues in the stalwart US ally.

Hamas leaders newly returned from an official visit to Iran have hailed their restored ties with the Tehran regime, praising the Islamic Republic’s “making no secret” of the “exceptional support” it provides to the Palestinian terrorist organization.

The man who may soon be king of Saudi Arabia is charting a new, more modern course for a country so conservative that for decades there were no concerts or film screenings and women who attempted to drive were arrested.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is traveling to Israel on Thursday in a weeklong anti-terrorism tour of the Middle East.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the Syrian conflict in a phone call Wednesday afternoon, two days after Israeli jets bombed an anti-aircraft battery near Damascus which had fired on an Israeli plane, the Kremlin said.

The leader of Hamas said on Thursday that his group has reached an agreement with the rival Fatah party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after Egyptian-brokered talks about the terms of control of the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will visit Gaza for the first time in a decade within a month, a top official in his Fatah party said on Thursday, after reconciliation talks with rivals Hamas.

With many carrots and some sticks, ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia seeks to tackle entrenched male attitudes towards women drivers before millions take the wheel, many for the first time, next June.

TEL AVIV – Hezbollah Chief Hassan Nasrallah on Sunday warned Jewish immigrants to Israel to leave the country before it goes to war with the Lebanon-based terror group.

The Iraqi government cut autonomous Kurdistan’s direct air links with the outside world indefinitely on Friday, partially isolating the northern region after it voted a massive “yes” in an independence referendum.

TEL AVIV — The king of Saudi Arabia announced a royal decree last week lifting restrictions on women that forbade them from driving or acquiring a driver’s license, before which Saudi Arabia was the only country in the world to impose such a ban on female drivers.