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In Brief: Stop judicial reform and restart peace talks for Saudi normalisation, says US

Crown prince Mohamad bin Salman > US State Department, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons The Biden administration reportedly wants the Israeli government to halt its judicial reforms and restart peace talks with the Palestinian Authority in order for the US to make progress with brokering normalisation between Israel and Saudi Arabia. The past week has seen a…

UK govt slammed for failure to ban IRGC in Lords debate

IRGC Parade in Tehran. Image Credit: YPA, CC-BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. The government has been challenged over its failure to proscribe the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist group in a debate in the House of Lords yesterday. The debate follows reporting that the government was imminently about to proscribe the IRGC in early…

Labour activists visit Israel and West Bank with LFI and We Believe

Activist delegation > LFI Senior Labour party activists visited Israel and the Palestinian territories last week, many of them for the first time, as part of a delegation led by LFI and We Believe in Israel. The group, including leaders from Labour affiliates, thinktanks and campaign groups, visited Yad Vashem, the Knesset, met with Israeli Labor leader…

Analysis: Assad back in the Arab League fold

Bashar al-Assad > Kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Bashar al-Assad triumphantly returned to the Middle East’s top table last week – 12 years after the blood-soaked dictator was suspended from the Arab League at the outset of a civil war which has killed more than 500,000 people and displaced millions. What happened On Friday, Assad…

LFI Lords chair meets coexistence activist Samah Salaime

Baroness Ramsay meets Samah Salaime Today, LFI Lords chair Baroness Ramsay met with Samah Salaime, Head of Communications and Development at the Village of Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam, a community founded to demonstrate cooperation and friendship between Israeli Jews and Arabs. Samah was visiting London in association with Oasis of Peace UK. In their conversation, they discussed the…

In Brief: Turkey looks to run-off election after Erdogan falls short of majority

Recep Tayyip Erdogan > Government of Chile, CC BY 3.0 CL, via Wikimedia Commons Turkey is braced for its first run-off election after incumbent president Recep Tayyip Erdogan failed to secure a first-round win in Sunday's presidential election. Erdogan, who has held the presidency since 2014 and dominated Turkish politics for two decades, edged ahead of his…

Analysis: Fragile ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad takes hold

Rockets launched at Israel > IDF spokesperson via Twitter A fragile ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad appeared to be holding, bringing to a close five days of conflict in Gaza and the Jewish state. What happened The Egyptian-brokered ceasefire came into force at 10pm on Saturday night. It was followed by a barrage of rockets from Gaza,…

In Brief: Three killed in attack on synagogue in Tunisia during pilgrimage

Synagogue de la Ghriba Djerba > IssamBarhoumi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Two Jewish worshippers and one security guard have been killed by a Tunisian naval officer who opened fire at a synagogue on the island of Djerba, in the Gulf of Gabes, on Tuesday night. The victims have been identified as Aviel Hadad, a 30-year-old…

In Brief: Biden admin: Israel-Saudi normalisation is key security interest

Crown prince Mohamad bin Salman > US State Department, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons US national security advisor Jake Sullivan said last week that the Biden administration would consider diplomatic normalisation between Israel and Saudi Arabia as being in its national security interest, underlining American commitment to expanding the 2020 Abraham Accords. Sullivan’s comments went further in…

In Brief: Syria welcomed back into Arab fold following decade of isolation

Bashar al-Assad > Kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad cemented his return to the Arab fold this week, as Saudi Arabia – a key ally of rebel groups in Syria’s civil war – said its diplomats would return to the country. The restoration of diplomatic ties on Tuesday, later confirmed by Damascus,…