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In Brief: Israel hopes to increase trade with Morocco to $500m

Koutoubia Mosque, Marrakech > Marcin Sochanki, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Israel and Morocco signed a new bilateral agreement this week aimed at deepening economic ties, expanding trade and developing joint business opportunities. Economy minister Orna Barbivai, who arrived in Morocco in Sunday, said the agreement “is intended to bring about economic growth and prosperity for…

Analysis: Update from Iran nuclear talks

Ayatollah Khamenei. Image Credit: Tasnim News, CC BY 4.0. Months of talks to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal appear to be reaching a conclusion – despite Tehran’s refusal to negotiate directly with the Biden administration. The news from the Vienna talks – which began in April 2021 but were then paused for months following the election…

Steps to a two state solution: Demand Hamas releases hostages

Steps to a two state solution: For Israel, for Palestine, for peace Step Eleven: Demand Hamas releases hostages Hamas should also be pressured to end its practice of holding hostages as a bargaining chip to attempt to free terrorist prisoners held in Israel. Hamas is currently holding the bodies of two Israeli soldiers –…

In Brief: Israel is twentieth century’s greatest achievement, says Pelosi

Nancy Pelosi and Isaac Herzog > Amos Ben-Gershom/GPO The creation of the State of Israel is the greatest achievement of the twentieth century, US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said on a visit to Israel this week. Speaking at the Knesset, Pelosi said that the US was proud to have Israel as an ally and would…

In Brief: Israel sends diplomats to Vienna for nuclear talks

Ayatollah Khamenei. Image Credit: Tasnim News, CC BY 4.0. Israeli diplomats have travelled to Vienna to meet negotiators involved in talks aiming to restore the 2015 Iran nuclear deal for the first time since the Vienna talks resumed last April. The Israeli delegation, headed by deputy director general of strategic affairs at the Foreign Ministry Joshua Zarka…

Analysis: Shifting sands in the Middle East

Naftali Bennett lauded a new “regional architecture of moderate countries” in the Middle East as he left Bahrain on Tuesday evening, completing the first official visit by an Israeli prime minister to the Gulf State. What happened Bennett’s visit to Bahrain saw the prime minister meet with King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad…

LFI vice-chair urges FCDO to take seat on coexistence Fund board

LFI vice-chair Cat McKinnell MP has today written to Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Secretary Liz Truss calling for the FCDO to approach the Biden administration to discuss the UK taking up one of the international seats on the board of the International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace. This followed the news that the US Agency for International…

In Brief: Renewed nuclear deal ‘in sight’ but not certain, claims US

Ayatollah Khamenei. Image Credit: Tasnim News, CC BY 4.0. The Biden administration said on Monday that a renewed deal to restrict Iran’s nuclear programme was possible, but that any agreement had to be completed urgently as Tehran advances its capabilities. Negotiations in Vienna, which began last summer, were halted at the end of January, before being…

In Brief: US fills International Fund board for coexistence projects

The US Agency for International Development last week announced appointments to an advisory board to recommend how to distribute $250 million in funding for Israeli-Palestinian coexistence projects. The filling of the board is a major step forward since the passing of the Nita M. Lowey Middle East Partnership for Peace Act that passed Congress in December…

In Brief: Israeli politics rocked by police spyware allegations

Spyware > Pixabay, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons Israel’s police commissioner, Kobi Shabtai, has repeatedly denied allegations that his officers have used spyware to illegally monitor public and private figures in Israel. In a bombshell report published on Monday, the Calcalist newspaper claimed that NSO Group’s Pegasus program had been deployed against senior government officials, mayors, journalists, leaders…