US secretary of state Antony Blinken will travel to Saudi Arabia this week, with improving ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia on the agenda for talks. Blinken “will discuss US-Saudi strategic cooperation on regional and global issues and a range of bilateral issues including economic and security cooperation”, the State Read more…
An Egyptian policeman accused of killing three Israeli soldiers in an attack on the countries’ shared border on Saturday morning has been named as 22-year-old Mohamed Salah Ibrahim. Arabic-language media reported that Ibrahim was drafted into the Egyptian army in June 2022 and stationed on the border with Israel as Read more…
Iran may be able to produce nuclear weapons “on demand”, a leading expert warned last week. The report in The Economist magazine also provided details of a new nuclear facility being constructed by Tehran deep in the Zagros mountains. It comes as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has reportedly estimated that Read more…
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 number of reports that Jerusalem and Riyadh Read more…
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 January, though this has not Read more…
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 Read more…
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 attended an Arab Read more…
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 Read more…
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 rival, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, though failed to win Read more…
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, and retaliatory Read more…
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 dual citizen of Israel and Tunisia, Read more…
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 support of ties between Jerusalem and Riyadh Read more…