Israel last week signed its first free trade agreement with an Arab state. The deal with the United Arab Emirates – with which Israel established diplomatic relations under the Abraham Accords in 2020 – plans to eliminate or cut almost all tariffs and could boost bilateral trade to more than $10bn Read more…
Britain, the US and their European allies are expected to push for a resolution censuring Iran when the International Atomic Energy Agency’s leading figures meets this week. The resolution – urging Tehran to “fully cooperate” with the IAEA – is backed by France and Germany but opposed by China and Read more…
Steps to a two state solution: For Israel, for Palestine, for peace Step Twenty Two: Expand Palestinian autonomous zones and issue building permits for Area C The Oslo Accords established three zones – Areas A, B and C – in the West Bank. In Area A, the Palestinian Authority exercises Read more…
Israel is working with the United States and Gulf nations like the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in a process to ultimately normalise ties with Saudi Arabia, foreign minister Yair Lapid said on Monday. “We believe that it is possible to have a normalisation process with Saudi Arabia. It’s in our Read more…
Steps to a two state solution: For Israel, for Palestine, for peace Step Twenty One: Preserve the Temple Mount status quo The Temple Mount is a frequent flashpoint in Jerusalem – a city which is holy to Jews, Muslims and Christians. The site of the former Temple, it is the Read more…
LFI Lords chair Baroness Ramsay has written the below article for LabourList. Click here to read the original. The current talks in Vienna may help to put the brakes on Iran’s accelerating nuclear programme, but they will almost certainly do nothing to stop Tehran’s ballistic missile programme or its support for Read more…
LFI chair Steve McCabe MP has written the below article for Politics Home. Click here to read the original. Whatever the eventual outcome of the talks surrounding Iran’s nuclear programme, one thing is clear: we must urgently develop a comprehensive approach to tackling the multi-faceted challenges posed by Tehran. As Labour Read more…
View a PDF copy of our new pamphlet: Iran A Darkening Picture at Home and Abroad Britain must urgently develop a comprehensive approach to tackling the multi-faceted threat posed by Iran, argues a new report published by Labour Friends of Israel. Whatever the outcome of the Vienna talks on Tehran’s Read more…
Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu will visit Israel this week in the latest sign of improving relations between the Jewish state and Turkey. One of the key issues on the agenda is likely to be energy cooperation, following the discovery of natural gas in the eastern Mediterranean in the last decade. Read more…
Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi has sworn to avenge the killing of Hassan Sayad Khodayari, a colonel in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, in Tehran on Sunday. Khodayari was shot five times outside his home by two assailants on motorcycles, according to Iranian state media. Tehran has blamed the killing on “elements linked Read more…
The Biden administration is reportedly brokering a deal to transfer two Red Sea islands from Egypt to Saudi Arabia that could include steps to normalise Saudi-Israeli ties. The treaty would return control of Tiran and Sanafir, which have been leased by Egypt since the 1950s, to Saudi Arabia. The demilitarised Read more…
LFI chair Steve McCabe MP has today called on Foreign Secretary Liz Truss to demand Iraq scrap legislation that would impose the death penalty for “contact and communication of any kind” with Israel and Israelis. Instead, he called for the Foreign Secretary to use the UK’s “deep and longstanding ties Read more…