Tag Archives: deal of the century

A senior United Arab Emirates official said on Monday that any unilateral move by Israel to annex parts of the occupied West Bank would be a serious setback for the Middle East peace process. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said cabinet discussions would begin on July 1 on his …

By James M. Dorsey   Israel knew the drill even before US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo boarded his flight to Tel Aviv earlier this month four days after the death of his father. It was Mr. Pompeo’s first and only overseas trip since March. Echoing a US warning two …

The U.S. Departments of State and Energy should commit to regular briefings to relevant committees in Congress on talks about nuclear power cooperation with Saudi Arabia, a congressional watchdog said in a report on Monday. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) report said Congress should consider amending the 1954 Atomic Energy …

The two million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip face insurmountable obstacles in attempting to prevent the novel coronavirus from spreading throughout the isolated enclave. Israel’s continued siege and blockade severely limits their ability to test for the virus and provide healthcare to those who become infected. By Zaha Hassan …

A period drama about the trials of a Jewish midwife airing on Saudi-controlled MBC for Ramadan has drawn both criticism as an attempt to promote Arab “normalisation” with Israel and praise for a rare exploration of the Gulf’s social history. “Umm Haroun”, a fictional series about a multi-religious community in …

The National Bureau for defending land and resisting settlements stated in its latest weekly report , that , the newly elected occupation PM, Netanyahu pledged before his constituents that he intends to develop settlement in the occupied West Bank, and imposing Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley, supported by the …

An Imposed, Unrealistic Solution Will Not Hold By Martin Indyk*   You’ve got to hand it to the Middle East peace team of U.S. President Donald Trump. It has proposed a comprehensive and creative resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And even though Trump is quick to decry the failed efforts …

Instead of acknowledging the political and national aspirations of the Palestinians, negotiators are focusing on material and economic concerns.   By Robert Malley President and CEO of the International Crisis Group & Aaron David Miller Distinguished Fellow at the Wilson Center |   Recent months have seen a series of …

Saudi Arabia has looked into buying Israeli natural gas, according to a former member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet, the latest sign of warming ties between two formally hostile nations. The countries have discussed building a pipeline that would connect Saudi Arabia to Eilat, Ayoob Kara, citing conversations with …

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner said on Wednesday that U.S. President Donald Trump is fond of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and willing to engage with him, but Abbas was cool to the gesture. In a conference call with reporters, Kushner said, “Our door is always open” to the Palestinians. …

Israel will be destroyed in half an hour if the United States attacks Iran, a senior Iranian parliamentarian said on Monday, according to the semi-official Mehr news agency. Weeks of tensions culminated last month in U.S. President Donald Trump’s last-minute decision to call off planned strikes on Iran after Tehran …

More than 200 demonstrators broke into the courtyard of Bahrain’s Embassy in Baghdad and took down the kingdom’s flag on Thursday night to protest a U.S.-led meeting in Bahrain on Israeli-Palestinian peace. Police used live rounds to disperse the crowd, police sources told Reuters, with no injuries reported. “We used …

Palestinians poured scorn on the Trump administration’s much-touted peace plan for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Wednesday, saying its framework for a trade and investment boost ignored their political aspirations for statehood. Gulf states attending an international meeting in Bahrain, orchestrated by the plan’s architect, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared …

Growth in the West bank and Gaza must be focused on jobs, the head of the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday, at the start of a conference on the Trump administration’s $50 billion economic plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace. Business leaders and politicians have gathered in Bahrain to discuss the …

Blackstone Group chief executive Stephen Schwarzman said on Tuesday that an economic plan presented by White House senior adviser Jared Kushner for the Palestinian territories was “not unachievable”. “This plan is not that financially ambitious. It’s got $27 billion for the Palestinians and it’s only about 20% equity. It’s not …

Reaching an Israeli-Palestinian deal along the lines of the Arab peace initiative will not be possible, requiring instead a stance between that and the Israeli position, White House senior adviser Jared Kushner said in an interview with Al Jazeera. “I think we all have to recognize that if there ever …

Iran’s parliament speaker said on Sunday a U.S. Middle East peace plan was “toying with a nation’s dignity” and would lead to stronger resistance against Israel by Palestinian militant groups, the Iranian state news agency IRNA reported. U.S. President Donald Trump has dubbed the plan “deal of the century”. As …

U.S. President Donald Trump’s economic vision as part of the wider plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was met with contempt, repudiation and exasperation in the Arab world, even as some in the Gulf called for it to be given a chance. In Israel, Tzachi Hanegbi, a cabinet member close …

A former general who served as Israel’s chief liaison officer to the Palestinians will attend next week’s U.S.-led conference on the Palestinian economy in Bahrain in a private capacity, a person briefed on the matter said on Tuesday. The White House decided against including the Israeli government in the June …

The White House will not invite Israeli government officials to a Bahrain conference devoted to gaining support for a Palestinian economic plan in order to keep the event apolitical, a senior administration official said on Monday. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Palestinian business representatives are expected to …

Qatar said on Sunday that there was a disconnect between the Palestinians and the United States over a U.S. blueprint aimed at ending the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, warning that a solution could not be imposed on Palestinians. The U.S. blueprint, driven by Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law …

The U.S. ambassador to Israel did not rule out an Israeli move to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, land that the Palestinians seek for a state, in an interview with the New York Times published on Saturday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in the run-up to an …

By Graham E. Fuller  (grahamefuller.com) 6 June 2019 The “Deal of the Century”—Trump’s modestly named new proposal for peace  between Israel and the Palestinians—has long been said to be nearing completion. Ongoing turmoil in Israeli politics makes that presumed launch date  less certain. But whether or not Bibi Netanyahu will …

Global financial institutions will attend a U.S.-led conference on the Palestinian economy this month that the Trump administration has cast as an overture to its Middle East peace plan, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Wednesday. The efficacy of the June 25-26 meeting in Bahrain has been in doubt …

Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah pledged on Friday to confront the U.S. Middle East plan that President Donald Trump has touted as “the deal of the century.” Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the heavily armed Shi’ite movement, said it was unlikely Washington and its allies would launch a war against Tehran …

Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner is leading a U.S. delegation on stops in the Middle East this week seeking support for a late June workshop aimed at helping the Palestinians, a White House official said on Tuesday. Kushner, Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt and U.S. Special Representative for Iran …

By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD     It’s the Ramadan, the holy month of fasting, not exactly the best time of the year to exercise your synapses. Nonetheless, I found myself doing exactly that on Sunday 12 May 2019 when I attended a lecture organised by the American University in …

By Graham E. Fuller — The grisly details of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi security goons in their own consulate in Istanbul has riveted global attention like few other recent stories. Not surprisingly, the lurid descriptions of this single sensational case have far greater impact on …