The Takeaway: Would Hamas complicate US plans for reset with Palestinians? Also: the back story on the spat between Israel and Jordan; Gulf post-COVID economic trends; Turkey’s Kurds; Egypt and Somalia; and more! Originals
Egypt sentences activist Sanaa Seif to 18 months in prison Seif, who had been in pretrial detention since June, was convicted Wednesday of spreading false news and misusing social media. Egypt
Ukraine rejects Iran's final report on downed passenger plane The Iranian government said last year's shooting down of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was the result of a human error. Iran
Palestinians receive first batch of vaccines through COVAX More than 60,000 doses of the AstraZeneca and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines arrived in Ramallah on Wednesday. Palestine
Will IAEA be able to verify Iran's nuclear program? The GAO warns that budget pressures and uncertain access could enable Iranian cheating. Iran
Is BBC Persian meddling in Iranian elections? Pre-election sniping ahead of the Assembly of Experts vote heats up as Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani’s ticket is labeled “British.” Iran
Iran's Supreme Council of Cyberspace announces plans for social media monitoring Given the widespread use of smartphones, Iranian officials say there is a need to monitor election-related social media activity. Iran
Death, starvation haunt southern Yemen The catastrophic humanitarian situation in Yemen’s besieged Taiz calls for immediate action to lift the siege that has strangled the city for almost a year. Saudi Arabia
Are books and movies promoting smoking and drinking? Erdogan thinks so Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s railing against smoking and alcohol has sparked concerns over censorship of movies and literary works deemed to promote the two "evils." Turkey
What happened to Turkey's foreign policy? Turkey has made some major mistakes with its one-dimensional foreign policy, say former ambassadors who served under the Justice and Development Party. Turkey
How one Palestinian sheikh hopes to unite Sunnis, Shiites In an interview with Al-Monitor, the founder of Jama’at al-Muslimin, Sheikh Mahmoud Jouda, talks about his party being religious and strictly nonpolitical and denies accusations of him converting to Shiism, saying he is neither Sunni nor Shiite. Palestine
Can Israel separate politics, education? Parents and educators are concerned about Education Minister Naftali Bennett integrating values of Judaism and nationalism into the education system, at the expense of tolerance and dialogue. Israel
Will Iraqi government employees face more wage cuts in 2016? The Iraqi government’s austerity plan has now reached civil servants, raising fears of an uncertain future in light of the plunging oil revenues and increasing military expenses in the fight against the Islamic State. Iraq
Why is Israeli media attacking itself? Freedom of speech, vital to any democracy, is under attack by the Israeli media. Palestine
US, Russia reach partial Syria truce deal The United States and Russia have reached an agreement on a cessation of hostilities in Syria, to go into effect Feb. 27, yet the plan excludes both the Islamic State and al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra. Syria
Did the UN ship restricted technology to Iran? House lawmakers finally hear from patent agency whistleblowers after four years of stonewalling. Congress
