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
New report confirms Iran's nuclear weapons program In a crucial new report by the IAEA, Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog agreed to disagree about key aspects of Iran’s nuclear program. Iran
Turkey makes progress on sealing Syria border, but is it enough? Turkey’s granting the United States access to its military bases, among other factors, has muted US frustration at slow efforts to seal a remaining stretch of the Turkish-Syrian border to foreign fighters and oil smugglers. Syria
Why young Gazans need cement to get married In an attempt to curb the use of cement in tunnels Hamas has been building to attack Israelis, Israel restricts the importation of cement to Gaza, limiting the possibilities for many young people in Gaza to build homes. Palestine
Tony Blair's blunder on Middle East peace Tony Blair’s chance to play a political role in the Palestinian issue is slipping away, as the PA refuses to accept him, President Abbas and the PLO refuse to deal with him on a personal level and Hamas has turned down all his initiatives. Palestine
Coptic Pope's Jerusalem visit sparks backlash in Egypt The Coptic Church confirmed that its position regarding the ban on Copts visiting Jerusalem is unchanged, despite the travel of Pope Tawadros II to the city to attend the funeral of Bishop Anba Abraham. Palestine
Iranians tweet supreme leader's message, but Twitter thinks it's spam? Iran's supreme leader has once again penned an open letter to the young people of the West; however, many of those sharing his message via Twitter had their accounts mysteriously suspended. Iran
Larijani hopes to expand his political power Iranian parliament Speaker Ali Larijani is trying to transform the Followers of the Leader faction into a political organization. Iran
Why Cairo should devalue the Egyptian pound Recent devaluations of the Egyptian pound are making importers, contractors, consumers and the government nervous, but this may be what Egypt needs to become a more competitive exporter of products and services. Egypt
Turkey’s Kurds shaken by killing of human rights lawyer Turkey’s Kurds have united in grief over the perplexing killing of celebrated human rights lawyer Tahir Elci, whose loss some take as a sign that peace is further out of reach than ever. Turkey
The radicalization of Israel The extremist discourse between the political right and the left has drowned out the Israeli mainstream. Israel
Will Israel, Russia tighten coordination on Syria? Israeli security officials debate whether Russian military involvement in Syria will change the balance of power in favor of Israeli interests or against them. Israel
Is UNHCR in Jordan discriminating against Sudanese refugees? Sudanese refugees in Jordan have been protesting what they see as the UNHCR discriminating between them and Syrian and Iraqi refugees. Jordan
