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
Morsi Is Not Arab World’s Mandela In response to Tawakul Karman's recent article in Foreign Policy, Bassem Sabry and Hani Sabra write that Mohammed Morsi is no Nelson Mandela. Egypt
Will Release of Palestinians Who Killed Israelis Bring Peace? How can the release of the Palestinian prisoners who murdered Israeli peace activist Ian Feinberg promote peace negotiations between the two sides? Palestine
Iran-Hamas Rebuild Ties Following Morsi’s Ouster After the ouster of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood from power, Hamas is again looking to Iran for support. Palestine
Are Gul, Erdogan Playing 'Good Cop, Bad Cop' With Egypt? It appears Turkey’s president and prime minister are playing a "good cop, bad cop" routine on Egypt, but their differences are real. Turkey
Baghdad Nightlife Cloaked in Fear Amid curfews and an unstable security environment, Iraqis in the nightlife business live in constant fear of militia attacks, security raids and customer brawls. Iraq
New Housing Units No Obstacle To Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations The new tenders for construction in the settlements were intended to provide the Israeli right with an imaginary achievement, allowing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to continue negotiations. Israel
Rouhani, Suleiman: Vanguards Of Moderation in Middle East Like his counterpart in Beirut, Tehran’s new President Hassan Rouhani embraces just the kind of moderation the region may need at this tumultuous time. Lebanon
Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process Faces Enormous Challenges As long as the US is not playing a forceful role, there will be numerous difficulties that could prevent the Palestinian-Israeli negotiation process from successfully moving forward. Palestine
Israel's Settlement Plan Threatens Talks Before They Begin Israel's decision to approve more settlements only adds to the widely held view that it is not interested in peace with the Palestinians. Palestine
Pardon My Turkish: Battle for 'Halal' Words Being politically correct takes another unexpected turn in Turkey as a new vocabulary permeates the social scene, further deepening political fault lines. Turkey
America Loses Yemeni People In Drone War US drone attacks on Yemeni villages have tarnished America’s image. Yemen
Gay Men in Iran's Military Can Seek Exemption Gay Iranian men desiring exemption from mandatory military service must undergo rigorous physical and medical examinations. Iran
