Netanyahu priority may be Sinwar, not Gaza cease-fire
A recap of Al-Monitor reporting from Israel, Iran, the UAE and Turkey.
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Here is what you missed last week if you are not an Al-Monitor subscriber:
From Tel Aviv: Are Sinwar’s days numbered?
“Despite strong domestic pressure to reach a deal with Hamas for the remaining hostages in return for a Gaza cease-fire, prospects of Sinwar’s capture or assassination are fueling [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s delaying tactics in the ongoing talks,” writes Ben Caspit. “Israel’s successful extraction on Tuesday of a hostage from a Gaza tunnel for the first time in almost 11 months is reinforcing assessments that its troops are close to catching or killing Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, in hiding underground since Oct. 7.”
Read Ben’s full report from Israel here.
From Dubai: Telegram CEO arrest puts UAE citizenship in news
“With the arrest of Pavel Durov, the UAE's practice of granting citizenship and residence to high-profile investors is back in the news,” reports Jennifer Gnana.
“Durov grew Telegram to 900 million subscribers earlier this year. As he pondered a potential public offering of the company, Durov said that investors valued his company at around '$30 billion-plus,'" adds Gnana. His arrest is the most high-profile of any tech entrepreneur's, making his value as a high-stakes investor in the UAE's economy all the more critical.”
From Tehran: Khamenei says there's 'no harm' in talking to the enemy
"We should not trust the enemy," Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said this week, adding that "this does not mean that we cannot interact with the same enemy in certain situations. … There is no harm in that, but do not place your hopes in them.”
Khamenei’s remarks follow those of Iran’s new foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, who called for reopening discussions to revise the mostly, if not fully, dead Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
“Within the evolving situation, the Pezeshkian administration is facing the pressing challenge of balancing out the demands of domestic politics, economic maladies and international pressure, all the while adhering to Khamenei's directives to confront the enemy,” writes our correspondent in Tehran. “The moderate president asserted his allegiance to Khamenei and struck a note of defiance against Western sanctions in a speech on Tuesday after his meeting with the supreme leader.”
From Amman: Al-Aqsa Mosque flares again
“The latest flareup came this week after Israel's far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, said in an interview with Army Radio that a synagogue should be built at the contested holy site,” writes Daoud Kuttab. “The call for Jews to pray at the compound is in violation of the 1967 Status Quo Agreement. In a sign of the severity of the development, the office of Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Israeli defense minister said that the status quo has not changed at Al-Aqsa.”
From Ankara: Egypt as reason for Turkey’s turnaround on Libya
“Turkey, one of the two foreign powers with the largest military presence in Libya, has maintained conspicuous silence over the recent political upheaval among Libyan rival armed groups threatening the 2020 cease-fire,” writes Ezgi Akin. “Experts argue that Ankara's position might be linked to efforts to preserve its flourishing rapprochement with Egypt as well as its losing patience with some of its allies in Tripoli.”
