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
Turkey opens investigation after Greek newspaper insults Erdogan The spat comes amid tensions between Athens and Ankara over drilling rights in the eastern Mediterranean. Turkey
Intel: Libya to resume oil production at facilities without militia, Wagner fighters Tripoli's parliament says it is not on board with a deal struck with with Hifter's son in Russia last week. Libya
IDF to set up field clinics as Israel's hospitals overflow As the number of infections continues to rise, Defense Minister Benny Gantz has ordered the Israeli army to prepare to run field hospitals to treat coronavirus patients. Israel
UAE-Israel film collaboration latest in surge of normalization deals On the heels of last week's normalization agreement, the new film deal joins a growing list of collaboration efforts between the partners. Originals
US imposes sweeping new Iran sanctions as Security Council ignores snapback attempt Nearly every UN Security Council member state says the United States lacks the legal authority to reimpose sanctions on Iran. United States
Turkish lira slips further as Central Bank unlikely to raise rates The Turkish currency dipped further Monday as few economic analysts expect the nation’s Central Bank to reverse an easing cycle that’s kept borrowing costs below inflation. Turkey
Rouhani calls US snapback push ‘final point of failure’ The Trump administration, meanwhile, is preparing a new package of sanctions on Iran. Iran
Bulgarian court sentences two men in bus bombing that killed Israelis Bulgaria said that two dual citizens of Lebanon were responsible for the Black Sea attack that targeted Israeli tourists in 2012; Hezbollah has denied involvement. Israel
Honduras to move Israel embassy to Jerusalem by year's end The announcement follows a phone call between Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel
Turkey's foreign policy becoming alarmingly militarized Serious structural problems have hit Turkish foreign policy in the past two years, badly eroding its crisis-management and problem-solving capacities. Turkey
Bahrain claims it foiled Iranian-backed terrorist attacks Bahrain has charged 18 people with allegedly plotting attacks in the country with support from Iran. Bahrain
Iraq's Baath Party archive location unknown The United States last month shipped a historic archive of Baath regime documents to Iraq, but the government is keeping mum about its location and fate, given the political sensitivity of the documents. Iraq
