Inman Mohammed bin Abdul Karim al-Issa, the head of the Muslim World League, spoke of the Muslim obligation to bring hearts together during the annual Hajj pilgrimage. Known for visiting Auschwitz and for his involvement in interfaith dialogue, he gave the main sermon at the height of the annual Hajj pilgrimage after being chosen earlier in the week for the role by Saudi Arabia’s de factor ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Nine European countries said Tuesday that they have seen “no substantial evidence” to support Israel’s allegations that six Palestinian civil society groups are terrorist organizations and would not change their policies on supporting the groups.
The rare joint statement was a major rebuke of Israel, which backlisted the groups as terrorist organizations last October but has provided little evidence to support its allegations. The rights groups denied the allegations and accused Israel of escalating a long-standing crackdown on Palestinian opposition to its decades-long military rule.
Syria’s Kurdish-led forces alleged Maher al-Aghal was also affiliated with Turkey-backed opposition group Ahrar al-Sharqiya.
A US drone strike on Tuesday killed the leader of the Islamic State group in Syria, the US military announced today.
Iran is trying to showcase that it can work with countries that want to unseat the US as a global hegemonic power.
US President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel and Saudi Arabia will include some discussions on the Iranian threat.
In the summer of 2014, as his followers were ravaging the cities of northern Iraq, Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi convened a secret meeting with a weapons expert whose unusual skills the terrorist chief was anxious to acquire.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022, has served to accentuate ongoing differences between the United States and Europe on the one hand and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) on the other. This has, to some extent, benefited Russia’s relations with the MENA region at the expense of the United States and Europe. But the impact of the Russian invasion may eventually prove harmful to Russia’s influence in the MENA region.
Eleven years ago, as popular uprisings erupted across the Middle East and North Africa, Europeans imagined themselves as partners of choice for democratic and economic transitions that would create pathways to sustainable stability. This dream failed catastrophically. The region was overwhelmed by instability and conflict, and Europe, in turn, by waves of refugees and deadly terrorism. Through it all the European bloc found itself marginalized, crowded out by the more assertive interventions of regional and non-regional actors.
When
Wednesday, July 13, 2022
Where
Hybrid Conference
Zoom &
Middle East Institute
1763 N St. NW
Washington, D.C. 20036
Introduction
As it does every year, the Iranian regime marked Qods (Jerusalem) Day, established by the father of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in 1979 as the last Friday of Ramadan; this year, it fell on April 29, 2022. Iran considers Qods Day a symbol of the destruction of Israel, aka the Little Satan. Beyond regime calls for the Israel’s destruction, whether through armed confrontation by the Islamic resistance or through a referendum among Palestinians worldwide (though not Jews, not even those in Israel), two trends are evident in this year’s Qods Day statements by regime officials:
For the past year, the news and editorial commentary of the Washington Post has favored a more aggressive posture on the part of the United States and the Pentagon. The Post favors a U.S. naval presence in the Black Sea to break the Russian blockade against Ukraine as well as a more aggressive U.S. posture in the Indo-Pacific to challenge China. The twin notions of challenging Russia and China in their “home waters” conjures up images of daunting challenges that lead to increased defense spending and international tensions. And now the Post has added another adversarial challenge: the Middle East.