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MidEast

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Hezbollah’s efforts on behalf of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria are threatening to drag Lebanon into the conflict, with the Al Qaeda-linked Syrian rebel group Jabhat al-Nusra declaring that confronting the Iran-backed terror group is now a top priority. This came after Hezbollah’s secretary general Hassan Nasrallah declared last week...

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MidEast

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Seven Egyptian security personnel were kidnapped in the Sinai Peninsula Thursday after their taxis were ambushed outside the northern Sinai city of el-Arish. Yesterday’s incident is just the latest in a series of kidnappings and attacks in the increasingly anarchic territory. The abduction in the Sinai is the latest incident to highlight...

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Israel

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“This is the best offer we’ve ever gotten from Israel and the best we’ll ever get.” That’s how Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas described the peace offer Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made him in the fall of 2008. Olmert’s offer had indeed been far-reaching on all the final-status issues:...

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Diplomacy

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John Brennan, the longtime counterterrorism advisor to President Barack Obama who this year became director of the CIA, flew Thursday to Israel — on a working visit not announced in advance. Israeli officials suggested that the main topic in consultations on Friday was Syria – that is, what might be done...

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MidEast

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Iran’s Supreme Leader last month reportedly instructed Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah to prevent the overthrow of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad “at all costs,” according to Arab officials speaking to a Kuwaiti outlet. Over the past few days a source affiliated with Hezbollah told the Arab press that Hezbollah units were taking...

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MidEast

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Leading Egyptian economists told The Guardian that Egypt is facing its worst economic crisis in eight decades. One of the country’s top economists, Galal Amin, bluntly told the paper that the economic crisis was the worst since the global Great Depression. In terms of its devastating effect on Egypt’s poorest, the...

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MidEast

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Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi is at the center of tit-for-tat petitions seeking to highlight criticism and support for his Muslim Brotherhood-linked administration. A petition circulated by opponents has reportedly garnered over two million signatures. It comes amid polls showing that support for Morsi had all but cratered in March and then continued...

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Palestinian Affairs

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Officials from the Western-backed Palestinian Fatah faction yesterday slammed what they called “activities of normalization” with Israel. Top Fatah figures blasted the organizers of a sports match designed to promote coexistence between Palestinians and Israelis. “Every now and then, some organizations who call themselves Palestinian come up with activities of normalization with...

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Global Affairs

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A United Nations body in the West Bank was engulfed in controversy yesterday after leaked emails revealed that a top staffer had promoted a speaking event by an academic who supports economic warfare against Israel. A double-bylined Jerusalem Post expose by Jonny Paul and Benjamin Weinthal disclosed that Ray Dolphin, an...

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Iran

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Iran yesterday, in meetings in both Vienna and Istanbul, again refused to enter serious diplomatic negotiations with the international community regarding the West’s heightened concerns that Tehran is developing a nuclear weapon. In Vienna, the U.N. nuclear watchdog held a meeting with Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA. He told...

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