Palestinian Authority intelligence has assessed that Hamas is behind the kidnapping of three Israeli teens, The Times of Israel reported, citing a Palestinian official. This assessment is in line with both the conclusions reached by Israel and a statement by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. The official said that...
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On Wednesdsay, the United Nations General Assembly selected Ugandan Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa, a vocal anti-gay activist, as the international body’s president for the 2014-2015 session, set to begin in September. Bloomberg News reports: The former lawyer and politician defended Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s February enacting legislation that toughened punishments for gay sex...
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On Wednesday, Senators Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Susan Collins (R-ME) led “a bipartisan supermajority of 88 Senators in sending a letter to President Barack Obama” calling the Palestinian unity government “a serious setback to efforts to achieve peace.” The Times of Israel reported further: According to the senators, Hamas’s role in the...
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Lebanon’s former head of General Security Jamil al-Sayyed, who spent four years in jail because of his alleged role in the killing of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri, has launched a campaign to end the power-sharing arrangement between Shi’ites, Sunnis and Druze. This would effectively pave the way for Hezbollah...
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A month after the breakdown of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian leadership after the latter signed a deal with Hamas, a poll was published today suggesting more than 50 percent of Palestinians are against a return to the negotiating table. The Palestinian Center for Public Opinion survey indicated that 56.3% were against...
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Iranian officials over the weekend acknowledged plans to hold meetings with the United States and Russia outside of ongoing negotiations between the P5+1 global powers and Tehran, a development that media outlets described as everything from evidence that the parties were scrambling to reinvigorate faltering talks over the Islamic republic’s...
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