Turkish diplomat Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the head of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, yesterday called on member states of the organization to adopt “clear strategy on defending Al-Quds,” the Arabic name for the Israeli capital of Jerusalem, from Israel. Ihsanoglu’s comments came during a meeting of OIC foreign ministers, conducted in preparation...

The UN has cut ties with a controversial public affairs officer at the Jerusalem branch of the United Nations Office of the Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs a year after anti-Israel activities by the officer were publicly exposed. Kulhood Badawi was heavily criticized last year when she used her Twitter account, titled...

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has rejected the possibility, proposed earlier this month by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, of direct bilateral negotiations between Washington and Tehran. The prospect of bilateral negotiations – and their status – has been a contentious issue. It was explicitly argued during a 2012 presidential...

European leaders appear to be taking halting steps toward designating Hezbollah as a terrorist organization in the aftermath of a Bulgarian announcement that investigators had discovered links between the Iran-backed terror group and the July 2012 bus bombing in Burgas, Bulgaria. German officials released a statement late yesterday emphasizing that...

The expected arrival of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Cairo – the first of an Iranian president since the 1979 Islamic Revolution – has the air of a historic occasion. After 32 years of diplomatic disconnect between the two countries – initiated by Iran after Egypt made peace with Israel – an...

U.S. lawmakers and officials from across the political spectrum are emphasizing their support for Bulgaria and are calling on the European Union to blacklist Hezbollah a day after Sofia announced that Bulgarian investigators had discovered links between the Iran-backed organization and a July 2012 bombing in Burgas, Bulgaria that killed five...

An Israeli official dismissed renewed Turkish diplomatic moves against Israel as “brazen hypocrisy,” after Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Wednesday told delegates at an Islamic conference in Cairo that the Jewish state has become an international “pariah.” Citing a recent report by the UN Human Rights Council calling on Israel to evacuate...

Israeli outlets from across the political spectrum are criticizing Turkey over what Israeli officials are describing as Ankara’s “brazen hypocrisy” in lashing out against Israel on a variety of issues. Analysts and pundits have expressed surprise that Turkey, a country described as having “ethnically cleansed the northern part of Cyprus...

The visit of Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Egypt, the first by an Iranian leader since Cairo and Tehran broke off relations in 1980, has not entirely succeeded in conveying a sense of rapprochement between the two long-time rivals. Over the course of the trip, Egyptian officials have publicly condemned...

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro is declaring that an upcoming trip by President Barack Obama to Israel will “strengthen the ties” between the two strong allies. Shapiro emphasized the “special bond” shared by the two countries, grounded in among other things Israel’s status as the “only democracy in the...