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"We do it every day. Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visas,” Rubio said at a press conference. “At some point, I hope we run out because we’ve gotten rid of all of them, but we’re looking every day for these lunatics that are tearing things up.” (Read more at Arab Weekly)
Trump says he will wait "a couple of weeks" before deciding on tariffs. In Trump's first remarks since Iran rejected direct negotiations with Washington last week, he told NBC News that U.S. and Iranian officials were talking, but did not elaborate (Read more at Reuters).
Trump's decision to go to Saudi Arabia on his first foreign trip signals how close the relationship between the Trump administration and Gulf countries has become, especially when it comes to economic cooperation and investment (Read more at Axios).
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei stressed that if enemies commit evil against Iran, they will definitely receive a strong and reciprocal blow. "And If they seek to create sedition within the country, the (Iranian) nation itself will (give a proper) answer to them." (Read more at Mehrnews)
He said the tactic would pave the way for Israel to take control of Gaza and implement “the Trump plan" to evict Palestinians from the enclave. Mr Netanyahu's remarks, along with the move to appoint an official to lead a newly created body aimed at advancing the “voluntary” displacement of Gazans, suggest his government is pursuing Mr Trump's proposals for the enclave (Read more at The National).
Oil prices held steady on Monday as investors adopted a cautious, wait-and-see stance after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose secondary tariffs on buyers of Russian oil and warned Iran of possible military action if it did not agree to a deal over its nuclear program. Some analysts believe that Trump may not act on his threats, a view that is putting a cap on oil prices (Read more at USNews).
Media outlets affiliated with the Houthi group (Ansar Allah) reported that the United States carried out 72 airstrikes on Sana'a, Saada, Amran, Marib, Al-Jawf, and Hodeidah within 24 hours (Read more at Jordan News).
The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology of the Houthi government announced that U.S. airstrikes on the northern governorates of Amran and Saada had caused the "complete destruction" of communication stations (Read more at Jordan News).
A Massachusetts federal judge blocked the deportation from the U.S. of a Turkish-born Tufts University doctoral student until further notice, pending a ruling on her habeas corpus petition. Öztürk’s deportation, therefore, has been postponed until the court proposed a deadline of 5 p.m. local time (2200GMT) on April 1 to resolve the dispute (Read more at hurriyetdailynews).
Trump's comments came after Iran responded to the letter the president sent the country's supreme leader three weeks ago, which threatened military action if no deal is reached in two months. "Iran is very high on my list of things to watch. ... We will have to talk it out or very bad things are gonna happen to Iran, and I don't want that to happen," Trump said. "My big preference is that we work it out with Iran, but if we don't work it out, bad, bad things are gonna happen to Iran." (Read more at Axios)
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday the United States hopes to do more diplomatically to end the war in Sudan. Rubio said he was “engaged” on Sudan and had discussed the devastating war in recent days with international players including Kenyan President William Ruto and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (Read more at Arab Weeekly).
“We are watching. We have expressed concern. We don’t like to see instability like that in the governance of any country that is such a close ally,” Rubio said. President Donald Trump had “a very good working relationship with Erdogan in the first administration. They would like to restart that,” Rubio added. “They are a NATO ally. We would like to cooperate with them in Syria and other places,” he said (Read more at Trukish Minute).
Israel and Beirut agreed the terms of ceasefire in November, but rockets have been fired from Lebanon twice this week, prompting Israeli air raids in return. A spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department, Tammy Bruce, indicated that Washington supports the Israeli position (Read more at Nahar Net).
Kushner, son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump, launched the investment firm in 2021 after leaving the White House at the end of President Donald Trump's first term, when he was a top adviser on the Middle East. Affinity secured $1.5 billion of extra capital in 2024 from two of its existing investors - Abu Dhabi-based Lunate and Qatar's sovereign wealth fund the Qatar Investment Authority (Read more at Yahoo Finance).
"The Americans are well aware of how vulnerable they are. If they invade Iran, it would be like adding a spark to a powder keg, and it would ignite the entire region. In such a case, their bases and those of their allies won’t be safe anymore," the senior Iranian lawmaker said in an address on International Quds Day (Read more at Tass).
Most eyes were on former governor Mike Huckabee, U.S. President Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. envoy to Israel, during a Senate Foreign Relations hearing on Tuesday. But Reed Rubinstein, nominee for legal adviser to oversee some 300 U.S. State Department attorneys and staff, also addressed areas of interest and concern to American Jews and those who care about Israel (Read more at JNS).
The seized funds, which were registered to Palestinians living in Turkey and other countries, were used to launder more than $1.5 million for Hamas since October 2024, the U.S. government said. A group chat allegedly associated with Hamas solicited donations via a group chat to a changing set of some dozen and a half cryptocurrency addresses. “These seizures show that this office will search high and low for every cent of money going to fund Hamas, wherever it is found, and in whatever form of currency,” stated Edward Martin, interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia (Read more at JNS).
“Today’s action underscores Treasury’s determination to expose and disrupt the schemes that fund Hezbollah’s terrorist violence against the Lebanese people and their neighbors,” Bradley T. Smith, Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said. “These evasion networks strengthen Iran and its proxy Hezbollah and undermine the courageous efforts of the Lebanese people to build a Lebanon for all its citizens.” (Read more at Kataeb)
The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly rejected a pair of anti-Israel amendments to a bill to scrutinize foreign funding at American universities. The Defending Education Transparency and Ending Rogue Regimes Engaging in Nefarious Transactions (DETERRENT) Act, which the House passed on Thursday without the two amendments, lowers the threshold at which colleges and universities have to report foreign contracts and gifts from $250,000 to $50,000. It also bars schools from contracts with China, Iran, North Korea and Russia (Read more at JNS).
The US is amassing B-2 bombers capable of carrying 30,000-pound bunker buster bombs. Their basing at Diego Garcia puts the bombers within 4,000 kilometres from Houthi territory and 5,300 kilometres of Iran, well within their refuelling range of approximately 11,000 kilometres. In the late 1990s, the US was conducting sporadic bombing runs against Saddam Hussein’s military, but Saudi Arabia dragged its feet about allowing the US to launch warplanes from their airfields (Read more at Middle East Eye).
They were sued on Monday 24 March in Manhattan federal court for allegedly functioning as Hamas’s “propaganda arm” and “in-house public relations firm” in New York City and on campus. The lawsuit was filed by nine US and Israeli citizens who were victims of Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, including relatives of people murdered or taken hostage, and two affiliated with Columbia who reported mistreatment there (Read more at University World News)
"It's shocking. It's shocking negligence," a former senior defense official said. "We've got the best secure communication systems in the world — of any country — so why are we using a rickety, commercially available system?" A current senior U.S. official told Axios that while many of the participants in the Signal chat have encrypted government-issued phones on which they can discuss classified information, poor reception and other technical problems can make using a personal device easier. "You can drop from the line in the middle of a call," the official said (Read more at Axios).
“This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States by helping to improve the security of a friendly country that continues to be an important force for political stability and economic progress,” the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said in a statement. The sale “will improve Qatar’s capability to meet current and future threats by providing timely intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, target acquisition, counter-land, and counter-surface sea capabilities for its security and defense,” DSCA said (Read more at Defense Post).
Judge James Boasberg ruled that the administration of President Donald Trump must take measures to keep records of the full conversation between March 11 and March 15, when the journalist had access to the conversation (Read more at Aljazeera).
US Senator Bernie Sanders said he would force votes next week on resolutions that would block $8.8 billion in arms sales to Israel, citing the human rights crisis faced by Palestinians in Gaza after Israel's bombardment of the enclave and its blocking of aid deliveries. "Netanyahu has clearly violated U.S. and international law in this brutal war, and we must end our complicity in the carnage," Sanders said in a statement announcing his plan (Read more at New Arab).
A bipartisan group of 15 members of Congress endorsed the Hostages and Missing Families Forum for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize in a letter to the selection committee. “Through unfathomable anguish and heartbreak, these families have become the conscience of the world,” the letter to the Nobel Committee stated (Read more at JNS).
The Iranian response, seen as an attempt to jumpstart talks over Tehran's nuclear program, was appropriately sent through Oman. No details have been released of the Iranian response nor the contents of Trump's letter (Read more at Daily Sabah).
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, stated at the beginning of the committee hearing that he launched the investigation “demanding answers about their activities on college campuses.” “This group’s leaders have ties to Hamas and helped create the group Students for Justice in Palestine,” Cassidy said. “I also requested information from the Justice Department and several universities on these groups.” (Read more at JNS)
It is part of a long-running campaign by the U.S. targeting Triliance Petrochemical Co., a Hong Kong-based broker with branches in Iran, the United Arab Emirates, China, and Germany, that the U.S. says is a well-known Iranian front company supporting Iran’s petrochemical industry (Read more at Maritime Executive).
Nobody seriously believes that the U.S. Senate will reject President Donald Trump’s nomination of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to be ambassador to Israel. Republicans managed to get far more controversial nominees. However, the political arm of Reform Judaism is publicly opposing Huckabee. So too are the left-wing lobby J Street and the Jewish Democratic Council of America. The Jewish Council for Public Affairs, an umbrella group of Jewish community relations councils around the country, didn’t condemn the nomination outright but made clear its disdain for him with comments deprecating him as a “Christian nationalist.” (Read more at JNS)
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth texted about plans to kill a Houthi militant leader in Yemen two hours before a military operation meant to be shrouded in secrecy. The revelation that highly sensitive attack plans were shared on a commercial messaging app, possibly on personal cellphones, has triggered outrage in Washington and calls from Democrats that members of Trump's national security team be fired over the leaks (Read more at Timeslive).
Hegseth: "Nobody was texting war plans." From the texts: "THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP," Hegseth texted, along with detailed sequencing of the operation.
Gabbard under oath to the Senate Intelligence Committee: "I can attest to the fact that there were not classified or intelligence equities that were included in that chat group at any time." The texts include highly detailed information about the sequencing of an attack that had yet to take place.
Ratcliffe in the Senate hearing said he was not "aware" of any "information on weapons packages, targets or timing" that was discussed in the chat. Gabbard concurred. The texts include a detailed sequencing of the timing of the attacks, to include Hegseth's to-the-minute breakdown of when F-18s and drones would take off and drop their payloads (Read more at Axios).
The U.S. is pounding Houthi drone experts and infrastructure as well as command-and-control nodes across Yemen at a pace previously unseen (Read more at Axios).
United States immigration authorities have arrested and revoked the visa of a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University near Boston who had voiced support for Palestinians during Israel’s war in Gaza (Read more at Aljazeera).
The brand has had considerable success in neighboring United Arab Emirates, where most ride-hailing apps offer electric vehicles. Trump said this month he would likely make his first trip abroad to Saudi Arabia, after asking the kingdom in January to spend upwards of $1 trillion in the U.S. economy, over four years, including military purchases (Read more at CNBC).
A judge has ruled that Yunseo Chung, a 21-year-old Korean American student at Columbia University who is being sought for deportation by the administration of President Donald Trump, cannot be detained as she fights attempts to remove her from the United States over her pro-Palestinian views. “As of today, Yunseo Chung no longer has to fear and live in fear of ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] coming to her doorstep and abducting her in the night,” Chung’s lawyer Ramzi Kassem said after the court ruling on Tuesday (Read more at Aljazeera).
The demands included the removal of foreign fighters from key governing positions, the destruction of remaining chemical weapons and cooperation on counterterrorism efforts. U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Levant and Syria engagement in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, Natasha Franceschi, delivered the list to Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani on the sidelines of a Syria donor conference in Brussels. This meeting marked the first direct high-level interaction between Damascus and Washington since President Donald Trump’s inauguration (Read more at Daily Sabah).
On Tuesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan kicked off a two-day visit to Washington, where he was expected to ask Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other US officials to remove US sanctions on Turkey and allow it back into a crucial fighter jet programme (Read more at Arab Weekly).
Ilan Goldenberg, a former senior adviser of Vice President Harris who served as director for Jewish outreach during her 2024 presidential campaign, is joining liberal pro-Israel Jewish organization J Street (Read more at Axios).
Mike Waltz 'has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,' says the President. Trump said the Atlantic magazine's editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was added to the Signal messaging group by a staffer in Waltz's office, describing the error during an interview with NBC News as "the only glitch in two months, and it turned out not to be a serious one." (Read more at Anadolu Ajansı)
Vance weighed in to say, "I think we are making a mistake ... I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now," Vance said. Vance's disdain for European political elites isn't just political theater. Here, he argued against strikes that he felt would mainly benefit Europe — and thus should be up to the Europeans to execute (Read more at Axios).
The Oregon-based firm will provide its next-generation Lightweight Vehicle Surveillance System (LVSS) to a “high-profile military entity” in the Kingdom. Teledyne FLIR has secured a $7.8-million contract to deliver long-range thermal surveillance systems and associated support services (Read more at Defense Post).
Peter Hawkins, UNICEF's representative in Yemen, shared his observations from Hudaydah, stating: "I was in Hudaydah over the past three days. I passed through the western plains where people are in the streets and on the roadside, begging and looking for help. They have surrendered. I personally saw a heavily damaged building where three children were injured from yesterday’s bombing." (Read more at Jordan News)
The sanctions on Reza Amiri Moghadam, Gholamhossein Mohammadnia, and Taqi Daneshvar of Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security are the latest linked to the disappearance of the former FBI agent, who Washington believes was abducted in Iran and died in captivity. As a result of the sanctions, any property of the men under U.S. jurisdiction must be blocked and Americans are generally barred from dealing with them. Foreign persons also risk blacklisting for dealing with them (Read more at Reuters).
In a frank and wide-ranging interview with Tucker Carlson on Saturday, US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff said that negotiations to end Israeli attacks on Gaza were ongoing and that if Hamas “demilitarised” then “maybe they could stay” in the Palestinian enclave and “be involved politically”. Witkoff said that when Trump asked him how long it would take to reconstruct Gaza, he replied by saying 15 or maybe 20 years. Witkoff also talked about Egypt. He said, “Egypt has a very restive population. The stats in Egypt are huge - unemployment among under-25s is like 45 percent. A country can’t exist like that. They’re largely broke. They need a lot of help. If we have a bad event in Egypt, it could take us back.” (Read more at Middle East Eye).
The White House has singled out Saudi Arabia as a possible participant in the accords, although the Saudis have qualms about Israel due to the Gaza war (Read more at MSN).
”This has nothing to do with my scholarship or teaching,” he writes. “It is a political hit job over my support for Palestine and for trying to protect our student protesters last year from physical attack, by nonviolently subjecting my own body to assault by the Northwestern Police instead of our students.” (Read more at Campus Reform)
The lawsuit, filed on Monday in Manhattan federal court, names Khalil as one of the heads of the anti-Israel protests that engulfed the Morningside Heights campus last year, which the families claimed effectively helped to spread Hamas’ hateful rhetoric (Read more at NYPost).
Morgan Ortagus told Fox News that Biden had made Israel 'fight with one hand tied behind their back' by limiting arms exports. The US is the biggest arms supplier to Israel, accounting for 66 percent of the country's weapons imports between 2020 and 2024, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). In January 2025, weeks before Biden was set to leave office, Washington approved the sale of $20bn in military equipment, including air-to-air missiles, Hellfire missiles, artillery shells and bombs, to Israel. In March, the Trump administration bypassed a normal congressional review to approve a nearly $3bn arms sale to Israel (Read more at Middle East Eye).
A message to the group, from “Michael Waltz,” read as follows: “Team – establishing a principles [sic] group for coordination on Houthis, particularly for over the next 72 hours. My deputy Alex Wong is pulling together a tiger team at deputies/agency Chief of Staff level following up from the meeting in the Sit Room this morning for action items and will be sending that out later this evening.” The message continued, “Pls provide the best staff POC from your team for us to coordinate with over the next couple days and over the weekend. Thx.” (Read more at Atlantic)
A doctor and professor was deported after she returned from a trip to Lebanon despite having a valid U.S. visa, according to a court petition filed on her behalf. Dr. Rasha Alawieh, an assistant professor at Brown Medicine, held an H-1B visa when she traveled to her home country to visit her family. Court documents alleged that upon returning to the United States at the end of last week, she was held at Boston Logan International Airport for 36 hours before she was sent back to Lebanon this weekend in violation of a federal judge’s order to halt her deportation (Read more at NBC News).
Trump warned Iran against supporting the group, declaring, 'America will hold you fully accountable, and we won’t be nice about it!' The unfolding strikes – which one U.S. official told Reuters might continue for weeks – represent the biggest U.S. military operation in the Middle East since Trump took office in January. It came as the United States ramps up sanctions pressure on Tehran while trying to bring it to the negotiating table over its nuclear program (Read more at The Print).
Egypt proposed an alternative to Trump's colonial plan for the US to cease Gaza and deport its Palestinian population, suggesting a $53 billion plan that would be carried out in three phases over 5 years. Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Badr Abdelatty said Palestinian factions have consented to Egypt's proposal to form a non-factional technocratic committee to oversee Gaza as part of the newly ratified Arab-Islamic Gaza reconstruction plan (Read more at Al Ahram).
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday night directed his negotiating team to prepare for renewed hostage-ceasefire talks based on U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff’s proposal that seeks the immediate release of 11 living captives and half of the bodies still being held by Hamas in Gaza. The decision was made following a ministerial meeting in Jerusalem, and amid an apparent impasse in negotiations in Doha (Read more at JNS).
Candidates include Camille Abousleiman, Firas Abi-Nassif, Philippe Jabre. US aims to curb Hezbollah’s influence in Lebanon’s banking. US officials met with some potential candidates in Washington and at the US embassy in Lebanon (Read more at Arabnews).
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a telephonic conversation with the US President Donald Trump has discussed efforts to end the war between Russia and Ukraine and to restore stability in Syria. He told Trump that Turkiye supports his decisive and direct initiatives to end the war between Russia and Ukraine and Ankara will continue to strive for a “just and lasting peace. Erdogan also spoke of “the importance of jointly contributing to the lifting of sanctions on Syria to restore stability, make the new administration functional and support normalization (Source: Radio Pakistan).
Oil prices rose slightly last week, snapping a three-week losing streak caused by concerns over a global economic slowdown driven by escalating trade tensions between the U.S. and other nations. The Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea have disrupted global commerce and set the U.S. military off on a costly campaign to intercept missiles and drones (Read more at CNBC).
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which helped the US defeat Daesh in 2019, has since then been overseeing Ghuwayran prison, Al-Hol camp and Al-Roj camp, which hold about 56,000 Daesh fighters, their wives and their children. Even with US support, the camps and prisons had been starved of sufficient funding and manpower. “In the worst-case scenario, this could lead to security vulnerabilities that Daesh cells may attempt to exploit, particularly as the group remains active in the Syrian desert and continues efforts to infiltrate” northeastern areas controlled by the autonomous administration (Read more at Arabnews).
A senior Hamas official said long-delayed talks over the ceasefire’s second phase would need to begin the day of the release and last no longer than 50 days. Hamas would also demand the release of more Palestinian prisoners in exchange for hostages (Read more at Arabnews).
The US and Israel have contacted officials from Sudan, Somalia and its breakaway region of Somaliland to discuss using their territory for resettling Palestinians from Gaza, the Associated Press reported on Friday, citing US and Israeli officials who confirmed the contacts. Sudan officials said they rejected the proposal by the United States, and officials from Somalia and Somaliland said they were unaware of any contacts (Read more at Arab Weekly).
The White House accused Hamas on Friday of making “entirely impractical” demands and stalling on a deal to release a US-Israeli hostage in exchange for an extension of the Gaza ceasefire. Hamas said earlier on Friday it was ready to free an Israeli-American hostage and the remains of four others, after the Palestinian militants and Israel resumed indirect Gaza ceasefire negotiations (Read more at Defense Post).
US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and National Security Council official Eric Tager presented the proposal in Qatar. The proposal calls for Hamas to continue releasing hostages in exchange for prisoners based on a previously established formula. It also extends the phase-1 ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid to Gaza (Read more at Business Standard).
China and Russia stood by Iran on Friday after the United States demanded nuclear talks with Tehran, with senior Chinese and Russian diplomats saying dialogue should only resume based on “mutual respect” and all sanctions ought to be lifted. In a joint statement issued after talks with Iran in Beijing, Beijing and Moscow also said they welcomed Iran’s reiteration that its nuclear programme was exclusively for peaceful purposes, and that Iran’s right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy should be “fully” respected (Read more at The Print).
So far in March, the UAE exported 68,560.29 metric tons of aluminium to the U.S. before the tariffs kicked in, compared to 16,124.88 metric tons in all of March 2024. The exports in March are already at a nearly two-year high on a monthly basis (Read more at MSN).
The United States imposed sanctions on Thursday on Iran’s oil minister Mohsen Paknejad and some Hong Kong-flagged vessels that are part of a shadow fleet that helps disguise Iranian oil shipments, the Treasury Department said (Read more at Energy Now).
This move comes after a media blitz in which Boehler referred to Hamas as “nice guys” and said he didn’t “really care about” the concerns of Ron Dermer, Israel’s strategic affairs minister. He also stated that the United States was “not an agent of Israel.” A senior U.S. official said Adam Boehler will still work on other Mideast-related matters with Steve Witkoff, U.S. special envoy to the Middle East (Read more at JNS).
At the start of the year, the U.S. government tightened restrictions on the export of artificial intelligence chips, such as those made by Nvidia, while finding ways to block China's access to the advanced technology. Under the regulations, countries such as Japan, Britain, South Korea and the Netherlands would essentially be exempt from the rules while others, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Singapore, will face some caps (Read more at Market Screener).
“If we enter negotiations while the other side is imposing maximum pressure, we will be negotiating from a weak position and will achieve nothing,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said. “The other side must be convinced that the policy of pressure is ineffective; only then can we sit at the negotiating table on equal terms” he added (Read more at Middle East Monitor).
Most major stock markets in the Gulf rose in early trade on Thursday, helped by a cooler-than-expected U.S. inflation print, although uncertainty over tariffs persisted. Monetary policy in the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council is usually guided by the Federal Reserve's decisions, as most regional currencies are pegged to the dollar (Read more at Zawya).
During a meeting at the White House with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin, Trump hammered Democratic Party lawmakers for the response to his March 6 speech to a joint session of Congress. “Schumer is a Palestinian as far as I’m concerned,” Trump said Wednesday. “He’s become a Palestinian. He used to be Jewish. He’s not Jewish anymore. He’s a Palestinian.” (Read more at The Hill)
Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem has welcomed United States President Donald Trump’s apparent retreat from his proposed permanent displacement of more than two million Palestinians from Gaza. The statement by the Hamas official came after Trump said on Wednesday that “nobody is expelling any Palestinians from Gaza” in response to a question during a meeting in the White House with Ireland’s Taoiseach Micheal Martin (Read more at Aljazeera).
Türkiye's national oil company, the Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO), has signed a joint venture agreement with U.S. oil producers Continental Resources and TransAtlantic Petroleum to develop shale fields in the country’s southeastern Diyarbakır province. ürkiye's national oil company, the Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO), has signed a joint venture agreement with U.S. oil producers Continental Resources and TransAtlantic Petroleum to develop shale fields in the country’s southeastern Diyarbakır province (Read more at Daily Sabah).
The deal aims to stitch back together a country fractured by 14 years of war, paving the way for Kurdish-led forces, which hold a quarter of Syria, to merge with Damascus, along with regional Kurdish governing bodies. Key details of how this will happen have yet to be spelled out, however (Read more at Japan Times).
According to the New York Police Department, around 150 individuals dressed in civilian attire entered the Trump Tower – US President Donald Trump's New York residence and a property of the Trump Organization – shortly before noon. Once inside, they removed their outer layers to reveal red T-shirts bearing pro-Palestinian slogans and began a sit-in. Footage from the scene captured protesters seated in the lobby, clapping and chanting "Free Palestine." (Read more at Shine)
US President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs Adam Boehler traveled to Iraq last month to push for the release of Israeli-Russian researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov, who was kidnapped in Iraq nearly two years ago, three sources familiar with the matter said. Since taking office, Boehler has stepped up efforts to secure the release of Tsurkov, a Princeton University student who went missing in Iraq during a research trip in March 2023, publicly urging the Iraqi government to help her get home (Read more at Arabnews).
The Iraqi prime minister's foreign affairs adviser, Farhad Alaaeldin said most Iraqi power plants run on gas from Iran, with 43% of Iraq's electricity generated by the gas imported from its neighbour to the east. Still, the U.S. was encouraging Iraq to secure gas from other sources, Alaaeldin said (Read more at Reuters).
Consultations and coordination on the plan would continue with US special envoy Steve Witkoff as a “basis for the reconstruction efforts” in Gaza, according to a joint statement following a meeting of the foreign ministers in Doha (Read more at Starits Times).
While Araqchi and Gargash were meeting, Khamenei told a group of university students that Trump's offer for talks was "a deception", state media reported. "When we know they won't honour it, what's the point of negotiating? Therefore, the invitation to negotiate ... is a deception of public opinion," Khamenei was quoted as saying by state media. Khamenei said he had not yet seen the letter (Read more at Yahoo News).
Major stock markets in the Gulf fell in early trade on Tuesday, as investors fretted that a wide-ranging trade war could dent U.S. economic growth and lead to a recession. Saudi Arabia's benchmark stock index declined 1.3%, weighed down by a 1.6% slide in Al Rajhi Bank and a 1.9% drop in Saudi National Bank (Read more at Zawya).
The Council on American Islamic Relations said it recorded the highest number of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab complaints, 8,658, in 2024, since it began publishing data in 1996. Most complaints were in the categories of employment discrimination (15.4 percent), immigration and asylum (14.8 percent), education discrimination (9.8 percent) and hate crimes (7.5 percent). (Read more at New Arab)
The program was created after the OHCHR urged a legislative and investigative approach into Iraq’s large quantity of missing persons. The OHCHR attributes the disproportionate number to torture and forced disappearances during the prior Ba’athist regime, the US invasion of Iraq, and ISIS activity within the country (Read more at Jurist News).
"It is unacceptable for us that they (the U.S.) give orders and make threats. I won’t even negotiate with you. Do whatever the hell you want", state media quoted Pezeshkian as saying (Read more at Reuters).
"The United States welcomes the recently announced agreement between the Syrian interim authorities and the Syrian Democratic Forces to integrate the northeast into a unified Syria," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement, referring to the Kurdish-led, US-allied SDF force (Read more at Barrons).
A training (inert) Spike missile was used for the first time with the aircraft flown by a conventional army unit. The Spike offers over four times the range of the Hellfire missile at 32 kilometers (20 miles). Its seeker and wireless data link provide the operator with real-time video imagery and man-in-the-loop control throughout flight, with mid-flight retargeting and mission-abort (Read more at Defense Post).
The Proportion of Americans who sympathise with the Palestinians is at its highest since Gallup started collecting data. Only 46 percent of Americans polled said their sympathies are with the Israelis rather than the Palestinians during Israel’s current assault on Gaza. The second lowest approval rating was 51 percent in 2001, a year after the Second Intifada (Read more at Middle East Eye).
1.8 million famine-affected people are now being denied food. In warehouses across Africa, food shipped from the United States intended for the starving people of war-torn Sudan is sitting rotting, its fate unknown (Read more at Middle East Eye).
President says in post his administration ‘will not tolerate’ actions of protesters at Columbia and other US universities. Trump added: “Many are not students, they are paid agitators. We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country – never to return again (Read more at Guardian).
President Donald Trump's hostage envoy Adam Boehler's direct meetings with Palestinian militant group Hamas on the release of hostages in Gaza was a "one-off situation" and as of now "hasn't borne fruit," U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said. "That was a one-off situation in which our special envoy for hostages, whose job it is to get people released, had an opportunity to talk directly to someone who has control over these people and was given permission and encouraged to do so. He did so," he added (Read more at Reuters).
Baghdad is looking to Qatar and Oman as possible options. Baghdad currently receives up to 50 million cubic metres of gas per day from Iran depending on its needs under a five-year deal extension signed in March 2024. Iraq pays $4-5 billion per year to Iran for gas imports (Read more at Yahoo News)
In a statement posted on X, the country’s U.N. mission said: “If the objective of negotiations is to address concerns vis-à-vis any potential militarization of Iran’s nuclear program, such discussions may be subject to consideration.” “However, should the aim be the dismantlement of Iran’s peaceful nuclear program to claim that what Obama failed to achieve has now been accomplished, such negotiations will never take place,” Iran’s mission said (Read more at Live5news).
Federal immigration authorities arrested a Palestinian activist Saturday who played a prominent role in Columbia University’s protests against Israel, a significant escalation in the Trump administration’s pledge to detain and deport student activists. Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student at Columbia until this past December, was inside his university-owned apartment Saturday night when several Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents entered and took him into custody (Read more at AP).
White House envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to travel to Doha on Tuesday evening in an effort to broker a new hostage-release and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. The talks would be the first since President Trump took office and since the original agreement between Israel and Hamas that established a 42-day ceasefire in Gaza (Read more at Axios)
Boehler said his meetings with Hamas leaders in recent days were designed to pinpoint what the group's end game was with the goal of bringing hostilities to a close. He did not rule out additional encounters with the Palestinian militant group (Read more at Reuters).
“Michel is an outstanding businessman, a financial expert, and a leader with a remarkable career in Banking, Entrepreneurship, and International Trade,” Trump said on Truth Social. He succeeds Ambassador Lisa A. Johnson in this position. Born in Bsees, Aley district, Issa lived in Beirut in his early childhood then moved to France and studied economics at the University of Paris. He completed the prestigious postgraduate course at banking institutes while embarking on a twenty-year career at UBAF- Chase Manhattan Bank- Banque Indosuez and Credit Agricole (Read more at Yalibnan).
"Some bullying countries insist on talks not to resolve issues but to impose their demands...we will certainly not accept their demands", the Iranian leader said in a meeting with senior officials (Read more at Axios).
Other graffiti that read “Free Gaza” was spotted on part of a building at Trump Turnberry. On X, the activist group issued a threat to the president. “Whilst Trump attempts to treat Gaza as his property, he should know his own property is within reach,” the post said (Read more at News Nation Now).
"There are two ways Iran can be handled, militarily or you make a deal. I would prefer to make a deal," Trump said. He added, "I would rather negotiate a deal. I'm not sure that everybody agrees with me, but we can make a deal that would be just as good as if you won militarily," Trump said. "But the time is happening now, the time is coming up. Something is going to happen one way or the other. I hope that Iran, and I've written them a letter, saying I hope you're going to negotiate because if we have to go in militarily it's going to be a terrible thing for them." (Read more at ABCNews)
Israel's concerns over the Trump administration's secret negotiations with Hamas erupted in a contentious call Tuesday between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-hand man and the U.S. official leading the talks. When Trump aides sounded out Israeli officials in early February about the possibility of engaging directly with Hamas, the Israelis advised them not to do it — particularly not without preconditions. Israel found out through other channels that the U.S. was moving ahead anyway (Read more at Axios).
The “Catch and Revoke” project, launched by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, will see "AI-assisted reviews of tens of thousands of student visa holders' social media accounts [and] marks a dramatic escalation in the US government's policing of foreign nationals' conduct and speech”. Rubio took to X on Thursday to announce measures against students, saying the US has “zero tolerance for foreign visitors who support terrorists. Violators of US law”. According to reports, the State Department has already revoked the visa of one unidentified student (Read more at Middle East Eye).
If the war in Ukraine ends and Trump lifts sanctions on Russia, he could dent some of the Gulf states' economic activity. The United Arab Emirates and Russia were deepening ties before the Biden administration slapped sanctions on Russia. But after that, the UAE became a hub for re-exporting sanctioned goods (Read more at Middle East Eye).
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Wednesday said they agreed to strengthen dialogue and enhance collaboration in a meeting Wednesday focused on the two countries' economic partnership. "This is a critical time to shape a new strategic economic future for both countries, reinforcing American global leadership and Israel's role as a key economic partner," the two men said in a joint statement released by the Treasury (Read more at AOL).
Militant group accuses the US president of seeking to undermine deal with his ultimatum for release of hostages. The militant Islamist organisation said Trump’s threats constituted support for attempts by the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to back out of the ceasefire agreement (Read more at Guardian).
Witkoff told reporters at the White House that gaining the release of Edan Alexander, the 21-year-old man from New Jersey believed to be the last living American hostage held by Hamas in Gaza, is a "top priority for us." Witkoff said he will travel to the Middle East next week with stops planned in four countries. Witkoff also said the U.S. does not believe Hamas has been forthright (Read more at Reuters).
“It may seem like he makes empty threats,” Boehler told anchor Shannon Bream on “Fox News Sunday.” “Until he carries out the threat. And then it’s not so empty. And then you’re dead.” (Read more at Politico)
The U.S. is reviewing all existing sanctions waivers that provide Iran any degree of economic relief, and urging the Iraqi government to eliminate its dependence on Iranian sources of energy as soon as possible (Read more at US News).
Israel and the US conducted a joint air force drill in the Eastern Mediterranean that included long-range bombers, as some analysts warned that the window for US President Donald Trump to engage Iran on a nuclear deal is closing. Israeli F-35 and F-15 jet fighters took part in drills in the Eastern Mediterranean alongside a US B-52, a long-range strategic bomber, the Israeli army said in a statement on Thursday. The US has long used B-52 bombers, which are capable of carrying bombs to strike Iran’s underground nuclear facilities, as a show of force against Tehran during times of tension (Read more at Middle East Eye).
The Kremlin said today that future talks between Russia and the United States would include discussions on Iran’s nuclear programme, a subject it said had been “touched upon” in an initial round of US-Russia talks last month (Read more at Middle East Monitor).
Saudi Arabia's benchmark stock index dropped 0.4%. Also, Dubai's main share index fell 0.4%. Elsewhere, blue-chip developer Emaar Properties was down 0.4% and Emirates Central Cooling Systems Corp retreated 1.2% (Read more at Market Screener).
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said "the Houthis' activities threaten the security of American civilians and personnel in the Middle East, the safety of our closest regional partners, and the stability of global maritime trade. The United States will not tolerate any country engaging with terrorist organisations like the Houthis in the name of practising legitimate international business," (Read more at Straits Times)
President Trump told Hamas he will greenlight additional Israeli military strikes on Gaza unless the group releases its remaining hostages. Trump issued the ultimatum after a meeting with six hostages who were released as part of the first phase of the ceasefire deal. Among the remaining hostages are five Americans, including 21-year-old Edan Alexander who is believed to be alive (Read more at Axios).
It occurred over the release of U.S. hostages held in Gaza and the possibility of a broader deal to end the war. The talks — held by U.S. presidential envoy for hostage affairs Adam Boehler — are unprecedented. The U.S. had never before engaged directly with Hamas, which it designated a terrorist organization in 1997 (Read more at Axios).
If the Arab summit’s counter-proposal was intended to assert regional agency over Gaza’s future, the US-Israeli response left little doubt as to who still holds the reins. Will Arab states be able to withstand the relentless push of the American-Israeli agenda, which seeks to shape not just the geography of Gaza, but its very identity and political direction? (Read more at Middle East Eye).
The waiver suggests the Trump administration intends to try to strengthen Lebanon's military and the new government that took office in January. The aid is part of a broader Trump administration strategy to try to continue weakening Hezbollah, decreasing its influence in Lebanon and making sure the ceasefire with Israel holds (Read more at Axios).
Trump expressed an interest to work with Iran on both nuclear matters and Tehran's support for anti-U.S. proxies in the Middle East during a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin last month. Trump administration officials also discussed communicating with Iran in a meeting with their Russian counterparts at a summit in Saudi Arabia last month (Read more at Newsweek)
The draft said the board would comprise key Arab countries, members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the United States, Britain, the European Union and its member states, and others. The Egyptian draft does not tackle the issue of what actions could be taken if Hamas refuses to disarm or step aside from politics (Read more at Arabnews).
They discussed the state of the region, including the ceasefire agreement in Gaza, the need to secure the release of all hostages, efforts to sustain assistance flows into Gaza, Syria’s political future, and the cessation of hostilities in Lebanon. The Secretary also discussed the importance of permanently ending unlawful Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways (Read more at US Department of State Website).
U.S. President Donald Trump has invited Eli Sharabi and other Israeli freed hostages to a meeting at the White House after viewing portions of Sharabi’s testimony regarding his time in captivity. The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday. Sharabi, 52, who was released by Hamas on Feb. 8 after 491 days in captivity in Gaza, has become a leading voice among the freed hostages. His emotional account of his time in captivity has gained international attention (Read more at JNS).
Israel has agreed to a new U.S. proposal to extend the first phase of the ceasefire in Gaza in exchange for the release of about half of the remaining hostages — both living and dead — but Hamas has so far refused to accept it, the Prime Minister's Office claimed in a statement. Hamas has in recent days said the original agreement needs to be implemented. According to the deal, the ceasefire would continue as long as negotiations on the second phase of the deal were taking place. But there are currently no active negotiations and the fighting in Gaza could resume as soon as Sunday (Read more at Axios).
They accused the United States of blocking a solution. Despite winning top prizes in Europe and the United States, the film has yet to reach a deal for U.S. distribution, Abraham told Deadline last month. Asked why he thought U.S. distributors had passed on the film, Abraham told Deadline: “I believe it’s clear that it’s for political reasons. I hope that it will change." He said they decided not to wait on the theatrical release and released it in almost 100 theaters independently (Read more at USNews).
The US State Department told Congress on Friday that it plans to sell nearly $3 billion in weapons to Israel, including thousands of bombs and $295 million worth of armored bulldozers that had been held up by the previous administration over human rights concerns that US President Donald Trump has largely eschewed. The prospective weapons sales were notified to US Congress on an emergency basis, meaning they will not be subject to review by the House and Senate’s foreign relations committees (Read more at Times of Israel).
Israel works to counter Turkey's growing influence in Syria by lobbying the United States to keep it weak and decentralised, including by letting Russia keep its military bases in the country. Syria's new leadership is in talks with Russia over the fate of the military bases. Some experts say that the new U.S. President Donald Trump could be more open to Russia staying in Syria than his predecessor, Joe Biden. According to the report, Biden's administration considered offering to ease the sanctions on Syria in exchange for closing Russia's two military bases (Read more at Kyivindipendent).
"We have been forced to suspend or cut back or drastically reduce many of our programmes and that includes nutrition programmes," UNICEF's deputy representative in Lebanon, Ettie Higgins said. "The assessment revealed a grim picture of children’s nutrition situation, particularly in the Baalbeck and Bekaa governorates, which remained densely populated when they were repeatedly targeted by air strikes", said Higgins (Read more at Reuters).
Trump was asked whether phase two would come to fruition. "We'll see what happens. Nobody really knows, but we'll see what happens," he said at a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. "We have some pretty good talks going on." (Read more at Yahoo News)
Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy to the Middle East, said on Tuesday that removing Hamas from power in Gaza was a “red line” for the Trump administration as Israel and Hamas prepare for the next round of ceasefire negotiations. Speaking at the launch of the American Jewish Committee’s Center for a New Middle East in Washington, Witkoff told attendees that “Phase 2” of those negotiations could begin as soon as Sunday (Read more at Israel Today).
Qatar is holding off providing Syria's new rulers with funds to increase public sector pay due to uncertainty over whether the transfers would breach US sanctions. While the previous US administration issued a sanctions exemption on January 6 to allow transactions with Syria's governing institutions for six months, Qatar does not see this as enough to cover payments it would need to make via the central bank to finance the salary increase (Read more at Business Standard).
The Kremlin last year described relations as "below zero" under the administration of Joe Biden, who backed Ukraine with aid and weapons and imposed waves of sanctions on Russia to punish it for its invasion in 2022. The Russian team arrived in a black Mercedes van for the meeting at the gated residence of the U.S. consul general in Istanbul. Russian state TV said the talks were expected to last five to six hours (Read more at Reuters).
"Iran continues to try to find new ways to procure the key components it needs to bolster its UAV weapons program through new front companies and third-country suppliers," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. Iran's mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for China's embassy in Washington, said China and Iran's cooperation was "reasonable and legal". "China has always firmly opposed the illegal unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States and will firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of its enterprises and citizens," he said (Read more at AOL).
Smotrich was invited by Bessent in a call two weeks ago. It would mark the first in-person talks between Smotrich, a fervent settler advocate at the helm of Israel’s settlement planning apparatus, and a Trump administration official — and it could have major implications for U.S. policy toward the settlements, which the international community largely considers illegal (Read more at ABC News).
Critics say the video, set to upbeat music with lyrics proclaiming “Trump Gaza is finally here,” portrays a vision of the region that erases its current destruction and suffering while proposing an American-led redevelopment project (Read more at Euronews).
Hunter College faculty and staff union condemns Kathy Hochul’s order to take down listing, calling it ‘overreach of authority’. In the job listing, Hunter College wrote that the institution is seeking “a historically grounded scholar who takes a critical lens to issues pertaining to Palestine including but not limited to: settler colonialism, genocide, human rights, apartheid, migration, climate and infrastructure devastation, health, race, gender, and sexuality”. (Read more at Guardian)
On 23 January, faculty and staff from the City University of New York’s Professional Staff Congress (PSC) union voted 73-70 in favour of a resolution to divest from Israeli companies and government bonds and recommended the teachers’ pension divest $100m from Israeli companies and bonds. However, less than a month after the resolution passed, union leadership organised a re-vote on the divestment resolution - which led to a 113-63 vote against it on 20 February (Read more at Middle East Eye).
Two Barnard College students were expelled for disrupting a class at Columbia University on the history of modern Israel, in what appear to be the first expulsions for pro-Palestinian activism on the campus since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks (Read more at NY Daily News).
Sources at the Pentagon on Monday said the two sides also discussed security measures against Iran. Asked if the US would help defend Saudi Arabia against an attack by Iran, Hegseth confirmed the two allies were discussing the issue (Read more at Arab Weekly).
The US sanctioned 30 persons and vessels for their role in brokering the sale and transportation of Iranian petroleum-related products. Oil brokers in the UAE and Hong Kong and the head of Iran’s National Iranian Oil Company were also targeted (Read more at News18).
The trial began on Tuesday for a killing that marked one of the earliest and worst alleged hate crime incidents in the United States since the eruption of U.S. ally Israel's military assault on Gaza after an October 2023 attack by Hamas. The family's landlord, Joseph Czuba, 73, was charged with murder and hate crimes and had earlier pleaded not guilty (Read more at MSN).
Iran will not engage in direct talks with the United States on his country’s nuclear programme amid US President Donald Trump’s policy of “maximum pressure” against it, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said. His remarks came a day after the US imposed a fresh round of sanctions targeting Iran’s oil industry, the Iran’s main source of income (Read more at Aljazeera).
The United States and Israel also shared the company of North Korea, Belarus and Eritrea. The General Assembly adopted a European Union-backed resolution, which calls for de-escalation of the Russia-Ukraine war, an early cessation of hostilities and a peaceful resolution. The vote was 93-18 with 65 abstentions (Read more at JNS).
A US-based human rights group has formally submitted a referral at the International Criminal Court (ICC) against former US President Joe Biden and members of his administration for their complicity in Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. In a statement on Monday, Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn) called for a formal investigation into the actions of Biden, former Secretary of State Antony Blinken, former Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin, and other US officials (Read more at Middle East Eye).
US National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said Sunday that the White House supports Israel's decision to delay releasing 620 Palestinian prisoners as part of a ceasefire agreement with Hamas. President Donald Trump is prepared to support Israel in "whatever course of action it chooses regarding Hamas," Hughes said (Read more at Anadolu Ajansı).
prices edged higher on Monday as fresh US sanctions on Iran and a commitment to compensate for overproduction by Iraq added to concerns of near-term supply tightness, helping the market recover some of Friday's steep losses (Read more at Khaleej Times).
The United States imposed a fresh round of sanctions targeting Iran's oil industry on Monday, hitting more than 30 brokers, tanker operators, and shipping companies for their role in selling and transporting Iranian petroleum, the Treasury Department said (Read more at Reuters).
Yemen’s Houthis launched surface-to-air missiles at an American fighter jet and MQ-9 Reaper drone this week, but did not hit either. The Houthis have carried out more than 100 attacks on ships off Yemen since November 2023 in support of Gaza’s Palestinian militants fighting Israel, disrupting global shipping (Read more at Arabnews).
The three-stage ceasefire which came into effect on January 19 is now nearing the end of its first phase. "We have to get an extension of phase one. I'll be going to the region this week, probably Wednesday, to negotiate that and we are hopeful that we have the proper time to begin phase two and finish it off and get more hostages released," President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff said (Read more at Reuters).
The embassy stated, “Following the February 20 explosions on public buses, and out of an abundance of caution, the US Embassy is temporarily prohibiting US government employees and their family members from using public buses and the light rail across Israel for 14 days... the security environment is complex and can change quickly.” (Read more at Shafaq)
A group of American Christian leaders are publicly reaffirming the Jewish people’s right to the biblical heartland of Israel, ahead of a key U.S. decision on Israeli sovereignty over the territory. The declaration will be made public at the annual National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Dallas (Read more at JNS).
Attorney General Pam Bondi said anti-Israel student protesters who are in the United States on visas and threatening American students "need to be kicked out of the country." "All of our students deserve to be safe," Bondi said on Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) near Washington, D.C., while joining the stage with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz (Read more at AOL).
Gilad Erdan, the former Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations, called on U.S. President Donald Trump to pressure Qatar to take in all the residents of the Gaza Strip, instead of Jordan and Egypt (Read more at JNS).
U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is piling pressure on Iraq to allow Kurdish oil exports to restart or face sanctions alongside Iran. A speedy resumption of exports from Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region would help to offset a potential fall in Iranian oil exports, which Washington has pledged to cut to zero as part of Trump's "maximum pressure" campaign against Tehran (Read more at AOL).
The leaders of Gulf Arab states are expected to strategize with their Egyptian and Jordanian counterparts Friday in an effort to counter U.S. President Donald Trump’s controversial proposal to redevelop the Gaza Strip under U.S. control and displace its Palestinian residents. The meeting in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, is in preparation for a broader Arab League summit in Egypt on March 4 (Read more at Japan Times).
Attendees at the CPAC conference heard U.S. Vice President JD Vance tell hostage families that “our message is that President Trump loves you. He hasn’t forgotten your loved ones.” (Read more at JNS)
"When the president talks about this, it means he wants to shake up everyone's thinking and think about what is compelling and what is the best solution for the Palestinian and Gazan people who live there," US Middle East envoy Steven Witkoff added (Read more at Anadolu Ajansı).
It is part of the global freeze on US foreign aid. It comes at a critical time as the PA struggles to maintain stability in the occupied West Bank and prepare for a potential role in governing Gaza. While some international donors have stepped in to offset the shortfall, a Palestinian security training official revealed that certain programs have already been cancelled, and a planned security meeting with US officials regarding operations in Jenin has been postponed (Read more at New Arab).
Turkey has started to export masses of eggs to the US this month in response to an outbreak of bird flu across the Atlantic. The shipments began this month and will continue until July, under a preliminary agreement, he added (Read more at Euronews).
Hundreds of pro-Palestine people attended a demonstration organised by the Palestinian Assembly for Liberation-Awda (Pal-Awda) on Tuesday in New York City's borough of Brooklyn to protest against a real estate event advertising land for sale in occupied Palestine, with protests turning violent (Read more at Middle East Eye).
The security assistance that has been suspended to the PA is from the State Department and Department of Defence. “Most of the PA’s aid doesn’t come from the State Department. It comes from the CIA. Last I heard, they haven’t changed their policy on the PA.” (Read more at Middle East Eye)
U.S. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham dismissed President Donald Trump's proposal to seize Gaza and force out the Palestinians, while Democrat Senator Richard Blumenthal said he expects Arab states to put forward a workable alternative. Graham, a longtime ally of Trump and a key Republican in Congress with influence on foreign policy and national security matters, told reporters there was little appetite in the Senate "for America to take over Gaza in any way, shape or form." (Read more at AOL)
In an arrest report, police alleged that Brafman had “spontaneously stated that while he was driving his truck, he saw two Palestinians and shot and killed both” (Read more at Aljazeera).
The Trump administration welcomed on Wednesday Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's decision to revoke the system of payments to families of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails or to families of Palestinians who were killed or wounded during attacks against Israelis (Read more at Axios).
"Trump's plan regarding Gaza is the only one that can guarantee security for the residents of the south and the State of Israel after the lessons learned from the events of Oct. 7," said the Israeli defense minister (Read more at JNS).
“All options are on the table” to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, U.S. National Security Advisor Michael Waltz said on Sunday. U.S. President Donald Trump is “deadly serious when he says Iran can never have a nuke, and certainly not on President Trump’s watch,” Waltz told Fox News Sunday when asked about a potential U.S. military action against Tehran’s nuclear project (Read more at JNS).
In the wake of the U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit to the Jewish state this week, Netanyahu noted that he had cultivated his ties with Republican leaders not in a partisan way, but in “a Zionist way.” (Read more at JNS)
US Central Command (CENTCOM) said it conducted the strike Saturday in Northwest Syria targeting and killing a senior finance and logistics official in the terrorist organization Hurras al-Din (HaD), an Al-Qaeda affiliate (Read more at France 24).
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday, during talks with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, that any deal on the future of war-torn Gaza must boost regional security, the US State Department said (Read more at France 24).
The comments came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Jerusalem yesterday and said their countries were determined to thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions and its influence in the Middle East (Read more at Middle East Monitor).
He told Fox News that he had “very productive and constructive” calls on Sunday with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani and Egypt’s director of intelligence. Witkoff said they spoke about “the sequencing of phase two, setting forth positions on both sides, so we can understand ... where we are today, and then continuing talks this week at a location to be determined so that we can figure out how we get to the end of phase two successfully.” (Read more at Arabnews)
Iraq's central bank will ban five more local banks from engaging in U.S. dollar transactions, a move that comes after meetings with U.S. Treasury officials in efforts to combat money laundering, dollar smuggling and other violations (Read more at Market Screener).
Israel and the United States are both determined to thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions and its “aggression” in the Middle East, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Feb 16 following a meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (Read more at Strait Times).
It is not clear whether Trump is going to accept the release of only three hostages or call for the end of the ceasefire when his demand isn't met. Other than Dekel-Chen, Hamas is still holding five American hostages. One, Edan Alexander, is still alive (Read more at Axios).
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Palestinians should be given the choice to leave Gaza. Speaking to Jewish American organisations gathered in Jerusalem, Netanyahu again praised US President Donald Trump's plan to forcibly displace Palestinians from Gaza. "Give them a choice. Not forcible eviction. Not ethnic cleansing," he said (Read more at Middle East Eye).
An aide close to Zelenskyy said that as of Saturday evening, Ukraine has still not been invited to the peace talks between the U.S. and Russia in Saudi Arabia (Read more at NBC News).
Erdogan said he expected President Trump to realize his election campaign promises of taking measures for peace, rather than creating new conflicts. The Turkish president said he saw no real signs of a ceasefire in Gaza despite a truce deal between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas (Read more at Diplomatic Insight).
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s intention from day one of his "revenge" attack on Gaza, launched 16 months ago, was either ethnic cleansing or genocide in Gaza. His ally in genocide for the next 15 months was former US President Joe Biden. His ally in ethnic cleansing is current US President Donald Trump (Read more at Middle East Eye).
Elon Musk's The Boring Company and Dubai's Road and Transport Authority (RTA) have signed an initial agreement to build the Dubai Loop, an underground high-speed transport network spanning 17km (Read more at Daily Maverick).
The draft ideas will be discussed at a regional meeting in Riyadh this month. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, or MbS, had warm relations with Trump during the first administration and he's central to Arab ties in the new Trump era. But the kingdom was angered by the U.S. president's Gaza idea, which nixes its demand for a clear path to Palestinian statehood in return for normalizing Saudi ties with Israel (Read more at Yahoo News).
USAID distributes billions of dollars of aid worldwide. Trump has ordered a freeze on most U.S. foreign aid. Aid cuts could destabilise Al-Hol, Roj camps. People suspected of IS affiliation are held at the camps (Read more at Reuters).
The ministry said it "commends the phone call" between Trump and Putin and the "possibility" of hosting a summit in the kingdom (Read more at Moscow Times).
"I don’t know what’s going to happen at 12 o’clock. If it was up to me, I’d take a very hard stance. I can’t tell you what Israel is going to do," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Anadolu Ajansı).
Russia shipped a diesel cargo to the Syrian Arab Republic onboard a tanker under US sanctions, the first known such direct supply to the Middle Eastern country in more than a decade. The Barbados-flagged vessel Prosperity was loaded with about 37,000 metric tons of ultra-low sulfur diesel. The tanker is anchored near the Syrian port of Banias (Read more Arab News).
The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) was involved in a collision with the merchant vessel Besiktas-M at approximately 11:46 p.m. local time, Feb. 12, while operating in the vicinity of Port Said, Egypt, in the Mediterranean Sea. There are no reports of injuries, nor is there flooding, aboard the carrier, which carries a crew of 5,000 sailors, and the incident is under investigation. The aircraft carrier and its strike group had been operating in the Red Sea since mid-December as part of the mission to thwart Houthi militant attacks launched from Yemen at commercial vessels transiting the vital waterway (Read more at ABC News).
Any Arab citizen with a shred of personal dignity left must have felt deeply embarrassed upon watching the interaction unfold in the Oval Office on Tuesday, when Trump received King Abdullah of Jordan. To influence the US decision-making process on the Middle East, Arab monarchies must coordinate their strategies and speak with one voice. There is a golden rule to follow when Trump speaks: never take his words at face value. For him, everything and its opposite can be true; we are in a post-truth era. There is thus a thin ray of hope that he does not really mean what he says (Read more at Middle East Eye).
The trip will center on freeing American and all other hostages from Hamas captivity, advancing to Phase II of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza, and countering the destabilizing activities of the Iranian regime and its proxies (Read more at State Department Website).
The US says it has shouldered the burden of Syria camps for too long. The US urges countries to quickly repatriate nationals. Al-Hol camp is widely viewed as a breeding ground for extremism (Read more at Reuters).
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Russia's sovereign wealth fund chief Kirill Dmitriev were involved in negotiations over the release of U.S. teacher Marc Fogel from a Russian prison. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who visited Saudi Arabia in 2023, said last September that he was grateful to Mohammed bin Salman for his role in the previous exchange (Read more at AOL).
In remarks made during the World Government Summit in Dubai, the UAE ambassador to the US, Yousef Al-Otaiba acknowledged the complexity of the situation, stating, “But at the end of the day, we’re all in a solution-seeking business, we just don’t know where it’s going to land yet.” During the same summit, UAE President Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan engaged in discussions with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, emphasizing the importance of a two-state solution (Read more at Roya News).
US sanctions on Russia, and Iran tighten oil tanker availability. Iran floating storage at over one-year high, January exports up for 2nd month. Iran's crude discount shrinks to the narrowest in several years. Russian oil on water jumps after January 10 sanctions (Read more at Reuters).
Egypt has said Trump had extended an open invitation to Sisi to visit the White House earlier this month. Egypt’s President, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, will not travel to Washington for talks at the White House as long as the agenda includes US President Donald Trump’s plan to displace Palestinians from Gaza. Jordan’s King Abdullah appeared uncomfortable during a meeting with Trump at the White House on Tuesday, at which Trump discussed his Gaza plan (Read more at Middle East Monitor).
Among other attendees poised to attend the Miami summit are TikTok CEO, Shou Zi Chew, Oracle CEO Safra Catz, as well as Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the $925 billion Saudi Public Investment Fund, according to the FII website. The public website does not list Trump as an attendee (Read more at Middle East Monitor).
Speaking alongside the Arab country's ruler in the White House, Trump signalled he would not budge on his idea that involves moving the Gaza Strip's shell-shocked residents. Trump has infuriated the Arab world by saying that Palestinians would not be able to return to their homes under his proposal to redevelop the enclave. King Abdullah said later that he reiterated to Trump Jordan's "steadfast position" against the displacement of Palestinians (Read more at Business Standard).
Sitting alongside King Abdullah of Jordan in the Oval Office, in true Trumpian fashion, he still insisted he would take over the Gaza Strip using an unspecified “US authority.” “I think we have to keep in mind that there is a plan from Egypt and the Arab countries,” Abdullah said when prompted to speak by the president. “We're being invited by [Crown Prince] Mohammed bin Salman to discussions in Riyadh. I think the point is, how do we make this work in a way that is good for everybody? Obviously, we have to look at the best interests of the United States, of the people in the region, especially to my people of Jordan.” The king praised Trump for his work on ensuring the ceasefire came to fruition and said as an immediate humanitarian gesture, Amman will accept 2,000 children from Gaza who have cancer or other pressing ailments for treatment (Read more at Middle East Eye).
Any act of aggression will have severe consequences, Iran's UN ambassador has asserted, in response to Trump's recent remarks to the New York Post (Read more at Almayadeen).
Egypt's foreign ministry said Abdelatty, in a meeting in Washington, stressed the importance of achieving "a just and lasting peace that ensures Palestinians’ rights, including the establishment of an independent state on their entire national territory”. A statement by the US State Department after the meeting did not explicitly mention Trump's plan but added that Rubio "reiterated the importance of close cooperation to advance post-conflict planning for the governance and security of Gaza" and said "Hamas can never govern Gaza again" (Read more at Middle East Eye).
“Trump says, 'We want to talk', and then he signs in a memorandum all the conspiracies to bring our revolution to its knees,” Mr Pezeshkian said, referring to Mr Trump's reinstatement of sanctions against Tehran this month. “If the US were sincere about negotiations, why did they sanction us?” he added, saying it was Israel, not Iran, destabilising the Middle East. "They spread propaganda that the country has been weak. We are strong. We never bow to the foreigners." (Read more at The National)
President Trump on Sunday said he was losing patience with the cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas after seeing footage of the Palestinian terrorists releasing Israeli hostages over the weekend, whose appearance he compared to Holocaust survivors. “They look like Holocaust survivors. They were in horrible condition. They were emaciated,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on his way to New Orleans to attend the Super Bowl. “I don’t know how much longer we can take that … at some point we’re going to lose our patience.” (Read more at AOL)
US president says other countries in the Middle East could be tasked with rebuilding parts of the war-ravaged enclave (Read more at Aljazeera).
Trump made similar comments on his social media portal Truth Social, saying that wants Iran to “peacefully grow and prosper.” “Reports that the United States, working in conjunction with Israel, is going to blow Iran into smithereens, ARE GREATLY EXAGGERATED,” he posted (Read more at JNS).
The rial plunged to 892,500 to the dollar on the unofficial market on Saturday. Facing an official inflation rate of about 35%, Iranians seeking safe havens for their savings have been buying dollars, other hard currencies, gold or cryptocurrencies, suggesting further headwinds for the rial. The dollar has been gaining against the rial since trading around 690,000 rials at the time of Trump's re-election in November amid concerns that Trump would re-impose his "maximum pressure" policy against Iran with tougher sanctions and empower Israel to strike Iranian nuclear sites (Read more at USNews).
U.S. credit card giant American Express identified and closed 30 consumer accounts in 2024 that it said could have had ties to the Government of Iran. The accounts were only used for personal expenses, AmEx said in a regulatory filing on Friday. It also ended its relationship with a third-party ATM network provider, which was connected to an Iranian bank sanctioned by the U.S. government (Read more at Market Screener).
The Department of Defense announced that the State Department had approved a package for Israel worth an estimated $6.75 billion that included munitions, guidance kits and fuses with Boeing Co among the principal contractors. Democratic lawmakers requested that the sale be paused until he received more information (Read more at Ammon News).
President Donald Trump and officials close to him recently expressed interest in pulling U.S. troops out of Syria, leading Pentagon officials to begin drawing up plans for a full withdrawal in 30, 60 or 90 days (Read more at NBC News).
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei has strongly condemned a new round of sanctions imposed by the United States on a dozen people and firms that Washington says facilitate Iranian oil shipments. Baghaei said the new sanctions were “entirely illegitimate” and “in contravention of international rules and regulations.” (Read more at IRNA)
