Last week, a Pakistani-American delegation arrived in Israel, perhaps for the first time ever. Israelis lionised the visitors. They viewed it as yet another sign that the normalisation process set in motion by the Abraham Accords was succeeding. Arab s…
Saudi team working on Israel deal in Istanbul: report
A popular and anonymous Twitter user has made claims that a Saudi royal official is working in Turkey to promote normalisation with Israel. The Twitter user, who goes by the name @Mujjtahid and has over 2.3 million followers, claimed the formal advisor…
What Biden’s visit could mean for US-Saudi ties
At a Democratic primary debate in 2019, Joe Biden addressed the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and the war in Yemen by vowing to turn Saudi Arabia into a “pariah”. He was addressing his constituents in the Democratic Party. Among American liberals, anti-Sau…
Qatar to reinstall Zidane headbutt statue for 2022 World Cup
Qatar is aiming to put a controversial statue of Zinedine Zidane’s notorious 2006 World Cup final headbutt on display for this year’s tournament, authorities said on Monday. The five metre (16 feet) high bronze showing the French legend in confrontatio…
Is a wheat crisis looming for a food scarce Middle East?
As the world’s second-largest wheat-producing country, India had planned to export nearly 10 million tonnes of wheat to new customers in Europe, Asia and Africa in 2022-2023. Offering to help all the countries facing a food crisis, India’s prime minist…
Meet Azad Muhamad, the celebrity gardener of Iraqi Kurdistan
When The New Arab first arrived at Azad’s farm near Halabja, he was deep in conversation with local blacksmiths to help construct a new structure for his beloved fruit trees. Yet as Azad would later tell us, these aren’t just any normal fruit trees, bu…
BBC says made error in deleting chant from Flag March story
The BBC said it made an editorial error when it deleted now-reincluded information about Israelis chanting “Death to Arabs” from an online article about a far-right rally in Jerusalem last month. The story stated that a “group of Israeli marchers” were…
Tunisia expert drafting constitution: no Islam reference
The man charged by President Kais Saied with rewriting Tunisia’s constitution said Monday he would present a draft stripped of any reference to Islam in order to fight Islamist parties. The first article of a constitution adopted three years after the …
UK PM Johnson survives Tory MPs’ no-confidence vote
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday survived a vote of no confidence from his own Conservative MPs, after a string of scandals that have left the party’s standing in tatters. Just over two years after he won a landslide general election vict…
Sudan protesters blockade roads to key Red Sea port
Sudanese protesters on Monday blocked main roads leading to the crucial Red Sea port to protest a 2020 peace deal, demanding parts relating to their eastern region be scrapped. In October 2020, several rebel groups signed a landmark accord with a milit…