Middle East Monitor

Tony Blair Confirms Receiving Millions in Donations From Saudi Arabia

The Tony Blair Institute wrote flattering articles about Bin Salman during the crown prince’s visit to the UK early this year.

Middle East Monitor
By Middle East Monitor
In this photo released by Saudi News Agency, Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, right receives Mideast envoy Tony Blair, the ex-prime minister of Britain after his arrival in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia Monday, Sept. 3, 2007. (AP Photo/Saudi News Agency)

Tony Blair’s relationship with Saudi Arabia has come under scrutiny following the revelation that the non-government organisation set up under his name has received millions of pounds from Riyadh. Accounts published yesterday by the Tony Blair Institute confirmed earlier reports that Blair had received donations of up to $12 million from the

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Netanyahu Responds to Paraguay Moving its Embassy Back to Tel Aviv From Jerusalem

Netanyahu ordered the closure of Israel’s embassy in Paraguay hours after the Latin American nation’s new government announced it would move its embassy back to Tel Aviv.

Middle East Monitor
By Middle East Monitor
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs the weekly cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem, Feb. 11, 2018. (Ronen Zvulun,AP)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the closure of Israel’s embassy in Paraguay on Wednesday, hours after the Latin American nation’s new government announced it would move its embassy back to Tel Aviv from Jerusalem, Reuters reports. Paraguay’s decision was a blow to Israel’s efforts to achieve external recognition of Jerusalem as

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Israel Plans to Sell Freedom Flotilla Boats, Give Money to Illegal Settlers

The move came in response to the Israeli Central Court’s decision following a request filed by the families.

Middle East Monitor
By Middle East Monitor
Freedom Flotilla

Israel plans to sell four boats seized while sailing towards the besieged Gaza Strip and distribute the funds among two settlers families. Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported yesterday that the move came in response to the Israeli Central Court’s decision following a request filed by the families. Israel has in recent weeks confiscated four boats

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Trump to Chair UN Security Council Meeting on Iran

Russia’s Deputy UN Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy said the Iran meeting should focus on the implementation of a 2015 resolution on Iran.

Middle East Monitor
By Middle East Monitor
UN Security Council

US President Donald Trump will chair a UN Security Council meeting on Iran this month to spotlight its “violations of international law” during the annual gathering of world leaders in New York, US Ambassador Nikki Haley said on Tuesday, Reuters reports. The United States, which holds the council presidency for September, has unsuccessfully pushed

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Israel Signals It Could Attack Iranian Military Assets in Iraq

Lieberman said: “I am saying that we will contend with any Iranian threat, and it doesn’t matter from where it comes … Israel’s freedom is total. We retain this freedom of action.”

Middle East Monitor
By Middle East Monitor
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. (Gali Tibbon/AP)

Israel signaled on Monday that it could attack suspected Iranian military assets in Iraq, as it has done with scores of air strikes in war-torn Syria. Citing Iranian, Iraqi and Western sources, Reuters reported last week that Iran had transferred short-range ballistic missiles to Shi’ite allies in Iraq in recent months. Tehran and Baghdad formally

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Israeli Weapons Used in Genocide Against Rohingya Muslims

“Today, after Rohingyas’ lives became almost impossible, the UN woke up and officially declared that Myanmar, including the army, the police as well as the Buddhist establishment and even the Prime Minister and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, are all responsible for killing an entire population.”

Middle East Monitor
By Middle East Monitor
Rohingya Muslim girl Afeefa Bebi, who recently crossed over from Myanmar into Bangladesh, holds her few-hours-old brother as doctors check her mother Yasmeen Ara at a community hospital in Kutupalong refugee camp, Bangladesh, Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2017. The family crossed into Bangladesh on Sept. 3. Recent violence in Myanmar has driven hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims to seek refuge across the border in Bangladesh. But Rohingya have been fleeing persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar for decades, and many who have made it to safety in other countries still face a precarious existence. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

“Israeli weapons are used in the ethnic and religious cleansing carried out by the Myanmar army against the Rohingya minority, resulting in the persecution of 700,000 Muslims who were slaughtered and expelled from their country,” said Israeli writer and journalist Tsur Shezaf in an article published by the Israeli newspaper Yedioth

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Nikki Haley: Palestinian Right of Return Should be ‘Off the Table’

“I absolutely think we have to look at right of return,” Haley told attendees, before agreeing that the issue should be taken off the negotiating table.

Middle East Monitor
By Middle East Monitor
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley speaks during a meeting with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, not seen, in his residence in Jerusalem, Israel, Wednesday, June 7, 2017. (Debbie Hill/Pool photo via AP)

US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley has said that the right of return of Palestinian refugees displaced since 1948 is an issue that should be taken “off the table”, according to the Times of Israel. Commenting at an appearance at the Foundation for the Defence of Democracies, a pro-Israel think tank based in Washington DC, Haley suggested on

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