Middle East Monitor

By Yvonne Ridley I’ve often wondered why the Muslim Brotherhood strikes fear into the hearts of Arab regimes. Prisons across Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are filled with thousands of political prisoners drawn from the leadership and membership of the movement, which is also banned… »

US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has called America’s allies in the Gulf “dictators” and said that agreements between regional states and Israel are not “peace deals”. Omar made her comments in an article in The Nation. Calling on President-elect Joe Biden to reverse President Donald… »

The World Health Organisation (WHO) yesterday condemned Israel for its violations of health rights in the Palestinian territories and in the occupied Golan Heights during the coronavirus pandemic. Representatives from dozens of countries, including Malaysia, Lebanon and Venezuela delivered speeches slamming Israel for harming health rights. During… »

A 3.5 metres tall puppet of a little girl is due to make the 8,000 kilometre journey from the Syrian-Turkish border to the UK in an effort to highlight the plight of child refugees. Little Amal, as she has been named, will set off in April and is… »

Muslim-American Congresswoman Ilhan Omar yesterday condemned Israel for violating international law following the demolition of a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank earlier this week. The critics comes after the Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh accused Israeli troops of having “completely demolished the village of Homsa al-Baqia, leaving around 80… »

Sources in Sudan and Egypt have revealed that Saudi Arabia is to pay $335 million to the US in order to accelerate normalisation of ties between the government in Khartoum and Israel, Safa news agency reported on Wednesday. According to media reports, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown… »

A Syrian girl who lived through the Ghouta chemical attack has been nominated for the 2020 International Children’s Peace Prize. Identified only as Enar, but known online as Noor, she used social media to raise awareness of the conditions in Ghouta during the long siege of the city by… »

Ireland has become the first country to push through a bill that will criminalise the import of goods from Israeli settlements and impose a five year jail sentence or a €283,000 fine on anyone found guilty of profiting from illegal settlement industries. The bill passed yesterday will ban… »

Jordan’s foreign minister and the European Union’s foreign policy chief discussed Jerusalem over the phone Monday and agreed on the need to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on the basis of a two-state solution, Anadolu reports. In a written statement, Jordan’s Foreign Ministry said Ayman Safadi and Federica Mogherini addressed the results of… »