Mideast

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TEL AVIV — The Palestinian Authority’s prime minister rebuffed the latest call by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for direct talks, opting instead to join a French-led, multilateral peace initiative.

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TEL AVIV — Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Sunni Muslim countries are ready to normalize ties with Israel should Israel negotiate a peace deal with the Palestinian Authority on the basis of the Arab Peace Initiative.

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A senior Hezbollah commander was killed in an explosion in Damascus, triggering a probe by the group amid speculation about Israel’s alleged involvement.

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France’s Jewish millionaires are flocking to Israel by the thousands, according to new data on offer by a consultancy that tracks the world’s wealthy.

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A recent 14-year dry spell in the Middle East was the worst drought in the past 900 years, according to a new NASA study.

The computer database of a former Israel Defense Forces chief of staff reportedly was compromised in an Iranian cyberattack late last year. Yaser Balaghi, a hacker working for Iran, gained access to the full contents of the unidentified army leader’s computer, the Times of Israel reported Feb. 9, citing Israel’s Channel 10. The operation was halted midstream when the hacker’s identity was compromised. The attack targeted nearly 2,000 people all over the world, including scientists, Israeli army generals and Persian Gulf-area human rights activists. The victims were hacked when they opened an email message that downloaded spyware onto their computer. It is not clear exactly what or how much information Iran obtained from the operation.

A 10-day trip to Israel valued at $55,000 is among the gifts that will be offered in the swag bags given to some of this year’s Academy Awards nominees. Distinctive Assets, the company that assembled the bags, put the value on the first-class trip, the Daily Beast reported. In total, the luxurious gifts in each bag are worth $200,000, the report said. Among the other gift items are a lifetime supply of skin creams from Lizora, valued at $31,200; ultherapy, a laser skin-tightening procedure courtesy of 740 Park MD, $5,530; a year’s worth of unlimited Audi car rentals from Silvercar, $45,000; and a 15-day walking tour of Japan, $45,000. Nominees in the Oscars main acting and directing categories receive the bags, according to the Daily Beast. 

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The leaders of Israel, Cyprus and Greece entered a trilateral partnership that they said was not meant to exclude other parties — in a possible reference to Turkey.

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Days after the landmark nuclear deal between Iran and world powers went into effect, the United States issued new sanctions tied to Iran’s ballistic missile program.

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WASHINGTON — Just months after the conclusion of a nuclear deal with Iran that the Obama administration hoped would help defuse a volatile region, the Middle East seems ready to spiral out of control.

The leader of the Islamic State threatened Israel and Jews in a taped message that is said to be from him.

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Israel and Turkey reached a preliminary agreement to renew normal relations.

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While Christians in Iraq and Syria face the threat of extinction at the hands of the Islamic State terror group, the U.S. State Department remains silent on the prospect of publicly designating the atrocities against Christians and other Mideast religious minorities as “genocide.”

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The commander of the Islamic State in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula is reportedly on a secret trip to Gaza to coordinate with Hamas.

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Unnamed U.S. and British officials and military sources indicated with certainty that Mohammed Emwazi, whom the British media dubbed “Jihadi John,” was killed in a drone strike in Raqqa, Syria, the Daily Telegraph of London reported.

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JERUSALEM — The plan to install surveillance cameras on the Temple Mount will not include cameras inside the two mosques there, King Abdullah II of Jordan said yesterday evening (Nov. 5).

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Iran’s supreme leader said yesterday (Nov. 1) that the Islamic Republic would not cooperate with the United States on regional issues, saying its support for Israel shows that their goals are diametrically opposed.

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The parliament of Iran today (Oct. 13) voted to approve the nuclear deal that its country’s negotiators reached with six world powers two days after it reportedly may have violated the agreement.

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JERUSALEM — Israel will not exist in 25 years, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a speech to the Iranian people today (Sept. 9) and followed it up with a tweet on his official Twitter account.

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JERUSALEM — Israel reopened its embassy in Cairo today (Sept. 9), four years after it closed during an attack by hundreds of anti-Israel rioters.

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CAIRO — It’s been a particularly challenging summer for Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. Within one week in late June and early July, his attorney general was assassinated in the upscale Cairo suburb of Heliopolis and an Islamic State affiliate launched a two-day siege in the North Sinai town of Sheikh Zuweid.

Fifty-one percent of Israeli Jews believe Jewish settlements in Gaza that Israel evacuated a decade ago should be rebuilt, according to a new survey.

    WASHINGTON - The Obama administration is maintaining and improving the option of a military strike as a means of preventing an Iranian nuclear weapon even as a nuclear deal goes ahead, U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said.

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Turkey confirmed today (June 24) that it is negotiating with Israel on a deal to improve relations between the two countries, which have been tense since 2010, when Israel raided the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish boat seeking to break the Gaza blockade.