Iranian officials over the weekend acknowledged plans to hold meetings with the United States and Russia outside of ongoing negotiations between the P5+1 global powers and Tehran, a development that media outlets described as everything from evidence that the parties were scrambling to reinvigorate faltering talks over the Islamic republic’s...

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A former Hamas official wrote on his Facebook page Sunday that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was “lying” to the Americans. Palestinian Media Watch translated Ihab al-Ghussein’s comments: “You know what Mahmoud Abbas says behind closed doors?? He says: ‘Guys, let me [continue] saying what I say to the media. Those...

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Former Lebanese Prime Minister Sa’ad Hariri declared yesterday that Tuesday’s re-election of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad was a “farce.” The Daily Star reported on the politician’s remarks: “This election was a farce. It was dark, fabricated, bloody, abhorrent and all of the things that senior officials have described it as,”...

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Yesterday the Palestinian Authority announced the formation of a unity government together with the terrorist organization Hamas. Though State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki announced that the U.S. would “work with” the new regime, Israeli officials as well as an array of U.S. lawmakers are deeply skeptical that doing so would be...

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United States Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel visiting Israel this week dismissed last week’s Newsweek report accusing Israel of aggressively spying on the United States. Hagel’s reservation further undermines the report’s credibility already hurt by experts’ questions and the reporter’s dubious history. The Times of Israel reported on Hagel’s response when...

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Earlier this week, former State Department official Elliott Abrams wrote about the plight of seven Baha’i leaders who have now been jailed by Iran for six years. At the Council on Foreign Relations website, Abrams wrote: They were arrested in 2008 and in 2010 were sentenced to terms of 20...

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During her recent trip to Israel, American National Security Adviser Susan Rice hailed American strategic cooperation with Israel as an “investment in protecting the many interests that our nations share.” The Times of Israel reported: Rice said that the new deal “will take our total investment in Iron Dome, which has...

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In a surprising move, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) appointed Indonesian diplomat Makarim Wibisono to replace the controversial special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, Richard Falk. Though Falk’s term as rapporteur has come to a close, his wife, Hilal Elver, was appointed by the council to...

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Yossi Cohen, Israel’s national security adviser, recently sent a letter to “to the White House, the EU and numerous ambassadors” offering evidence that last month’s failure of peace negotiations was deliberately planned by the Palestinian Authority. The Times of Israel reports: In the April 22 letter, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s national security...

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Voice of America (VOA) on Wednesday conveyed statements from Edward Kallon, the U.N.’s resident humanitarian coordinator for Jordan, calling on the international community to boost its support for the Hashemite kingdom in order to forestall a potential domestic backlash against the tens of thousands of Syrian refugees that have flooded...

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