Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has denied requests from representatives of the Palestinian faction Hamas to visit “political” detainees held in West Bank prisons. The West Bank is controlled by Abbas’s own Fatah faction. The move was denounced by senior Hamas representative Aziz Dweik, who is viewed by Hamas as...

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David Trimble, a member of the British House of Lords and winner of the Nobel Peace prize, blasted the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) earlier this week over a recent report criticizing Israel. The head of the panel that produced the report described it as “a kind of weapon” to be used...

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Hezbollah officials in Lebanon are lashing out at U.S. diplomats after U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Maura Connelly urged Lebanese authorities to move forward with scheduled elections on the basis of existing electoral laws: Hezbollah’s Baalbek-Hermel MP Nawar Saheli denounced Sunday what he called “flagrant interference” by U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Maura...

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Egypt’s ruling Muslim Brotherhood movement has denounced a UN report aimed to end violence against women and girls worldwide, calling the report “deceptive” and aimed at undermining Islamic mores. “The Muslim Brotherhood calls on leaders of Islamic countries, their foreign ministers and representatives in the United Nations to reject and...

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The Arab League decided last week to allow its member states to arm the Syrian opposition. Theoretically, until that decision, the League had — at least publicly — limited its members to giving humanitarian aid to the rebels. This week’s decision may not fundamentally change the nature of the Syrian...

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The United Nations is expressing hopes that 21 Filipno U.N. peacekeepers captured this week by Syrian rebels will be released on Saturday. A bid to secure their release was aborted on Friday, and they are now set to be freed tomorrow during two-hour truce between the Syrian army and the...

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Israel last night hosted an evening of music in the hall of the United Nations General Assembly, designed to highlight Israeli diversity and to emphasize Israel’s desire for peace with its neighbors. The “Tunes for Peace Concert” program featured one of Israel’s most popular and acclaimed singers, Iranian-born Rita Yahan-Farouz,...

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The United Nations Relief and Works Agency announced this morning, regretfully, that an annual marathon conducted in the Gaza Strip to raise money for U.N. children’s summer camps would have to be cancelled. The statement issued by the organization linked the decision to a Hamas prohibition on the participation of...

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Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Ron Prosor is stressing the need to enhance security along the Israeli-Syrian border, after three mortars launched from Syria landed deep inside Israeli territory this weekend. In a letter to the U.N. Security Council calling for action, Prosor stressed that Israel would be forced to take...

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Iran is continuing to expand a military facility where it is widely suspected the regime conducted work relevant to developing nuclear warheads, including advanced detonation testing of triggers for nuclear weapons. New satellite photos published by the Daily Telegraph show renewed construction at the Parchin facility, which is on an Iranian military base:...

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