Middle East and North Africa

Protests in Jordan against the Israeli war on Gaza have escalated in recent weeks, particularly around the Israeli embassy in the Middle Eastern country’s capital of Amman. Hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists have been arrested, despite the largely peaceful nature of the ongoing demonstrations.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of Iran promised revenge against Israel on Tuesday after an apparent Israeli airstrike on the Iranian embassy complex in the Syrian capital of Damascus. The attack killed 13 people, including General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a top commander in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

On Nov. 12, the United States carried out two airstrikes in Syria, targeting a training facility near the city of Albu Kamal and a safe house near the city of Mayadeen. The US military said that the strikes were in retaliation for a series of over 50 rocket and drone attacks that left at least 56 US personnel with a “combination of traumatic brain injury and minor injuries.”

On Nov. 5, 2023, thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside the Incirlik Air Base in the Adana province of southern Turkey to express disapproval of Israeli attacks harming Gazan civilians and US support for Israel.

The United Arab Emirates government has launched an investigation in response to a report by the Guardian on the suspicious death of Filipina migrant worker Vergie Tamfungan’s death.

As the Israel-Hamas conflict continues, the spotlight has shifted towards Egypt, a country historically significant to the Gaza Strip. While Egypt has had a tumultuous relationship with both Israel and Hamas, it is a key player in addressing the ongoing conflict.

The European Parliament posthumously presented the Sakharov Human Rights Prize for Freedom of Thought to Jina Mahsa Amini. Her death stirred Iran into a new attempt at protesting the current repressive theocracy that enforced hijab wearing, among other restrictions for women.

The International Court of Justice has addressed the 12-year legacy of torture and false imprisonment of the Syrian Assad Administration for the first time on Oct 11, 2023. The case, brought forward by Canada and the Netherlands, accused Assad of violating the UN’s Convention against Torture (CAT), which Syria has opted in to.

Under 100 US diplomatic personnel and dependents remained in Khartoum when conflict broke out in Sudan.

Two-thirds of Yemen, nearly 20 million people, need humanitarian assistance, and many face food insecurity.

As decades-old tensions erupted in Sudan over the weekend, several Egyptian officers became caught in the crossfire as Sudan’s rivaling military factions fight for military control, decimating local communities and sparking international outrage.

Saudi Arabia has pushed forward several diplomatic initiatives in recent weeks, signaling a wider effort to bring stability to the region and restore cooperation between various Arab states.

The United States Navy announced that it has deployed a guided missile submarine, the USS Florida, to the Red Sea.

Last week, Lebanon experienced life in two time zones – not for geographic reasons (Russia, after all, has 11), but political ones.

Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, voted last week in favor of repealing the disengagement law that was passed in 2005 that resulted in the evacuation of settlements in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Three journalists have been brought to trial on charges of insulting (pro-government) Egyptian members of parliament.

Despite last month’s earthquake, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan says that national elections will move forward as planned.

Tensions in Iran have skyrocketed after public outrage over the poisonings of several schoolgirls was revealed this weekend.

On Saturday night, over 150,000 people took to the streets of Tel Aviv in the largest anti-government protests yet in response to the current government’s proposed judicial overhauls.

On Sunday, Feb. 26, Israeli and Palestinian delegations were hosted in Aqaba, Jordan in an attempt to curb an increase in violence in the West Bank. Representatives from Egypt and the United States were also in attendance to watch the talks.

From Nov. 14 to Nov. 18, representatives of 21 nations in the Middle East met at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City to discuss nuclear non-proliferation and efforts to improve compliance with bans on biological and chemical weapons. 

In light of the COP27 conference that was held this past month in Egypt, the focus on renewable energy has moved to the Middle East.

The US Justice Department has confirmed that the death of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in the occupied West Bank is under review by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Several Kurdish political parties were targeted in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region when Tehran launched rocket and drone attacks in Sulaimaniya and the region’s capital, Erbil.

Tim Lenderking, US Special Envoy for Yemen, returned Wednesday from a week-long trip to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia “where he met with Emirati, Saudi, Yemeni officials and…

The 2022 FIFA World Cup begins on Nov. 20 in the small Arab nation of Qatar.

In the wake of Israel’s fifth legislative election since 2019, former Prime Minister Yair Lapid conceded to Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu on Nov. 3.

On November 3, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced a series of sanctions against dozens of individuals, companies, and oil tankers for their role in the export of Iranian oil to global markets, violating American sanctions against the Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force and Hezbollah on antiterrorism grounds (E.O. 13224).

The Arab League held its first summit in three years in Algeria, on Nov. 2, where economic concerns sparked by the war in Ukraine, and tensions between Israel and Palestine remained at the heart of discussions.