Middle East Experience

Turning to Iran, Lapid said that if a new deal is reached between the western powers and the Islamic Republic it would not apply to Israel.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Lapid to ‘Post’: If it happens, Saudi normalization with Israel will be in ‘baby steps’

The hospital will serve as a centralized location for all the cardiology treatments offered on the Rambam campus.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Israel’s most advanced cardiology hospital set to open on Rambam Healthcare Campus

Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia’s powerful sovereign wealth fund to sell 16.87 percent of his investment firm Kingdom Holding Co to the fund, the company said on Sunday.The Public Investment Fund (PIF) will buy 625 million shares at 9.09 riyals ($2.42) a share, Kingdom Holding said in a stock exchange filing, for a total of 5.68 billion riyals ($1.51 billion).For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.The share price for the agreement was where the stock closed on Thursday, its lowest level in a year. It rallied 8.8 percent to 9.89 riyals by 0802 GMT on Sunday.The PIF did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.The transaction will take place on Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange, Tadawul, on Sunday, the company said.Prince Alwaleed, one of the Kingdom’s most recognized business figures, will retain a majority 78.13 percent stake.The PIF, which manages over $600 billion in assets, is at the center of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s ambitious agenda to diversify the economy away from oil.The investment firm said in a separate filing on Sunday thatone of its executive directors, Sarmad Zok, had resigned.Abdulmajeed Ahmed al-Hagbani will replace him on the board, as a non-executive director. Al Hagbani is a senior director at PIF, according to LinkedIn.Read more: Saudi’s Kingdom Holding in Islamic financing push
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed to sell 16.87 pct of Kingdom Holding to PIF fund

Four people were killed in an attempt to smuggle large amounts of drugs from Syria to Jordan, the kingdom’s armed forces said on Sunday.For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.Some smugglers were also wounded while others escaped by going back to Syria, it said.The Jordanian armed forces did not specify who killed or wounded the people involved.Jordan is both a destination and a main transit route to the oil-rich Gulf countries for Syrian-made cheap amphetamine drug known as captagon, also dubbed as poor-man cocaine.War-torn Syria has become the region’s main production site for a multi-billion dollar trade also destined for Iraq and Europe. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government denies involvement in drug making and smuggling.In January, Jordanian soldiers killed at least 27 armed smugglers and wounded others as they crossed the border.Read more: Saudi Arabia arrests 73 for attempting to smuggle illicit drugsDubai Police arrest key member of drug trafficking gang in operation ‘Sugar Cane’Iraq seizes more than six million Captagon pills in drug bust
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Four killed in attempt to smuggle drugs from Syria: Jordan’s armed forces

Oman announced on Sunday the lifting of all measures that had been taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19, in all venues and for all activities, state TV reported, citing a statement from the government committee dealing with the pandemic.For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.There have been 389,943 infections and 4,260 coronavirus-related deaths reported in the sultanate since the pandemic began, according to Reuters data.Read more: Iran’s president to visit OmanRussian FM visits Oman to discuss Ukraine, tradeOman secures release of 14 foreigners held in Yemen: Ministry
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Oman drops COVID-19 measures

The United Arab Emirates’ healthcare system is prepared for any potential spread of monkeypox, the country’s Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) said on Sunday.For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.The ministry is also investigating and monitoring suspect cases, but did not say whether any cases had been confirmed in the UAE.It issued a circular for all medical workers in the country asking them to report any suspected cases to the authorities, the official WAM news agency reported.Neighboring Saudi Arabia on Saturday issued a similar statement from its health ministry, confirming that the Kingdom had issued guidelines to health workers and saying that all necessary tests were available.More than 80 cases of the viral disease have been detected in recent days, and another 50 potential cases are being monitored, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).The disease can cause symptoms including fever and aches, and is often accompanied by a distinctive rash.It is commonly spread through skin-to-skin contact and is believed to have originated in west Africa.Most people fully recover from monkeypox in two to four weeks, but the disease has a fatality rate of around one percent.News of monkeypox cases has stoked fears of a pandemic after COVID-19 caused widespread disruption to the global economy and killed millions.Monkeypox is far less transmissible than COVID-19, however, and should be easier to contain than the airborne SARS-CoV-2 virus.Israel detected its first case on Saturday, joining Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Sweden, the United States, Canada and Australia.With agenciesRead more: Explainer: How concerned should we be about monkeypox?Dubai to ‘enhance surveillance’ over globally rising monkeypox cases: DHA circularSaudi Arabia says fully ready to monitor, deal with monkeypox cases
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: UAE healthcare system ‘prepared’ for monkeypox: Health ministry

Manu Pineda is a Spanish communist member of the European Parliament who lived in Gaza and worked with a Palestinian terror-sympathizing organization.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Israel bans European parliamentarian who worked with terror supporters

Jim Fitton, 66, who is charged with artefact smuggling, has had his trial date postponed..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Iraqi trial of British geologist Jim Fitton is postponed

A colonel of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was assassinated in a gun attack in the capital Tehran on Sunday, the IRGC said in a statement carried by state media.The IRGC statement identified the victim as Colonel Sayad Khodaei and blamed “anti-revolution (groups) and agents of global arrogance” for his killing. Iran uses the term “anti-revolution” to describe anti-regime opposition groups, and “global arrogance” to refer to the US and its allies. Khodaei was assassinated around 4 p.m. local time by two motorcyclists who fired five bullets at him near his house, the semi-official Fars news agency said.For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.Iranian state media described Khodaei as a “shrine defender,” a term Tehran uses to refer to fighters it dispatches to Syria to fight alongside forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.Read more:Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh assassinated: Ministry of DefenseIran identifies ‘all’ those involved in killing of top nuclear scientist: OfficialTimeline: Iran’s assassinations and plots to kill dissidents living abroad
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Iran says IRGC colonel assassinated in Tehran

The authorities in the Islamic Republic like to take credit for the country’s achievements in film, but are warning those who make them not to cross red lines at home..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: In Iran, a New Wave of Repression Hits Acclaimed Filmmakers