Middle East Experience

Shttayeh is the father figure of the Palestinian “no cooperation with Israel” policy and has been a peace saboteur often.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Palestinian PM Mohammad Shtayyeh must go - opinion

Words have much power, and they are used both on social media and in inciteful textbooks used to teach children.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: We must stop the powerful use of words as inciteful education - opinion

Their unions insist medical professionals can no longer put up with Central Bank policies that have allowed banks to impose random capital controls and other restrictions..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Lebanese hospitals go on strike protesting economic crash

In a four-page letter to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Greece called on Turkey to stop questioning its sovereignty over Aegean islands..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Greece accuses Turkey of directly challenging its sovereignty

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) seized two Greek oil tankers in the Gulf on Friday, the IRGC announced in a statement carried by state media, in an apparent retaliation for the seizure of an Iranian oil tanker in Greek waters.The two Greek oil tankers were seized for committing “violations” in Gulf waters, the semi-official Tasnim news agency cited the IRGC statement as saying.The two seized oil tankers are named Prudent Warrior and Delta Poseidon, the semi-official Fars news agency said.For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.In a statement, the Greek foreign ministry condemned the seizure of the two ships and called for their immediate release. It said the seizure of the two ships was “equivalent to acts of piracy.”Earlier on Friday, Iran’s semi-official Nour News outlet said Tehran had decided to take “punitive action” against Greece over the US seizure of an Iranian oil tanker in Greek waters.Also on Friday, Iran summoned the envoy of Switzerland, which represents US interests in Tehran, to protest the US seizure of the Iranian oil tanker in Greek waters.On Wednesday, Iran summoned the charge d’affaires of Greece’s embassy in Tehran over the incident.Read more:Iran protesters seek justice as building collapse toll risesYemen’s Houthis release crew of seized Emirati cargo vessel: Spokesman
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Iran seizes two Greek oil tankers in Gulf waters

Journalist Nazir Majali’s new book invites the country’s majority and minority to understand each other better.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Israeli Arabs must show Jews, Arabs can live in peace - Nazir Majali

BEHIND THE LINES: Neither the Lebanese Forces nor the protest movement has anything to put up against Hezbollah’s independent military capacity.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Lebanese leaders defies Hezbollah, but is it enough?

A drone exploded at a structure in the Parchin military technology complex on Wednesday. The attack fit a pattern of past Israeli strikes on Iran..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Sensitive Iranian Military Site Was Targeted in Attack

Tebboune's comments appear to show that certain powers, most likely Europe and the United States, are planning to increase pressure on Tunisian President Kais Saied..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Tebboune's comments on Tunisian political crisis provoke uproar

Panicked children and teachers placed half a dozen calls to 911 emergency services from the Texas classrooms where a massacre was unfolding, pleading for police to intervene, while roughly 20 officers waited in a hallway for nearly an hour before entering the room, authorities said on Friday.At least two children called the 911 emergency number from the two connecting classrooms after 18-year-old Salvador Ramos entered with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, according to Colonel Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety.The on-site commander, the chief of the school district’s police department in Uvalde, Texas, believed Ramos was barricaded inside the classroom and that children were no longer at risk, giving police time to prepare, McCraw said.For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.“From the benefit of hindsight where I’m sitting now, of course, it was not the right decision,” McCraw said. “It was the wrong decision.”Some of the students trapped in the classrooms with the gunman survived the massacre, including at least two who called 911, McCraw said, though he did not offer a specific tally.Someone whom McCraw did not identify called the 911 line multiple times starting at 12:03 p.m., telling police in a whisper that there were multiple dead and that there were still “eight to nine” students alive, the colonel said. One student called at 12:47 p.m. and asked the operator to “please send the police now.”Officers did not go into the classroom until 12:50 p.m., according to McCraw, when the US Border Patrol tactical team used keys from a janitor to open the locked door and kill Ramos.Several officers had an initial exchange of gunfire with Ramos shortly after he entered the school at 11:33 a.m., when two officers were grazed by bullets. There were as many as 19 officers in the hallway by 12:03 p.m., McCraw said - the same time that the first 911 call from inside the classroom was received.Videos that emerged on Thursday showed frantic parents urging police to storm the school during the attack, with some having to be restrained by police.Standard security protocols advise police to confront an active school shooter without delay, a point McCraw conceded on Friday.“When there’s an active shooter, the rules change,” he said.Police recovered 142 spent rounds inside the school from Ramos’ rifle, as well as nearly two dozen more on school property outside the building, McCraw said.In total, Ramos had 60 magazines and 1,657 rounds, including some left in his truck when he crashed it outside the school before the attack and two magazines recovered at his residence.Read more:Texas gunman wrote online post about attacking school minutes before massacreBiden to console families in Texas school shooting, press for action‘Multiple victims’ shot at California church: Sheriff
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Police acknowledge ‘wrong decision’ in delay in confronting Texas school shooter