Middle east news

Marwan Kanafani, Former Advisor To Arafat: Palestine Cause No Longer The Most Serious Arab Issue, There Are More Syrian Refugees
In a recent TV interview, Marwan Kanafani, former advisor to Yasser Arafat, blamed the Palestinian leaderships and political parties for the “regression” in the Palestinian cause, saying that the negotiations to bring about reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah have been going on for ten years, while the U.S. and Iran reached understandings within less than a decade despite their differences. He was speaking on ON TV on May 27.
Captured ISIS Mufti Hussam Naji On ISIS’s Emergence, Religious Disputes With ISIS Leader Al-Baghdadi; Discusses ISIS Policy On Sex Slaves, Jizya: ‘The Slave Girls And The Jizya Depend On Your Ability To Provide Protection’
Captured Iraqi terrorist Hussam Naji, a.k.a. “Abu Mahmoud,” who was appointed mufti of ISIS by Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, recounted how he had met Al-Baghdadi while imprisoned at Camp Bucca, the U.S. detention center in Iraq, and also after his release, and said that he had had differences of opinion with Al-Baghdadi on jurisprudence matters, such as the jizya and kharaj taxes. Naji, a convert from Shia Islam, served as a senior ISIS religious authority in Iraq and was arrested in 2015, shortly after his appointment as a mufti. In this May 12 Al-Arabiya TV interview, Naji talked about the relations between Al-Baghdadi and Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri, who considered him insubordinate. He further said that at some point, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi had started acting like a mafia boss.
Saudi Columnist: Iran Is The Real Enemy, Not Israel
In his June 6, 2017 column in the Saudi daily Al-Riyadh, Musaid Al-Asimi called for no longer viewing Israel as a hostile country and instead for focusing on the real enemy – Iran.
In an apparent reference to Qatar but without explicitly naming it, he also calls for action against Arab Gulf elements that are often duplicitous and support Iran.
Facing Setbacks In Syria, ISIS Highlights Libya As New Destination For Western YouthISIS activists have conducted campaigns on social media calling for volunteers to “migrate” to Libya and join ISIS. More ISIS recruits are now streaming to Libya instead of to Syria, particularly since travel to Syria has become more problematic for Westerners. Moreover, ISIS members and potential recruits are openly speaking of the setbacks the group is facing in Syria and the growing difficulty of living there, as a motive for seeking out other destinations.
By memri.org