June, 2021

• 23 June

  Hamas says UN talks to bolster ceasefire going nowhere

  

  Terror group’s Gaza chief Sinwar says Israel ‘did not get our people’s message’ after meeting with United Nations special envoy A meeting between Hamas and United Nations envoy Tor Wennesland to strengthen the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel went poorly, Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, said on …

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• 23 June

  Iran says nuclear power plant shutdown was due to ‘technical fault’

  

  Bushehr facility taken off power grid for a number of days; national electricity company calls on Iranians to minimize consumption during peak hours Iran’s southern Bushehr nuclear power plant has been temporarily shut down over a “technical fault,” the country’s atomic energy body said in a statement. “Following a technical …

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• 23 June

  Iran’s Raisi says won’t meet Biden or negotiate on missiles, support for proxies

  

  In first press conference since win, president-elect says the Islamic Republic will continue to be ‘a defender of the oppressed people including the Palestinians’ Iran’s president-elect said Monday he wouldn’t meet with US President Joe Biden, nor negotiate over Tehran’s ballistic missile program and its support of regional terror groups, …

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• 23 June

  Does Kurdish jihadist group threaten Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in north Syria?

  

  Ansar al-Islam is a Kurdish Salafist and jihadist group operating in the Kurdistan mountains in northern Iraq all the way to Latakia in Syria, fighting against the Syrian government. Ansar al-Islam is considered a Salafist-jihadist movement seeking to establish an “Islamic state” according to its own vision and Islamic governance …

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• 23 June

  Hamas leader says Marwan Barghouti a priority for next prisoner swap with Israel

  

  Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh promises the wife of prominent Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti that her husband will be a priority for the next swap deal with Israel. A prominent Hamas leader told Al-Monitor that the movement’s chief, Ismail Haniyeh, promised Fadwa al-Barghouti, the wife of senior Fatah leader Marwan al-Barghouti, …

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• 23 June

  Egypt plans to resettle millions in Sinai amid anti-terrorism operations

  Egypt announced a plan to attract 3 million Egyptians with the aim of resettling them in the Sinai Peninsula, as part of a more comprehensive plan to reconstruct Sinai and fight terrorism. The Egyptian army has yet to officially announce the end of the anti-terrorism operation it launched in the …

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• 23 June

  Egypt mobilizes Arab support in Nile dam dispute with Ethiopia

  

  The foreign ministers of the Arab League called on the UN Security Council to urgently convene and discuss the dispute over Ethiopia’s controversial dam on the Nile River. A few days before Ethiopia starts the second-round filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, scheduled for July 1, Egypt has once …

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• 23 June

  Islamic State revives religious police in northeast Syria

  

  The Islamic State’s religious police are back at work in the areas under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces in northeast Syria. The Islamic State’s religious police — known as Hesba — has made a comeback in the areas under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces in northeast …

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• 23 June

  Turkey wild card in US-Russia conflict over Syria aid

  

  The US administration might be open to a position shift on the Syrian file to secure the flow of cross-border international aid to Syria, a prospect that may spoil Turkey’s calculations in Syria and particularly in Idlib. Although humanitarian aid to Syria was hardly a top agenda item during President …

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• 23 June

  Iran’s Iraq policy unlikely to change under Raisi

  

  Despite his hardline credentials, Iran’s foreign policy is likely to remain unified under the new president. Ebrahim Raisi was elected as the new president of the Islamic Republic of Iran on June 19. The official inauguration will take place in early August. How will the relationship between Iran and Iraq …

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