Through daily harassment, killing, house demolition and eviction, the Israeli government is trying to provoke a Palestinian uprising in the West Bank. Their aim is to repeat in the West Bank what was done in Gaza, and, if possible, orchestrate mass expulsion to Jordan. 1/

I think the UAE is too deep in the dark side to change course now. But the grievances listed in the article are real. I mentioned this a few months ago: “The option to freeze the Abraham Accords did come up at that Abu Dhabi meeting, but ultimately came off the table.”

APNewsAlert: DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — #Iran sentences Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi to over 7 more years in prison after she began hunger strike.

My latest: Without anti-authoritarianism, 'anti-imperialism' is just conservatism with left-wing aesthetics www.hauntologies.net/p/iranian-pr...

I wonder why he thought Dubai was a safe place to hide.

And do we know what happened to the Emirati married to a Syrian and living in Syria who was arrested a few months ago, apparently on behalf of the UAE tyranny? Syria needs good relations with important states, but not to the extent of abducting people on their behalf.

@tparsi.bsky.social: “There is a strong view on the Iranian side that Trump has an excessive and exaggerated view of Iranian weakness.. Iranians believe a short, intense war may be necessary to correct Trump’s perception and compel him to adopt more realistic demands.”

Saudi could have explicitly named the UAE. They didn’t.

This is just a snub. Trade between the two countries remains the same. They also don’t seem to diverge on Gaza.

Many Gulf analysts talked about how the 🇸🇦-🇦🇪 rift will not amount to anything as severe as the 🇶🇦 blockade. There is certainly a ‘soft blockade’ happening outside of the Gulf. UAE cargo planes were denied airspace over Somalia + once over Oman. Somalia terminated agreements with the UAE. Now this.

I share these FT articles about Sultan bin Sulayem and his ties to Epstein for laughs, but it doesn’t escape me that FT treats bin Sulayem like an object of ridicule; an orientalist caricature of a sex-crazed Arab rather than a man with substantial political clout and influence. 1/

Deadly Islamabad bombing sharpens focus on cross-border attacks in Pakistan https://aje.news/zcj0iz

Happy to share my new article on Saudi Arabia’s regional policy. Setting aside the misplaced talk of a “return to Islamism,” I situate Saudi strategy historically and show how Riyadh’s “zero-conflict” turn is being undermined by ongoing Emirati and Israeli interventionism.

Ahmed Al-Tuwaijri, whose article critical of the UAE went viral last month, penned a rather lengthy op-ed for MEE, defending of his stance, and rejecting accusations of antisemitism:

www.theatlantic.com/internationa... a beautiful must read if you care about humanity and love movies (Gift article) Thank you Arash Azizi for writing this and @theatlantic.com for publishing it

“The email reads: “Dear Jeffrey This is the one I went with in Paris do you think she is a he??” Epstein replied: “the hands do look like mine”.

Large tankers, carrying huge amounts of oil, speeding through a narrow waterway, amid a growing presence of warships and dark-fleet vessels – sounds totally safe 👉"Tankers Speed Through Hormuz Chokepoint on US-Iran Tensions" www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

I spoke to the Australian program Global Roaming about Sudan. I highlighted the RSF;s atrocities, the need to see this war as a counter-revolution directed at grassroots politics and how both sides - and their backers - enable one another in many ways. www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

“Saif’s story, who he was before the revolution and who he became up until his death on Tuesday, is a microcosm of the unity and disunity that Libya has cycled through in the 15 years since the February revolution broke out.”

Washington Post let go of some excellent people. What a shame.

This is insane.

❗️BREAKING -- Palestine Action protesters found not guilty of burglary at Elbit weapons factory in Bristol. The six activists were also not convicted of other charges, having spent 18 months in jail awaiting trial. realmedia.press/filton-verdi...

More good news.

Financial Times said the other day that revelations about Sultan bin Sulayem’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein will be embarrassing for him. Here’s Sultan hanging out with the Somaliland delegation at the Government World Summit yesterday. The culture of shame doesn’t exit for the rich there.

At Dubai’s World Government Summit, Somaliland’s Abdirahman Abdullahi was seated next to the GCC General Secretary Jasem Al Budaiwi. This is a deliberate provocation on UAE’s part, given how the Arab League + GCC have just denounced and rejected Israel’s recognition of Somaliland in December, 2025.

“Shakir said that his experience illustrated that while public opinion has evolved on Israel in the last several years – with “concepts of apartheid, genocide and ethnic cleansing” increasingly voiced in mainstream circles – the right of return remains a third rail.”

Four gunmen involved in the murder of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi in Libya.

“Abdulnabi Salman, the deputy speaker of Bahrain’s parliament, told Amwaj Media … that Israeli PM Netanyahu “is the primary instigator, alongside the Zionist lobby, in fueling tensions across the region ..”

Provocative of you to ask us to stop in your neighbourhood. “Iranian gunboats approached a U.S. oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz early Tuesday and ordered the vessel to stop, a provocative move at a time when Washington is building up military forces in the region for a possible strike on Iran.”

Last year, Kuwait denaturalised Muthana Sartawi, an orthopaedic surgeon of considerable renown. It turns out Sartawi is now a Qatari citizen. Good for Qatar. I don’t know what Kuwait is up to, but it used to be a model in institutional governance that we, in the rest of the Gulf, aspired to.

A Palestinian woman who used the Rafah crossing yesterday explains how Israeli soldiers took her and 2 other women & blindfolded them & tied their hands before interrogating them.

Some good news - France issues arrest warrants against two French-Israeli women over genocide complicity. The two women were engaged in obstructing aid to Gaza. May these criminals never find peace wherever they go.

"According to the report, the magazine reviewed minutes from internal discussions concerning potential cooperation between the Polish platform Visegrad24, known for its wide digital reach and its ties to far-right milieus in Central and Eastern Europe, and the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs."

Remarkable.

‘But why are we victims of the hate we spew? Jeez!’ - Emirati Muslim lacking in self awareness. “Privately, Emirati officials welcome Farage’s pledge to ban the Muslim Brotherhood in the UK, although some are concerned at growing anti-Muslim rhetoric on the nationalist right in Europe and beyond.”

The UAE president "is cancelling a state visit to Japan amid growing tensions in the Middle East over Iran" Also "Some of Japan’s biggest buyers of liquefied natural gas said they will skip a key conference in Qatar this week because of security concerns" www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

“The messages will be embarrassing for DP World, which has grown out of Dubai’s giant Jebel Ali port to make multibillion-dollar investments around the world, employing more than 100,000 people globally.” Narrator: No, they won’t.

#bbclaurak asks @zackpolanski.bsky.social, doesn't opposing genocide stir up division?

UAE banning Reform (Islah) at home and supporting Reform overseas is the funniest thing ever.

This is corruption on a breathtaking level. Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, an Abu Dhabi royal nicknamed the "spy sheikh", pumped $187mn into Trump family businesses. A WSJ team has the whole story, reported here for the first time. Remember: Jimmy Carter had to sell his peanut farm.

“Abu Dhabi was offended by widespread criticism of the Gulf state’s control of domestic media during the campaign against the RedBird IMI bid led by Conservative MPs and right-wing commentators.” Reports @simeonkerr.bsky.social

Three days into conflict in Tigray, the warring factions are either silent, or issuing vague statements. Following a call for restraint by the African Union, the chairman of the TPLF, under whose command Tigrayan rebels are fighting, responded expressing a willingness to engage in dialogue.

Blast in #Iran port city kills 1, wounds 14 before Strait of Hormuz naval drill watched by US apnews.com/article/iran...

Lots of reporting abt explosions in 2 key cities in Iran today. Bandar Abbas is strategically located on the Strait of Hormuz, an intl waterway w/in Iran’s territorial waters which many believe Iran will shut down if the US strikes x.com/gbrew24/stat... x.com/visionergeo/... x.com/ghonchehazad...

Truly bot-like behaviour; no agency and no opinions of their own. “As the UAE pursues de-escalation, Emiratis with prominent social media accounts have been informally warned by government representatives to refrain from retaliating to growing Saudi online criticism.”

Israel kills at least 31 Palestinians, including several children, in relentless Gaza bombardment, one of the highest one-day tolls since the start of 'ceasefire' aje.news/8xzvds

Good chance Saudi was not swayed and Barak Ravid’s sources are trying to embarrass Saudi Arabia as payback for the stream of anti-Israel commentaries and posts by officials and academics.

Well, well. “Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman (KBS) said in a private briefing on Friday in Washington that if President Trump doesn't follow through on his threats against Iran, the regime will end up stronger, four sources in the room tell Axios.”

UPDATE: as fighting breaks out in Tigray, and drone strikes are reported...Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has state media cameras on him, while he walks the streets of Jijiga in Eastern Ethiopia, accompanied by the Presidents of neighbouring Somalia and Djibouti. No mention of the fighting in the north.

Saudi journalist and general manager of Al-Arabiya Abdulrahman al-Rashed at an investment forum in Saudi today [paraphrased]: “Israel is a strong and dangerous country. It is a harmful country that can cause damage to any country in the region, however strong it may be... 1/