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☆ Israel and Palestinian Militants in Gaza, Lebanon Exchange Fire
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-07 | by ( Aaron Boxerman | Dion Nissenbaum | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

JERUSALEM—Israel called up reserve soldiers, moving additional troops and firepower to its northern and southern borders after carrying out strikes early Friday in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, as the United Nations and others tried to prevent the situation from deteriorating. Israeli jet fighters carried out airstrikes in Gaza and Lebanon targeting Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that rules Gaza, which Israel said was one of the groups responsible for a major rocket barrage from Lebanon on Thursday. The militant rocket fire and Israeli strikes had mostly died down, but the situation remained tense on Friday afternoon.

TEL AVIV—Israel’s citizen soldiers, a pillar of the country’s identity, played a pivotal role in pressuring Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to pause a planned judicial overhaul that divided the nation. For weeks, military reservists took to the streets in large numbers, joining huge popular demonstrations against Mr. Netanyahu’s proposed changes, and, for some at least, imbuing the protests with a sense of patriotism and duty. Then some reservists began saying they would refuse to report for duty in protest.

Iranian-backed militias brushed aside U.S. warnings and mounted fresh attacks that brought two U.S. sites in eastern Syria under fire and injured an American service member, a U.S. official said Friday. The previous day, Iranian-backed groups mounted a drone attack that killed a U.S. contractor and wounded five service members and another contractor.

U.S. forces in Syria are coming under renewed pressure from Iran-backed militias, illustrating Washington’s challenges as it seeks to pull back from the Middle East while the influence of geopolitical rivals China and Russia is growing in the region. The latest series of tit-for-tat strikes began Thursday when militants carried out a drone attack on U.S. forces in northeast Syria, killing an American contractor and wounding six other Americans. The U.S. accused Iran of backing the attacks and sent two F-15Es to bomb sites it said were used by Iran-backed forces in Syria, the U.S. military said. Hours later, militants fired 10 rockets at a second U.S. base in eastern Syria, including one the military said missed by 3 miles and hit a house, injuring two women and two children.

DUBAI—Iran has agreed to halt covert weapons shipments to its Houthi allies in Yemen as part of a China-brokered deal to re-establish diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, U.S. and Saudi officials said, a move that could inject new momentum into efforts to end one of the region’s longest-running civil wars. For years, Saudi Arabia and Iran have backed opposing sides in the Yemen conflict, fueling a war that has had disastrous humanitarian consequences and spilled beyond the country’s borders as Houthi forces have launched missile and drone attacks on the Saudi kingdom.

☆ China, Russia, Iran Hold Joint Military Drills in Gulf of Oman
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Dion Nissenbaum | Chun Han Wong | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Warships in the Gulf of Oman during joint Iran, Russia and China military exercises in 2019. The nations are taking part in joint drills in the region again this week. China, Russia and Iran launched joint military exercises on Wednesday in the Gulf of Oman in the latest sign of Beijing’s efforts to expand its influence in the Middle East. China’s Defense Ministry said the five-day exercise would deepen cooperation between the three nations, posing a growing challenge to U.S. interests in the region.

President Biden in a meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, last year. Saudi Arabia is asking the U.S. to provide security guarantees and help to develop its civilian nuclear program as Washington tries to broker diplomatic relations between the kingdom and Israel, people involved in discussions between the two countries said. Striking a normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia has become a priority for President Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid a looming confrontation with Iran over its nuclear program and military aid to Russia during the Ukraine war. The Biden administration is deeply involved in the complex negotiations, the people said, and any deal would reshape the Middle East’s political landscape.

☆ Oman Opens Airspace to Israeli Planes
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Dion Nissenbaum | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

El Al, Israel’s leading airline, said it would now explore opening a route to Australia and re-establish flights to India. Oman cleared the way on Thursday for Israeli planes to fly over its airspace, ending a decadeslong ban that indicates a further thawing of ties between Israel and Arab nations that have long refused to openly embrace the Jewish nation. In a short statement that didn’t explicitly mention Israel, Oman’s Civil Aviation Authority said it was opening its airspace to all airlines that meet the country’s regulations.

The U.S. military is considering sending Ukraine thousands of seized weapons and more than a million rounds of ammunition once bound for Iran-backed fighters in Yemen, an unprecedented step that would help Kyiv battle Russian forces, U.S. and European officials said. U.S. officials said they are looking at sending Ukraine more than 5,000 assault rifles, 1.6 million rounds of small arms ammunition, a small number of antitank missiles, and more than 7,000 proximity fuses seized in recent months off the Yemen coast from smugglers suspected of working for Iran.

☆ Moscow, Tehran Advance Plans for Iranian-Designed Drone Facility in Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-05 | by ( Dion Nissenbaum | Warren P. Strobel | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Moscow and Tehran are moving ahead with plans to build a new factory in Russia that could make at least 6,000 Iranian-designed drones for the war in Ukraine, the latest sign of deepening cooperation between the two nations, said officials from a country aligned with the U.S.As part of their emerging military alliance, the officials said, a high-level Iranian delegation flew to Russia in early January to visit the planned site for the factory and hammer out details to get the project up-and-running. The two countries are aiming to build a faster drone that could pose new challenges for Ukrainian air defenses, the officials said.

☆ French Forces Seize Iranian-Supplied Weapons Bound for Yemen
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Dion Nissenbaum | Benoit Faucon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

AK-47 assault rifles seized from a vessel transiting along a maritime route from Iran to Yemen from an operation earlier in January. Elite French special forces seized a boatload of Iranian-supplied weapons and ammunition bound for militants in Yemen as part of a deepening effort to contain Tehran, according to officials familiar with the operation. On Jan. 15, the officials said, a French warship stopped a suspected smuggling ship off the Yemeni coast where the specially trained French team boarded the boat. On board, the officials said, the French military discovered more than 3,000 assault rifles, a half million rounds of ammunition and 20 antitank guided missiles.

Israel carried out a drone strike targeting a defense compound in Iran, as the U.S. and Israel look for new ways to contain Tehran’s nuclear and military ambitions, according to U.S. officials and people familiar with the operation. Iranian officials said that the country’s air defenses had fended off an attempted attack by three small quadcopters targeting a munitions factory in the city of Isfahan, right next to a site belonging to the Iran Space Research Center, which has been sanctioned by the U.S. for its work on Iran’s ballistic-missile program.

☆ Tyre Nichols Video: Memphis Releases Police Body-Cam Footage
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-28 | by ( Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

U.S., Israel Hold Largest-Ever Joint Military Drill The U.S. and Israel conducted their largest ever joint military exercise on land, in the air and at sea. WSJ watched the drill aboard the carrier USS George H.W. Bush in the Mediterranean Sea. Photo: Dion Nissenbaum

☆ Watch: Gunman Storms Azerbaijan Embassy in Iran, Killing One
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ Watch: Footage of Paul Pelosi Attack Released
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ U.S., Israel Send Message to Iran With Biggest-Ever Military Exercises
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Dion Nissenbaum | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

ABOARD THE USS GEORGE H.W. BUSH—Thousands of American and Israeli military personnel joined forces this week for an unprecedented exercise intended to send a message to adversaries like Iran that the U.S. isn’t turning its back on the Middle East, even as it focuses on the war in Ukraine. After four days of military exercises stretching from the Mediterranean Sea up into space, the U.S. and Israel fired more than 180,000 pounds of live munitions in the largest joint exercise ever carried out by the two allies. U.S. jet fighters roared off this ship, which served as a key hub for the military exercise off the Israeli coast, as top generals from both countries gathered on board to take stock of the week’s operations.

☆ U.S., Israel Send Message to Iran With Biggest-Ever War Games
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Dion Nissenbaum | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A jet fighter landed on the deck of the USS George H.W. Bush on Thursday during a four-day military exercise carried out by the U.S. and Israel. ABOARD THE USS GEORGE H.W. BUSH—Thousands of American and Israeli military personnel joined forces this week for an unprecedented exercise intended to send a message to adversaries like Iran that the U.S. isn’t turning its back on the Middle East, even as it focuses on the war in Ukraine. After four days of war games stretching from the Mediterranean Sea up into space, the U.S. and Israel fired more than 180,000 pounds of live munitions in the largest joint exercise ever carried out by the two allies.

The Biden administration has dropped threats to retaliate against Saudi Arabia for an oil-production cut last year and is moving to step up security coordination to counter Iran in 2023, U.S. and Saudi officials said, three months after ties hit a historic low point. Officials pointed to signs of improved U.S.-Saudi cooperation in recent weeks as falling U.S. gasoline prices, better-than-expected midterm election results for Democrats, and heightened concerns about Iran take the edge off a long-simmering spat that spilled into the open in October when the Saudis rebuffed White House requests to delay the production cut. The output decision fueled inflation fears just a month before the midterms, and President Biden vowed to work with Congress to impose unspecified “consequences” on Saudi Arabia.

☆ A Trendy Dessert Stirs Up a Sticky Debate
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Dion Nissenbaum | Fatima Abdulkarim | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

NABLUS, West Bank—Almost anywhere you go here, pastry aficionados are at odds: Who makes the best knafeh? Knafeh is a warm, salty-sweet dessert usually made from melted cheese and pastry dough, with a sugary syrup poured over the top and a sprinkle of chopped pistachios. It is a cultural touchstone for Palestinian identity and a calorie bomb for Tel Aviv hipsters with late-night munchies.

Western and Middle East security officials have concluded that a three-month-old Iranian protest movement represents a lasting drive for change that will challenge the foundations of the Islamic Republic but isn’t an immediate threat to the government in Tehran. The security officials said the protest movement’s durability was surprising, given how quickly the Iranian government put down demonstrations in 2009, 2017 and 2019. Protests erupted in September after the death of a young woman detained for allegedly violating Iran’s female dress code and quickly transformed into demands for the end of the Islamic system that has ruled the country for 43 years.

☆ Israel’s President Heads to Bahrain to Address Stalled Arab Relations
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-04 | by ( Dion Nissenbaum | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Bahrain is one of a handful of Arab countries that have normalized relations with Israel. MANAMA, Bahrain—Israeli President Isaac Herzog is making his first visit to this tiny Gulf nation Sunday amid concerns that efforts to deepen ties with one-time adversaries in the Middle East are stalling. While Israel has made significant advances with the United Arab Emirates in the past two years, relations have been slower to flourish with Bahrain and other countries that normalized ties in deals brokered by the Trump administration known as the Abraham Accords in 2020.

☆ Israel’s President Visits Bahrain to Address Stalled Arab Relations
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-04 | by ( Dion Nissenbaum | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Bahrain is one of a handful of Arab countries that have normalized relations with Israel. MANAMA, Bahrain—Israeli President Isaac Herzog made his first visit to this tiny Gulf nation Sunday amid concerns that efforts to deepen ties with one-time adversaries in the Middle East are stalling. While Israel has made significant advances with the United Arab Emirates in the past two years, relations have been slower to flourish with Bahrain and other countries that normalized ties in deals brokered by the Trump administration known as the Abraham Accords in 2020.

Israeli soldiers from the Netzah Yehuda unit taking part in training in the Golan Heights in 2014. The Israeli military said Tuesday that it is moving one of its most troubled units out of the West Bank amid recent allegations of abuse and disciplinary action against soldiers accused of mistreating Palestinians. The Israel Defense Forces is removing the Netzah Yehuda—a unique, ultraorthodox military unit—from the West Bank after soldiers in the battalion were suspended or demoted for allowing an elderly Palestinian-American to die in their custody earlier this year and beating Palestinian men with no justification, according to Israeli military investigations.

☆ Israeli-Affiliated Oil Tanker Hit by Suspected Iranian Drone
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Dion Nissenbaum | Benoit Faucon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

An Israeli-affiliated oil tanker was hit by a suspected Iranian drone Tuesday night in the Gulf of Oman, creating a hole in the ship but causing no injuries or deaths, according to U.S. military officials. The 600-foot Pacific Zircon was traveling through the Gulf of Oman when it was hit by a single drone, the officials said. The strike made a hole in the back of the ship, but the vessel wasn’t disabled, they added.

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