Depositors held up at least five separate banks around Lebanon on Friday in an attempt to retrieve savings frozen in the banking system, a Lebanese army official told CNN. In one of
But in other ways, some of the region’s countries have prospered immensely as the fighting rages on, adding hundreds of billions of dollars to their coffers.
Here are four ways the Ukraine war has affected the Middle East over the last six months:
Energy exporters are cashing in
The war has seen oil prices rise to as much as a 14-year high. That has resulted in soaring inflation and economic contraction globally, but for energy-rich Persian Gulf states, it’s good news coming after an eight-year economic slump caused by low oil prices and the Covid-19 pandemic.
The International Monetary Fund predicts that the Middle East’s oil exporting states will make an additional $1.3 trillion in oil revenue in the next four years, it told the Financial Times last week.
The extra money means Gulf states will have budget surpluses for the first time since 2014. Economic growth is also expected to significantly accelerate. In the first four months of this year, for example, the Saudi economy grew 9.9%, the highest in a decade. In stark contrast, the US economy shrank 1.5%.
The war has also brought opportunities for the region’s gas producers. For decades, European countries opted to import gas from Russia via pipelines instead of having it shipped from faraway nations by sea. But as Europe weans itself off Russian gas, it’s looking for potential new partners to buy from. Qatar has pledged half of its total gas capacity to Europe in four years’ time.
The EU has also signed gas deals with Egypt and Israel, both aspiring natural gas hubs in the region. And on a visit to Paris this month, UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan signed an agreement guaranteeing the UAE’s export of diesel to France.
Strongmen feel emboldened
Regional strongmen that once came under harsh criticism from the West appear to be back in favor.
Despite vowing to turn Saudi Arabia into a pariah, US President Joe Biden visited Saudi Arabia in a landmark trip last month. The move was seen as a capitulation to the kingdom’s weight in the global economy in the hope that it would produce more oil and tame global inflation ahead of the US midterm elections in November. That move largely failed, with the Saudi-led OPEC+ oil cartel opting for a modest rise in oil production, which one analyst described as a “slap in the face” for Biden.
The war has also allowed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to position himself as an indispensable figure in the international order. Faced with a sinking economy at home and elections next year, he has skillfully used his country’s geopolitical position to extract concessions for Turkey abroad by delaying the accession of Nordic countries to NATO. Erdogan has also maintained cordial relations with Russia while publicly opposing the war, selling coveted drones to Ukraine and even mediating between the belligerents.
Alliances are shifting
As trade routes shift with the war, so do alliances.
The UAE president’s adviser Anwar Gargash said in April that the war has proved that the international order is no longer unipolar with the United States at its helm and questioned the continued supremacy of the US dollar in the global economy. Abu Dhabi, he said, is reassessing its alliances. “Western hegemony on the global order is in its final days,” he added. The nation’s ambassador to the US said earlier this year that its relationship with Washington was going through a “stress test” after the UAE joined India and China in abstaining from a US-backed UN Security Council resolution condemning Russia’s war in February.
As relations with the West are reassessed, ties with China appear to be growing. The UAE last month referred to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan as “provocative,” stressing its support for the one-China policy. Saudi Arabia has also touted China as an alternative to the US, stepping up military cooperation with Beijing and considering selling oil to it in yuan. Chinese President Xi Jinping, who hasn’t made any foreign trips since Covid-19 restrictions came into place, is expected to make a landmark trip to the kingdom this year.
“Where is the potential in the world today?” Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) told The Atlantic magazine in an article published in March. “It’s in Saudi Arabia. And if you want to miss it, I believe other people in the East are going to be super happy.”
The US is taking note. In a Washington Post op-ed justifying his trip to Saudi Arabia, President Biden said he was putting the US in the “best possible position to outcompete China.”
Food and inflation crises raise tensions
Much of the world felt the impact of grain shipment disruptions following the invasion of Ukraine, but the Middle East was among the hardest hit.
Around a third of the world’s wheat comes from Russia and Ukraine, and some Middle Eastern states have come to rely on those two countries for more than half of their imports. War-torn Libya and economically shattered Lebanon took a hard blow from disruptions to the export of grain, along with Egypt — one of the world’s top wheat importers.
Ukraine’s grain exports resumed in late July following a UN-brokered deal between Kyiv and Moscow, and global food prices have stabilized since, but many in the Middle East are still waiting for stalled shipments.
The first ship carrying grain left Ukraine on August 1 and was initially bound for Lebanon. The shipment however changed course after Lebanese buyers refused the delivery, so it sailed to Egypt instead, according to Reuters.
Soaring inflation has also battered a number of precarious Middle Eastern economies. Rising commodity prices in Iraq and Iran have driven many to the streets in protest. And in Egypt, where just a decade ago an uprising toppled the former regime under the slogan “bread, freedom and social justice,” households of all income levels are seeing their spending power erode fast.
The digest
US airstrikes hit Iran-backed groups in Syria
The US military conducted airstrikes Tuesday targeting Iran-backed groups in Syria’s Deir Ezzor, US Central Command said in a statement. The strikes targeted “infrastructure facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.” No one was killed in the attack, according to an initial assessment by the US military, but a Syrian activist group said at least 10 people were killed and three were wounded.
- Background: American troops have been present in Syria since 2015 to combat the Islamic State, which has often brought them into conflict with Iran-backed groups. Israeli airstrikes targeted the warehouses at the same location in January 2021, according to Syria’s state news agency. The attack comes amid reports of indirect talks on reviving the nuclear deal between Iran and the US reaching an advanced stage.
- Why it matters: As talks advance, the US may be sending a message that even though it is working on reaching an agreement with Iran, it will continue to target Iran-backed groups in the region. Washington has refused to remove the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps from its list of terrorist organizations, which Tehran had previously demanded.
Turkey says it has no preconditions for dialogue with Syria
In a softening of its stance, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Ankara has no preconditions for dialogue with Syria but any talks should focus on security on their border.
- Background: Turkey cut ties with Damascus 10 years ago in response to the uprising in Syria and backed rebels fighting to topple the Bashar al-Assad regime. But Turkey has in recent years maintained contact with the regime, directly through intelligence channels and indirectly through the Astana Group process, which aims to solve the Syrian civil war.
- Why it matters: Turkish President Erdogan has indicated he wants to launch yet another military incursion into northeast Syria. Over decades of tension, Turkey has already launched three military operations against Kurdish fighters in Syria’s north, the latest of which was in 2019. Asked about prospects for talks, Cavusoglu said they would need to have specific goals. “No conditions for dialogue, but what is the aim, the target? It needs to be goal-oriented,” he said.
Beirut port silo collapses two years after fatal blast
The northern wheat silo damaged after the deadly Beirut port blast in 2020 collapsed on Tuesday, state-run NNA reported. A large dust cloud was sent into adjacent areas of the port after the implosion as smoke from fires continued rising from the debris.
- Background: On August 4, 2020, hundreds of metric tons of ammonium nitrate ignited, sparking a massive blast in the Lebanese capital’s port, killing more than 215 people and injuring thousands. The silos had been on fire since then. Over the past month, segments of the silos were collapsing gradually as the army continued cordoning the area.
- Why it matters: The silos had become a symbol of dysfunction in Lebanon. Earlier this year the government had rolled out a plan to demolish them. Civil society groups, who see the silos as a memorial to the blast, reacted with outrage, and the plan was scrapped.
What to watch
Water shortages have turned the lush green marshlands of Iraq into a desolate desert. Watch Jomana Karadsheh’s report on the effect of climate change in the country.
What’s trending
Lebanon: #Bachir_Gemayel
Twitter users in Lebanon are marking 40 years since Bashir Gemayel was elected President by the country’s parliament. He was assassinated before taking office in 1982.
A deeply divisive figure in Lebanon’s history, Gemayel founded and led the Lebanese Forces, the military wing of the Christian Phalange party that continues to play a role in the nation’s politics today. He was supported by many Lebanese Christians but considered a traitor by others for his cooperation with Israel, which invaded Lebanon in a 1982 war.
In October 2017, Habib al-Shartouni, a member of Lebanon’s Syrian Social Nationalist Party, was found guilty in absentia by a Lebanese court for planting the bomb that killed Gemayel.
Oman: #Turn_on_Discord
Omanis have turned to Twitter to complain about not being able to access popular social media platform Discord.
With over 150 million active monthly users, Discord plays a big role in the lives of gamers as it serves as a chat room for private games as well as those streaming their games.
Discord also grew to become a significant element in the utility function of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which are growing in popularity around the Gulf states.
An account that tracks Discord outages tweeted that the service has been banned in Oman. Oman’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority told CNN it couldn’t comment on the matter.
“I can name 10 other, more deserving services to be blocked in Oman, but you have gone ahead and blocked the useful one,” a disgruntled resident tweeted.
Saudi Arabia: #How_many_wives_would_you_take
Saudi men took to Twitter to ask each other how many wives they’d like to take.
While one user said marriage is not a “priority” for him, while another lamented that men could hardly attend to one wife. One user tweeted a photo with the number three.
Islam allows men to take up to four wives. While the practice isn’t widely adopted in the Muslim world, it isn’t uncommon either. Women can only take one husband.
According to the 2019 report by the Doha International Forum called State of Marriage in the Arab World, information on polygamy in Saudi Arabia is not readily available. Among the countries that were surveyed, Kuwait topped the list of polygamous countries with around 8% of married men having multiple wives.
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Depositors held up at least five separate banks around Lebanon on Friday in an attempt to retrieve savings frozen in the banking system, a Lebanese army official told CNN.
In one of the incidents an armed man entered a bank in the south Lebanese city of Ghazieh and poured gasoline on the floor of the building, threatening to burn the branch if he could not access his money, state news agency NNA reported.
He was able to retrieve $19,200 from the bank and handed it to someone who was waiting for him outside the bank, before handing himself in to authorities, NNA said.
In another incident under investigation, a man entered a branch of BLOM bank in Beirut’s Tariq al-Jdideh neighborhood, also trying to access his savings, the army official said.
The man was allegedly armed but the situation was “under control.. and no one was harmed,” a man, who claimed to be an eyewitness to the incident and was interviewed by local TV channel Al Jadeed said.
“It seems something was planned for this day,” the army official said. An investigation is ongoing, the army official told CNN.
Following the incidents, the caretaker Interior Minister, Bassam Mawlawi, called for an emergency security meeting to “discuss further security measures that can be taken in light of the increasing bank storming incidents,” NNA said.
Lebanon’s banks have locked most depositors out of their savings since an economic crisis took hold three years ago, leaving much of the population unable to pay for basics.
The holdups came two days after similar episodes unfolded at two different Beirut banks. In one, a woman named Sally Hafiz took $20,000 from her account after storming a bank holding what she later claimed was a toy gun, state news reported.
In a separate incident last month, an armed man stormed a Beirut bank and threatened to kill hostages and himself if the bank did not allow him to withdraw money from his frozen account. Bassam Sheikh Hussein claimed he needed the funds to help pay for his father’s medical expenses. The standoff ended when the bank gave Hussein some of his savings.
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Five Syrian soldiers were killed in Israeli airstrikes that targeted Damascus International Airport and other areas near the capital, the Syrian Defense Ministry said on Saturday.
The ministry said Israel had fired “bursts of missiles” from northeast of Lake Tiberias in Israel, targeting the airport and several security checkpoints south of the capital.
Syrian air defenses had shot down some of the missiles, it added.
There was no immediate confirmation if the strike has affected airport operations.
The Israel Defense Forces said that they would not comment on foreign media reports.
Israel’s military has been intensifying missile attacks on Syrian airports, saying that the strikes are meant to target Iranian forces and military assets and prevent Tehran from supplying arms to its allies in Syria, which since 2011 has been locked in a civil war that has killed more than 300,000 civilians.
An Israeli missile strike in the countryside around Damascus killed three Syrian soldiers last month. Air strikes in June put Damascus airport out of service for nearly two weeks.
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Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has ordered an investigation into the circumstances surrounding her death, Iranian state news agency ISNA reported on Friday.
On Tuesday evening, Mahsa Amini and her family, who had traveled from Iran’s Kurdistan region to visit relatives in the capital, Tehran, were stopped by a patrol of morality police — a dedicated unit that enforces strict dress codes for women, such as wearing the compulsory headscarf.
According to IranWire, human rights activists who have spoken to the family say the police grabbed Amini and forced her inside a police vehicle.
Her brother, Kiarash, attempted to intervene and was told his sister was being taken to the police station for one hour of “re-education,” IranWire reported.
Kiarash said he never saw his sister awake again.
While he was waiting outside the police station for her to be released, an ambulance pulled up and discreetly took his sister to the hospital.
In an interview with IranWire, Kiarash said he was told she had suffered a heart attack or a stroke while in the police station and that she was in a coma.
On Thursday, Tehran police said that Amini had suffered a “heart attack” following her arrest on Tuesday.
“The woman was sent to a Greater Tehran police precinct for guidance and education when suddenly, in the presence of other people, she had a heart attack,” the police said.
Amini’s family have questioned the version of events given by police, saying she was a normal, healthy 22-year-old with no pre-existing heart conditions.
“There were only two hours between her arrest and being taken to hospital,” Kiarash told IranWire.
A video released by Iranian state TV purported to show Amini walking into a “education” center where she would have been receiving “guidance” on proper Islamic attire, state media said.
The edited video shows CCTV footage of a woman taking a seat, then standing up to speak to an “expert” who touches her clothing, before she collapses onto the ground.
The following clip shows five men carrying her on a stretcher, apparently unconscious. An ambulance is then shown in another frame.
There’s an edit in the video at 19 seconds, after which the woman is seen standing up and speaking. Before the cut, it appears to be daylight outside. After the cut, it appears dark.
“Ms. Amini looks unwell and falls to the floor,” the state media reporter says.
It remains unknown what happened to Amini after her arrest and before she appeared at the re-education center. CNN is not able to verify that the woman in the video is Amini.
Iranian officials said Saturday they had conducted an autopsy on Amini’s body. Speaking on state TV the director of Iran’s Forensic Medical Organization, Mehdi Forozesh, said the results would be publicized after further examination by medical experts.
Jake Sullivan, National Security Adviser to US President Joe Biden, said in a tweet Friday the White House is deeply concerned about Amini’s death.
Amini, “was reportedly beaten in custody by Iran’s morality police. Her death is unforgivable. We will continue to hold Iranian officials accountable for such human right abuses,” Sullivan tweeted.
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Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei was seen attending an event at a mosque in Tehran on Saturday, according to pictures and a video published on Iran’s government websites and state media, one day after reports circulated about of his deteriorating health.
One picture showed Ayatollah Khamenei wearing a mask and greeting the crowd attending the ceremony, which marked the 40th day after the martyrdom of Imam Hussein.
Other pictures showed him seated on a chair to the right side of the room, holding prayer beads and looking at the imam delivering the sermon.
In a 12-minute video, the Ayatollah was seen listening and interacting during the event, where Shia worshipers gather to mark the end of a 40-day mourning period that commemorates the seventh-century death of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed. A video on state media showed Khamenei addressing the crowd at the event.
The New York Times said on Friday that Khamenei canceled all public appearances last week after falling “gravely ill” and was under observation by a team of doctors.
Citing four anonymous people familiar with his health situation, the Times reported Khamenei is on bed rest after undergoing surgery sometime last week for bowel obstruction.
The pictures posted on several of Iran’s media outlets indicate that the 83-year-old Ayatollah was physically able to appear in public at the event.
Ayatollah Khamenei has been the leader of Iran for the last three decades and is one of the longest serving rulers in the Middle East. It remains unclear who might succeed the leader, but it is expected that in the event of his death the Assembly of Experts will convene to discuss his successor.
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Abu Dhabi
Authorities in Saudi Arabia have confiscated 47 million amphetamine pills which were hidden in a flour shipment, in an operation described as the biggest one-time drug smuggling attempt in terms of narcotics seized.
The pills were confiscated at a warehouse after arriving through the dry port of the capital Riyadh, the Saudi Ministry of Interior said in a statement on Wednesday.
Eight people were arrested on suspicion of smuggling the drugs, according to a spokesperson for the General Directorate of Narcotics Control (GDNC).
Saudi’s GDNC tracked the shipment and raided the warehouse, arresting six Syrian and two Pakistani nationals on suspicion of smuggling the drugs.
“The suspects were arrested and faced legal measures and were referred to the public prosecution,” the statement said.
The GDNC did not name the drug seized or where it arrived from.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) previously said “reports of amphetamine seizures from countries in the Middle East continue to refer predominantly to tablets bearing the Captagon logo.”
Captagon was originally the brand name for a medicinal product containing the synthetic stimulant fenethylline. Though it is no longer produced legally, drugs carrying the Captagon name are regularly seized in the Middle East, according to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction.
The counterfeit Captagon tablets contain amphetamine as well as other chemicals, according to the UNODC.
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Hailed by Tehran as a successful entry into “a new stage of economic cooperation,” the soon-to-be accession comes as hopes to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement are diminishing, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has left the world in a state of polarization not seen since the Cold War.
Formed in 2001, the Asian bloc accounts for almost a third of the world’s economy. It includes ex-Soviet states Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, and more recently India and Pakistan. Iran had been an observer state since 2005.
While Iran’s bid for full membership was first approved last year, Wednesday’s decision comes at an awkward moment as both Iran and Western leaders had hoped that by now there would be an agreement on reviving the nuclear deal, says Trita Parsi, vice-president of the Quincy Institute in Washington, DC.
“Iran has managed to begin to break out of its isolation,” Parsi told CNN, noting that as the world turns multipolar, the West is now losing a key card it has long used to pressure Iran — namely the United States’ role as “a gatekeeper into the world economy.”
Western sanctions had been a major pressure point drawing Tehran to the negotiation table, some of which were meant to be lifted if the nuclear deal had been revived. Talks have, however, stalled once more and analysts say that both Iran and the West are preparing for a no-deal scenario.
While little material relief is likely to come out of the SCO membership, Iran is likely to use the optics of Wednesday’s signing to show the world that it is not alone, said Alex Vatanka, director of the Iran Program at the Middle East Institute.
“The symbolic aspect is undeniable,” he said, noting that in practice, however, it will mean very little in the short term for Iran.
On the sidelines of the summit, which took place on Thursday and Friday in the Uzbek city of Samarkand, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was pictured meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“In the short term, [Ebrahim] Raisi will get another smile from Vladimir Putin and some handshakes,” said Vatanka. “But it means nothing in economic terms.”
The alliance, therefore, seems mostly political, especially as Russia and China move away from the West and get closer to the Middle East.
“Iran interprets its membership in the framework of its regional security agenda of curtailing US regional influence and encroachments,” said Fardin Eftekhari, an expert on Iranian national security and foreign policymaking, noting that the SCO shouldn’t be compared to Western security blocs like NATO, primarily “due to its membership diversity and the lack of sustaining agenda.”
Tehran is therefore “testing a new pattern of multilateral security relationships within the SCO,” he added.
Some attribute Iran’s increasing alignment with Russia and China to the US’ failure to effectively leverage its influence while it still could.
The majority of UN Security Council states opposed using sanctions as a strategy to discipline Iran in 2020. Many states feared that it would only push Tehran into the arms of Russia and China, said Parsi.
But as former US President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018 and imposed a “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran, the Persian Gulf state started looking for new alliances.
In June, Iran also applied to join a group of emerging economies known as BRICS, which includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. It has been selling its crude to China in an effort to cling to its last economic lifeline as Western countries refuse to buy its oil.
Iran has also been selling what US officials believe are weapons-capable drones to Russia at a time when Moscow is waging the largest European war since 1945.
Iran’s relations with Russia and China are not, however, without complication. Iran shares a bitter history with Russia and has over the last 150 years looked westward for economic partners, according to Parsi.
Not only are Russia and Iran competitors within the oil market, but they also have little in common apart from their shared anti-Americanism, said Vatanka.
Iran’s famous 1979 revolution slogan, “Neither East, Nor West,” points to the degree to which both the Iranian people and the ruling elite wanted to avoid a scenario where dependence on either Russia or the US was necessary.
Yet Western attempts to isolate Iran have pushed it in a direction that analysts say might prove detrimental for Tehran in the long run, even if there is slight short-term relief to its crippled economy.
“Had it not been for 30 or 40 years of sanctions on Iran, I think we would have seen a very different orientation of Iran,” said Parsi, adding that while it wouldn’t have necessarily been completely allied to the West, Iran’s foreign policy would have at least been a balanced one where there is less dependency on the East.
“Russia and China alone cannot compensate for what Iran could have had if it had a slightly more mainstream foreign policy,” said Vatanka.
The digest
UAE foreign minister in Tel Aviv for two-year Abraham Accords anniversary
The United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan arrived in Israel’s Tel Aviv on Wednesday to mark two years since the signing of the Abraham Accords, the Emirati state news agency WAM said.
- Background: Sheikh Abdullah was set to meet Israel’s Prime Minister Yair Lapid at his residence in Jerusalem on Thursday, Israel’s government said. The visit will span several days to commemorate the normalization agreement, signed two years ago after the UAE formally ended its near-half-century boycott of Israel. This is the Emirati top diplomat’s second official visit to Israel. His first was to attend a meeting held in the southern Israeli city of Sde Boker in the Negev desert in March.
- Why it matters: The agreement opened doors to bilateral economic activity and security cooperation. Thousands of Israeli tourists now visit Dubai and other Emirati cities, while trade between both countries has steadily risen. The countries continue to cooperate on security and at a landmark meeting hosted by Israel in March, the UAE joined other Arab countries to demonstrate their newly formed close partnership.
Saudi crown prince to travel to London for condolences but won’t attend funeral
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) will travel to London on Sunday to pay his respects to King Charles III and express his condolences on the death of Queen Elizabeth II, but the Saudi royal will not attend the funeral of the late monarch on Monday, a source close to the Saudi royal family told CNN.
- Background: The crown prince will return to Saudi Arabia right after he offers his condolences, the source added. Another senior member of the Saudi royal family may attend the funeral, according to the source.
- Why it matters: MBS had avoided traveling to Western states since the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018 at the hands of Saudi agents. In July, he visited Greece and France, his first European Union trip since the murder. The crown prince last visited the UK in March 2018.
Five more banks in Lebanon held up by customers demanding access to savings
Customers held up at least five banks around Lebanon on Friday in an attempt to retrieve frozen savings just two days after the last such hostage situation, a Lebanese army official told CNN. In one incident, an armed man entered a bank and poured gasoline on the floor, threatening to burn the branch down if he wasn’t given access to his funds, state news agency NNA reported. He was able to retrieve around $19,000 and handed it to someone waiting outside the bank before handing himself to authorities.
- Background: Since October 2019, Lebanon has implemented severe restrictions on cash withdrawals as the country faces economic collapse. On Wednesday, two hostage situations at different banks took place in Beirut. In one incident, a woman managed to take a total of $20,000 from her account after taking hostages at a bank with a toy gun.
- Why it matters: Hostage takings are becoming more common in heavily armed Lebanon as citizens whose savings are frozen by banks say they are left with no option to retrieve their funds. In some cases, the hostage takers have said they have done so to help pay for their loved ones’ medical treatment.
What to watch
Under the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, Britian’s relationship with the Middle East significantly changed as colonial structures collapsed and strategic partnerships formed, some of which are sustained to this day.
Watch the full report with CNN’s Becky Anderson here:
Around the region
A coin dating back to a Jewish rebellion against Roman rule almost 2,000 years ago has been returned by the US to Israel following a joint smuggling investigation.
Minted in AD 69, the “exceedingly rare” quarter shekel is estimated to be worth over $1 million, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, which hosted a repatriation ceremony in New York on Monday.
The move comes 20 years after Israeli authorities first learned, via informants, that the silver coin had been discovered by antiquities looters in the Ella Valley, south of Jerusalem. It is believed to be one of a cache of coins found by thieves in the area, which is home to numerous important archeological sites.
Investigators say the item entered the black market before being smuggled to the UK through Jordan. It was then exported to the US using false paperwork. In 2017, Homeland Security officers seized the coin in Denver, Colorado, where it was due to be offered at auction.
The kingdom of Judaea fell under Roman control in AD 6, though resistance to imperial rule led to a series of revolts known as the Jewish-Roman Wars. The coin dates to the fourth year of the First Jewish Revolt, also known as the Great Jewish Revolt, which began in AD 66.
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An effort to save the Iran nuclear deal appeared to hang in the balance on Thursday after Washington said Tehran’s latest reply to the European Union proposal was “not constructive.”
A US State Department spokesperson said the United States had received Iran’s response to the EU bid to revive the 2015 deal and would formulate its own response.
“We are studying it and will respond through the EU, but unfortunately it is not constructive,” the State Department spokesperson said.
Iran sent its reply to the EU on Thursday after careful examination, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said in a statement on Telegram.
“The sent text has a constructive approach with the aim of finalizing the negotiations,” the statement said.
Early in August, EU officials sent the US and Iran what it called the “final text” of a revived deal to limit Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
Iran and the US have since exchanged responses on sticking points to fully implement the nuclear pact, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian both reiterated this week that a probe by the United Nations nuclear watchdog into uranium traces previously found at undeclared research sites in Iran would need to be closed before Tehran agreed to return to the deal.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi told CNN last week that his organization will not close the investigation unless it receives answers from Iran.
Amir-Abdollahian said during a press conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Wednesday that Iran is also seeking “stronger text on guarantees,” without specifically naming the assurances sought by Tehran.
US officials had previously voiced some optimism around the latest efforts to revive the nuclear deal, which the US left in 2018 during the Trump administration and which Tehran has increasingly violated since then. However, they also stressed that gaps remain between the two sides.
It is also expected to face significant domestic opposition from US congressional lawmakers, and has been denounced by Israel, whose prime minister said “will act to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear state.” The negotiations over the nuclear deal are also set against a backdrop of continued concerns about threats from Iranian and Iranian-backed military groups.
Biden administration officials have previously claimed that Tehran dropped a number of demands that were in earlier drafts of the text meant to restore the 2015 agreement, including the condition that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) be de-listed as a foreign terrorist organization.
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Police said he was under the influence of shabu, a methamphetamine, according to local papers.
Saudi media has been sounding the alarm lately over the rise in drug use, with one columnist describing shipments of narcotics to the kingdom as an “open war against us, more dangerous than any other war.”
The kingdom, they say, is one of the largest and most lucrative regional destinations for drugs, and that status is only intensifying.
Wednesday’s operation was the biggest single smuggling attempt in terms of narcotics seized, according to the General Directorate of Narcotics Control. While authorities didn’t name the drug seized or where it came from, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has previously said that “reports of amphetamine seizures from countries in the Middle East continue to refer predominantly to tablets bearing the Captagon logo.”
Captagon was originally the brand name for a medicinal product containing the synthetic stimulant fenethylline. Though it is no longer produced legally, counterfeit drugs carrying the captagon name are regularly seized in the Middle East, according to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction.
Drug busts of captagon in Saudi Arabia and around the region have grown over time. Earlier this week, A US Coast Guard boat seized 320 kilograms of amphetamine tablets and almost 3,000 kilograms of hashish worth millions of dollars from a fishing boat in the Gulf of Oman.
The drug was popularized in the kingdom some 15 years ago but has taken off more intensely in the past five years, “perhaps becoming on par with cannabis,” according to Vanda Felbab-Brown, a fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC, who has written on the topic.
One of the reasons captagon is spreading in use is “because there is a supply flood now coming mostly from Syria” where it is produced “on an industrial scale in the chemical factories inherited from the [Assad] regime” and supplied by warlords and affiliates of the regime.
Saudi Arabia’s Center for International Communication didn’t respond to CNN’s request for comment.
Captagon can be sold for between $10 and $25 a pill, meaning the latest Saudi haul, if it was the same drug, has a street value of up to $1.1 billion, based on figures from the International Addiction Review journal.
“Captagon’s amphetamine-type properties are sought out as a coping mechanism that can aid users facing food insecurity in staving hunger, and inducing a euphoric ‘rush’ that users have said to help with traumatic stress,” said Caroline Rose, a senior analyst at the New Lines Institute in Washington, D.C. who has studied the captagon trade. “It’s also been said that these same traits for captagon have been sought out by foreign workers in wealthy Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia, seen to aid work performance.”
While hashish and khat are also common drugs in the kingdom, amphetamines are popular among Saudi youth. A 2021 study in the journal of Crime, Law and Social Change cited a user as saying, “captagon is small. My school mates and I like it more than hashish. Not like hashish, we can buy in tablet……Once we get 25 riyals from [our] parents, we can buy one tablet and enjoy it.”
“In wealthier consumer markets, the drug has a different appeal, serving as a recreational activity amongst its growing youth population that, despite social reforms… have reportedly struggled with boredom amidst widespread youth unemployment and a lack of opportunities for leisurely activities,” said Rose. “Some consumers have justified captagon as less of a taboo substance, compared to ‘harder’ drugs like opiates and cocaine.”
Since many young people in Saudi Arabia have been taking drugs as a result of boredom and lack of social opportunities, the increased freedoms introduced by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman could help reduce some of that use, said Felbab-Brown.
“The important thing is neither to curtail the freedoms, nor to turn concerts into places of dragnets and raids, but rather to educate young people,”.
Over the past few years, a number of drug rehabilitation centers have popped up across the kingdom after the government began licensing private establishments.
Khalid Al Mashari, the CEO of Qaweem, one of the first such centers to open, says around four or five have opened in the past two years. That’s a testament to the government’s recognition of the importance of rehabilitation, he says, but it also shows that the problem is on the rise.
“We’re in high demand, unfortunately, “But at least people have an option now, instead of having to go to neighboring countries to seek treatment.”
Despite the presence of rehabilitation centers, Rose says there is little public health messaging or campaigning to raise awareness about captagon.
“While this taboo regarding drug consumption in the kingdom is not going anywhere, the government’s tendency to exclusively securitize this issue and downplay its role as a destination market will be harder to ignore,” she said.
Felbab-Brown says drug policies in the Middle East have focused on the harshest of responses.
“Unlike large parts of the world [that] have walked away from such rigid and mostly ineffective or outright counterproductive policies, the Middle East has often doubled down on them,” she said. “Imprisoning users is ineffective and counterproductive.”
The digest
US says Iran reply on EU proposal for revival of nuclear deal is “not constructive”
A State Department spokesperson said the US has received Iran’s reply to the US’ response an EU proposal for the revival of the nuclear deal on Thursday. “We are studying it and will respond through the EU, but unfortunately it is not constructive,” said the spokesperson. The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani earlier said Tehran’s response was sent after “carefully” examining it and “with the aim of finalizing the negotiations,” according to a statement.
- Background: Earlier this week during a press conference in Russia, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Iran needs guarantees that the US will not withdraw from the nuclear accord and reapply sanctions as happened under the Trump administration.
- Why it matters: The US and Iran have been trading responses to a “final” EU text aimed at reviving the 2015 nuclear deal. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has said he hopes the talks can be concluded in a matter of days. French President Macron also said on Thursday he hopes to conclude the talks in the next few days. It’s unclear how the talks will move forward from here as Iran continues to increase its uranium enrichment and break commitments under the nuclear deal.
Four killed during Shiite clashes in Iraq’s Basra
Clashes between rival Shiite groups killed four people in Iraq’s Basra on Thursday, as the fallout from the country’s worst political violence in years continues, Reuters reported. Basra is the main oil-producing city in Iraq and now violence has spread from Baghdad to the south.
- Background: The violence began earlier this week in Baghdad when powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr announced his resignation from political life. That move set off an intense round of political infighting between Iran-backed Shiite groups and al-Sadr’s supporters. Both sides have been trying to exert control since parliamentary elections in October 2021 saw Iran-backed blocs lose seats to Sadrists. Despite his win, al-Sadr failed to form a government amid opposition from his rivals.
- Why it matters: The episode served as a reminder of the fragility of the government in Baghdad, which remained largely neutral in the crisis, as well as the competing players at home and abroad that seek to control the country’s politics.
Turkish pop star could face up to 3 years in prison for joking about religious schools
Singer Gulsen Bayraktar Colakoglu, known as Gulsen, could face a prison sentence of up to three years over comments made during a concert in April, according to a 48-page indictment. The Istanbul chief prosecutors office brought charges of “inciting the public to hatred and enmity,” the indictment said.
- Background: Last week, Gulsen was jailed pending trial after a video circulating on social media showed her making a comment about religious schools in Turkey, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency. During a concert in April, Gulsen said, “[He] graduated from Imam Hatip [religious schools.] That’s where his pervert side comes from,” referring to a person on stage. The singer denied the charge, saying it was a joke, and apologized to those offended by her remarks. She has since been released from custody but placed under house arrest. An Istanbul criminal court will assess the indictment and decide to accept or refuse it. If accepted, the hearings will start and Gulsen will be brought before court.
- Why it matters: Gulsen has previously been targeted by Turkish conservative groups for her revealing stage outfits and support for the LGBTQ community. Her recent arrest sparked outrage and support from fans on social media. Some critics say it’s part of a move by Turkish officials to gain support from their religious and conservative base ahead of elections next year.
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Hamas executed five Palestinians in Gaza, including two on charges of cooperating with Israel, the militant group announced on Sunday – the first known executions in Gaza in more than five years.
In a statement, the Ministry of Interior said the two were convicted of communicating with “hostile foreign parties,” a reference to Israel.
In one case the information allegedly led to the “targeting and martyrdom of citizens,” while another was accused of supplying information on “resistance men, their places of residence, many of their jobs, the locations of launching rockets and blacksmithing workshops.”
The other three individuals executed were convicted of murder. The five executions announced Sunday bring the total executed by Hamas to 33 since the group took power in the coastal enclave in 2007.
The Ministry of Interior in Gaza said the executions were carried out “after all degrees of litigation have been exhausted,” and that the “convicts were granted their full right to defend themselves in accordance with the litigation procedures.”
It is unclear what form the trials took.
The last time Hamas is known to have executed people accused of collaborating with Israel, in April 2017, the human rights group Amnesty International criticized their trials as “unfair proceedings in military courts.”
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