I haven’t seen such relentless interrogation of Palestinian leadership before, esp. in Arabic.
On Saudi Arabia’s main TV channel, Hamas leader is clearly startled by the intensity of the questions & responses to his answers.
Crucial points in next tweets
One of the most significant ones to Hamas leader by the Saudi TV interviewer is why Hamas expects Arab countries to back them up when Hamas hadn’t consulted them before carrying out an operation akin to declaration of war.
‘You didn’t consult even fellow Palestinians.’
Hamas leader gets visibly angry when she asks him if he would condemn Israeli civilian killings.
The interview is clearly very strategic, & can further reveal where Saudi Arabia stands on the issue.
A repeated question throughout is about Hamas expecting others to join in despite it making a unilateral decision it knew would have Israel respond with unprecedented brutality
Another key question is why your backers in Iran and Hizbollah didn’t intervene or back you back as you expect other countries to do so.
“Did Iran do what you expected it to do?”
The final point is one you just wouldn’t expect to hear on an Arabic television channel, accusing Hamas of being ISIS, of making the world sympathize with the Israelis and that Israel reacted to Hamas targeting of civilians.
A gaffe by Hamas leader is to dismiss civilian casualties as a natural consequence of wars. Something we’ve heard from the Israelis to justify the killing of civilians in Gaza (Hamas has previously blamed civilians in Gaza for the killings of Israeli civilians on Oct 7.)
Here is where Hamas threw the innocent people of Gaza under the bus in its attempt to excuse the targeting of civilians
We had a few important stories to make sense of this conflict, some on the way next week. Follow @newlinesmag, and sign up to receive our *free* essays (one essay a day, or all once a week) newlinesmag.com/become-a-membe…
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Two crucial points. Al Faisal isn’t an official, but you can think of this speech as the *clearest* indicator of the Saudi leadership’s thinking beyond the generic official remarks. Thus: Saudi is messaging that the Gaza war must NOT end the Saudi-Israeli normalization talks 1/2
Second, and despite the growing conventional wisdom about this, I never believed even for a second that the latest round of the conflict has sabotaged the Saudi-Israeli normalization talks.
They’ll be resumed, albeit in greater secrecy than for a while until progress is made.
ISIS announces its leader Abu al-Hassan Al-Qurashi has been killed in action, and declares Abu al-Hussain al-Hussaini al-Qurashi as its new leader.
[Important to note that this is quite possibly a fake announcement. See next tweets]
Scenario 1 is that the ISIS leader was killed "accidentally" during a raid or fighting without him being known to whoever killed him (the US, Iraqis, Kurds) so those did not know they killed the leader.
That'd be unprecedented, but possible.
Another scenario is this is fake:
The above scenario wouldn't explain basic information we already have. The suspected leader was arrested by Turkey, confessed he was made a leader against his wishes middleeasteye.net/news/turkey-is… catching an ISIS leader alive would be unprecedented, & extremely damaging to the group >>
#important Our institute has released a significant and legally-reviewed report detailing evidence of how Russia is inciting genocide in Ukraine. Tremendous work in @NewlinesInst - coverage of the report in @nytimes here
Gonna summarize the new release by the Islamic State (ISIS) about the killing of its leader and the appointment of a new leader. The release is by its new leader Abu Omar al-Muhajir.
The release, titled "Of them were some who passed away," reveals that both the leader Qardash and his spokesman Abu Hamza al-Qurashi (who died on February 3, in a US special forces raid in northern Syria). The group offers different details.
The ISIS release by the new spokesman mentions the two died in the past few days (so this was recorded a month ago, but only now released). He claims the two died standing and fighting.
Afghan businessman @BarakShoaib, once a symbol of everything the U.S. claimed to support during the war against the Taliban, pens a powerful essay on the U.S. sanctions, their immorality and the profound betrayal they symbolize | New Lines Magazine apple.news/Ax8qjKV4USW2GY…
“Since the day the U.S. froze the reserves of Afghanistan’s Central Bank, I have had almost no access to the more than $3 million in my bank accounts. I probably never will again.” apple.news/Ax8qjKV4USW2GY…
The construction, mining and food companies I own, which used to have annual revenues of over $40 million, are in danger of folding entirely. apple.news/Ax8qjKV4USW2GY…
In an interview, former Qatari foreign minister on the Gulf states’ alliance with the U.S. versus Russia and China: the US is easier, as long you’re straight with them, not as difficult as others, and Russia/China are “dictatorships like us” via @YouTube
The US told former Yemeni president Ali Abdallah Saleh about their intention to attack Iraq from the sea rather than from the nature continuous land near Kuwait, because they knew Saleh was leaking messages over to Saddam — former Qatari FM
Former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was killed and by people close to him, according to former Qatari FM (who says this was a confirmed fact, not just a possibility, and part of the story happened in his own office)