Over 12 Million People Between Syria And Iraq Risk Losing Access To Water
Plus: new Saudi climate policies, three Hamas members killed in Lebanon, UAE-Israel relations get stronger, and much more.
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Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia has mitigated its past resistance to bold climate policies. Saudi climate negotiators are "becoming more sensitive" to global climate initiatives. As a sign of the oil-producing region's surging interest in more proactive climate diplomacy efforts, the UAE won the bid to host the UN Climate Change Conference COP28 in 2023. The Gulf country is already home to the International Renewable Energy Agency. Neither the UAE nor Saudi Arabia is therefore phasing out fossil fuel. But while ensuring oil revenues keep flowing to sustain current social contracts that unite ruling families and local populations, Gulf states are also eyeing trillion-dollar green opportunities while planning for a post-oil future. Read more on Al-Monitor.
Saudi Arabia expects to post its first budget surplus in nearly ten years next year, as it plans to restrict public spending despite a surge in oil prices that helped to refill state coffers hammered by the coronavirus pandemic. After an expected fiscal deficit of 2.7 %of gross domestic product or GDP this year, Riyadh estimates it will achieve a surplus of 90 billion Saudi riyals ($23.99 bn), or 2.5 % of GDP, next year – its first surplus since it went into a deficit after oil prices crashed in 2014. Read more on Al-Jazeera.
Iraq – Syria climate disaster
The Euphrates has seen historically low levels since the beginning of this year, culminating in a drought hitting Syria's main agricultural region. The crisis has put more than 12 million people across Syria and Iraq at risk of losing access to water, food, and electricity and exposing them to deadly waterborne disease outbreaks. Between floods, wildfires, and earthquakes, climate disasters are responsible for 341,000 new displacements across the region in 2020. Read the full reporting by Tabitha Sanders on the New Arab.
Libya
According to authorities and Libyan media, shooters affiliated with military chief Khalifa Haftar clashed with local security forces in the southern Libyan city of Sabha on Monday, December 13. Observers fear that the country could return to fighting after a year-long ceasefire, just one week before Libyans head to the polls to cast their vote in a presidential election scheduled on December 24. However, it may still be called off due to legal doubts over the eligibility of candidates. Read the full reporting on Middle East Eye.
Tunisia
On Monday, December 13, Tunisian President Kais Saied said he would call a constitutional referendum next July, a year to the day after he seized broad powers in moves his opponents call a coup. He also added that parliamentary elections would follow at the end of 2022. A clear pathway to ordinary constitutional order may be necessary for Tunisia to secure international financial assistance as it struggles to finance its fiscal deficit and next year's budget as well as debt repayments. Read more on Reuters.
Egypt
Egypt's minister of petroleum and mineral resources says his government needs a guarantee from Washington that Cairo's involvement in the Arab Gas Pipeline project will be exempt from US sanctions on Syria. Egypt has agreed to a US-endorsed deal to transport Egyptian natural gas to Lebanon using the Arab Gas Pipeline, an existing transnational pipeline extending from Egypt to Lebanon through Jordan and Syria. For its participation in the World Bank-financed project, the Syrian government will receive in-kind compensation in gas supplies instead of cash payments. The Biden administration has downplayed concerns that the energy plan would violate US sanctions barring certain transactions with the Syrian government. But Egypt is seeking more explicit assurance that the pipeline project complies with US sanctions law. Read the full article on Al-Monitor.
Lebanon
Three members of the Islamist group Hamas were killed and others injured in a shooting on Sunday, December 12, in the Palestinian camp of Burj al-Shemali in Lebanon, the group said, blaming the bloodshed on rival forces loyal to the Palestinian Authority. Several armed Palestinian factions, including Hamas and the Fatah movement, hold effective control over roughly a dozen Palestinian camps in the country, which Lebanese authorities by custom do not enter. The Palestinian Authority and Hamas have been bitter rivals since the 2007 brief civil war in the Gaza Strip, which ended up in Hamas's control. The Palestinian Authority continued to have limited control of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Several reconciliation attempts have since failed to end the power-sharing disputes between the two sides. Read the full reporting on Reuters.
Israel - United Arab Emirates
The UAE's Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan hosted Israel's prime minister, Naftali Bennett, on Monday, December 13, in the first-ever public meeting between the United Arab Emirates' de facto ruler and an Israeli leader. Releasing photographs of Bennett and Sheikh Mohammed smiling and shaking hands, the Israeli leader's office described the meeting as "historic." A statement on state news agency WAM said Sheikh Mohammed voiced hope for "stability in the Middle East" and that Bennett's visit would "advance the cooperation relationship towards more positive steps in the interests of the people of the two nations and the region." The Palestinians, whose diplomacy with Israel has been stalled since 2014, have deplored the Israeli-Emirati rapprochement. Read more on Reuters.
That's all for this week. The main goal of Inshallah is hosting the best of journalism to give you the sharpest information about what is happening in the Middle East and not let you behind.
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About me
My name is Dario Sabaghi, a freelance journalist. I am interested in human rights and international news focusing on the MENA region.
Check out my work at dariosabaghi.com.
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Cover photo: Hadi Mizban/AP Source: npr.org