 |
| • | Israel's government approved a plan to allow land registration in the occupied West Bank for the first time since 1967, a move that could pave the way for de facto annexation. The measures will tighten Israeli control over the West Bank and would make it easier for settlers to buy land. |
| • | The Palestinian Presidency and Jordan's Foreign Ministry have condemned the measures, which they say are aimed at annexation. The approval comes weeks after the cabinet first announced the measures, which sparked widespread condemnation from both Arab and Western states. |
| • | US President Donald Trump reportedly told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in December that he would support Israeli strikes on Iran's missile programme if Washington and Tehran failed to reach a deal, CBS News said, citing two sources. |
| • | Iranian media said talks were set to resume in Geneva on Tuesday, with Omani mediation. |
| • | Mr Netanyahu said yesterday that any deal should dismantle Iran's nuclear programme |
| • | Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi told the BBC on Sunday that the ball was "in America's court to prove that they want to do a deal". |
| • | US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a press conference in Bratislava that Mr Trump would prefer diplomacy and a negotiated settlement, while warning that it might not work. |
| • | Israel is overreacting to what it perceives as threats to its sovereignty, while Syria's authorities are keen on preserving the country's unity in a realistic manner, Foreign Minister Asaad Al Shibani said on a panel moderated by The National's Editor-in-Chief, Mina Al-Oraibi in Munich. |
| • | UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said more than a dozen countries are involved in arms flows to Sudan's warring parties, denying that the UAE sent UK weapons to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and called the allegations "unfounded." |
Other developments
| • | The US military pulled out from Shaddadi base in north-eastern Syria, state media reported yesterday. |
| • | Mr Trump said members of the Board of Peace have pledged more than $5 billion for Gaza aid and reconstruction, as the body prepares to meet for the first time next week. |
| • | Twelve Palestinians were killed in Israeli air strikes in the northern and southern Gaza Strip yesterday, Palestinian civil defence and health officials said. |
| • | Speaking to Hadley Gamble in Munich, Mr Al Shibani denied that Syria's minority groups had been subjected to violence, stating that their rights were protected. “There is no violence against minorities in Syria,” he said. “No, it has never happened in the past,” he stated when pressed again. |
| • | Mr Rubio said the US president had personally engaged with Syrian President Ahmad Al Shara to stop the fighting with Kurdish forces to avoid a jailbreak of ISIS prisoners and to allow for their transfer. |
| • | Former Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri suggested his Future Movement may run in the forthcoming parliamentary elections, four years after he withdrew himself and the party from front-line politics. |
| • | Turkey yesterday sent its deep-sea drilling vessel to Somalia for what its energy minister, Alparslan Bayraktar, said would be the country's first offshore exploration mission outside its own maritime zone. |
More goings-on
| • | President Sheikh Mohamed and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have reviewed efforts to advance bilateral ties during a phone call. |
| • | US forces have intercepted an Iran-linked oil tanker in the Indian Ocean whose crew was accused of evading sanctions. |
| • | At least four people were killed in an Israeli attack on a vehicle near Lebanon's border with Syria, according to the Lebanese health ministry. |
Happening today
| • | German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to visit Lebanon |
| • | King Abdullah II of Jordan in London |
Top picks from The National
Dispatch: Hunting for ISIS fighters deep in the Syrian desert, Nada Maucourant Atallah reports from Deir Ezzor
Report: As Syria inches towards integration, uneasy Kurds determined to protect hard-won rights
Editorial: Munich Security Conference cemented a fissure in the West the rest of the world must brace for
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