WASHINGTON: The Biden administration has determined that Iranian threats against former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and one of his former top aides remain credible and persist nearly two years after they left office.
The State Department notified Congress last week that both Pompeo and Brian Hook, who served as special representative for Iran during the Trump administration, were still both subject to a “serious and credible threat from a foreign power or agent of a foreign power” stemming from their work while in government.

RAMALLAH: Benjamin Netanyahu, who secured a mandate on Sunday to form a new government, is likely to stop arming Ukraine and might boost Israel’s relations with Moscow, which were damaged during Yair Lapid’s term as prime minister, analysts say. 

Yoni Ben-Menahem, senior rsearcher at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, told Arab News Netanyahu will take a pro-Moscow position and seek to repair Israel’s relations with Russia.

AL-MUKALLA: Police in the Yemeni city of Taiz have enforced a nighttime ban on guns and motorbikes and have launched operations to crack down on disorder, security officials said.

Lt. Col. Usama Al-Sharabi, a Taiz police spokesperson, told Arab News that security forces had been deployed in the Cairo, Salh, Al-Mudhaffar, and Ash Shamayatayn districts to hunt those who have wreaked havoc on the city in recent months.

He said the operation would put an end to drive-by shootings that have killed scores of military and security personnel.

RAMALLAH: Israel has decided to reverse its earlier decision to open the Allenby-King Hussein Bridge — the only international crossing that connects the West Bank to the outside world — around the clock and return to the working hours operated under the previous system.

The move, which came on Sunday, came after a pilot week of opening the bridge 24/7 at the request of US President Joe Biden and supported by US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides.

CAIRO: Egyptian-produced eco-friendly water bottles are taking pride of place on the tables of world leaders and delegates attending the COP27 climate summit.

The recently launched Good Water bottles are being distributed around a host of events taking place at the UN conference on climate change in Sharm El-Sheikh.