January 24 – Iran
Human rights
According to the human rights organization, Amnesty International, Iran detained 7,000 protesters and dissidents in 2018 alone. They include students, journalists, environmental activists, factory workers, lawyers, women’s rights activists fighting against forced wearing of headscarves, minority rights activists, human rights activists, and trade unionists protesting against the deepening economic crisis. Many of them were sentenced to long prison terms, flogging, and some died under suspicious circumstances. Amnesty is appealing to the UK Government to properly respond to the attacks on human rights defenders around the world, including in Iran.[1]
Full report from Amnesty International
February 3 – United Arab Emirates
Pope’s visit in the Arabian Peninsula
Pope Francis arrives in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the first ever visit of a leader of the Roman Catholic Church to the Arabian Peninsula. He is greeted by Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan. During this historic visit, the pontiff takes part in an interfaith conference and holds a mass attended by tens of thousands of people, mostly migrant workers from such countries as the Philippines, South America, and India. Through his visit the Pope hopes to open a dialogue about tolerance, and peaceful coexistence of different cultures. Although the UAE is more tolerant that other Muslim countries in the Gulf region and guarantees freedom of worship in its constitution, it also has strict laws against proselytizing by non-Muslims. Blasphemy and converting from Islam are strictly prohibited and those who do face harsh punishments, potentially including the death penalty.[2]
March 7 – Syria
Crimes against humanity in Syria
Twenty-eight Syrians, who were forced to flee Syria to Jordan as a result of the ongoing civil war, file lawsuits with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The lawsuit calls on the ICC to investigate the crimes against humanity committed since 2011 when the civil war has begun. Because Syria does not recognize the International Court and does not fall under its jurisdiction, the lawsuits were filed in Jordan, which is party to the ICC. The evidence includes testimonies from Syrian refugees who describe their experiences of bombings and torture.[3]
Effectiveness and legitimacy issues of the ICC (video: 02:35 min)
March 14 – Saudi Arabia / Yemen
War in Yemen
The United States Senate votes to withdraw the military aid for the Saudi-led coalition fighting the war in Yemen. The U.S. sells weapons to Saudi Arabia and provides logistical and intelligence support used in the Yemen air strikes. The bipartisan vote is a rebuke to President Donald Trump, a staunch supporter of Saudi Arabia. This non-binding resolution, however, is mostly symbolic as it still needs to clear in the House of Representatives, and is facing the presidential veto.[4]
According to the UN human rights office, OHCHR, the war in Yemen, since March 2015, has resulted in 18,173 of civilian casualties, which includes 7,025 killed and 11,148 injured. Some 3.3 million people have also been forced from their homes. Eighty percent of the 24-million people there is in need of humanitarian assistance and protection.[5]
April 10 – Israel
Elections
In the elections to the 120-seat Israeli parliament (Knesset), Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party receives 36 seats. His main contender, former military chief Benny Gantz, the leader of the Blue and White Alliance receives 35 seats. The Labor Party, once Israel’s powerful center-left party of Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres receives only six seats.[6] Netanyahu is expected to form a new government with his right-wing nationalist and religious parties and serve as prime minister for the fifth term. Despite facing three indictments of corruption, bribery, and fraud, Netanyahu was able to rally far right votes behind him promising that the new government would annex Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, which are considered illegal under international law.[7]
April 16 – Yemen
War in Yemen
United States President Donald Trump vetoes a bill ending U.S. support for Saudi-led coalition in the Yemen war. The bill was previously passed by members of both chambers of Congress in response to the humanitarian disaster in Yemen. President Trump says that the resolution is an attempt to weaken presidential powers.[8]
April 25 – Syria
War in Syria and human rights
Human rights organization Amnesty International issues an investigative report about the impact of the US-led coalition’s military campaign on the civilians in the Syrian city of Raqqa. Between June and October 2017, the coalition that includes the U.S., UK, and France, launched thousands of air and artillery strikes to oust the Islamic State (IS) from its self-designated capital in Raqqa. The report states that the Coalition claimed it had taken all necessary measures to spare civilians and admitted killing 159 civilians; however, Amnesty says that four months of relentless and reckless bombardment of Raqqa reduced the city’s homes, businesses and infrastructure to rubble, killing and injuring thousands of civilians. The report also states that such conduct violates the principles of distinction and proportionality – fundamental requirements of international humanitarian law. Disproportionate or indiscriminate attacks are war crimes.[9]
Report: War in Raqqa: Rhetoric versus Reality
June 24 – Iraq / Syria
Former IS fighters
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights calls on foreign governments to take responsibility and claim former Islamic State (IS) fighters and their families who are their citizens but are stuck in overcrowded squalid camps in Syria and Iraq since the collapse of the last IS strongholds. The UN organization highlights particularly the plight of the children in these camps.[10] According to a study prepared by the International Center for the Study of Radicalization (ICSR), 41,490 international citizens from 80 countries became affiliated with IS in Iraq and Syria, a quarter of which were women and children. Only about 20 percent of them have returned to their home countries, or are in repatriation processes to do so. Many countries are unwilling to allow repatriation and to recognize the children of IS members born in Syria and Iraq as citizens, despite their parents having nationality.[11]
Background: Infamous for its brutality and terror, the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS), so-called ‘caliphate, has been described as a hybrid terrorist organization and conventional army, a religious, millenarian group, an insurgency, and a pseudo-state, amongst others. Its propaganda reached a wide global audience like no other terrorist organization in history. At its peak in late 2014, the group controlled over 38,610 square miles of land and the 11 million residents therein. By 2017, the IS lost its territories, with many of its fighters and their families stuck in camps.[12]
The Rise and fall of the Islamic State
Has IS been defeated?
August 2 – Saudi Arabia
Male guardianship
Saudi Arabia relaxes the male guardianship rules giving women over 21 the right to apply for passports and travel independently. Women are also being given the right to register births, marriages or divorces. The guardianship system gives husbands, father, brothers, and other male relatives the right to make major life decisions about and for women. While the country’s leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, relaxes strict prohibitions on women, he has also cracked down on activists who campaign for women’s rights, detaining many and putting them on trial. The critics say this makes the Saudi Prince look good giving an appearance of the reforms coming from the government. However, women still need permission from male relatives to marry, or even leave prison if they have been detained. They still cannot pass on citizenship to their children, nor can they provide consent for their children to marry.[13]
‘Why I Fled Saudi Arabia And Sought Asylum In The UK’
Video (03:38 min)
September 17 – Israel
Elections
Israelis are voting in a snap election for members of parliament (the Knesset) after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to form a coalition government after the April elections. His Likud Party was unable to reach a deal with Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party over exempting ultra-Orthodox men from military service. On May 30, the Knesset voted to dissolve and scheduled new elections to prevent Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz from being appointed Prime Minister-designate.[14]
During the campaign Netanyahu, the longest serving prime minister who is seeking the fifth term, appealed to right wing parties by promising to annex the Jordan Valley and parts of the occupied West Bank, which is considered illegal under international law. Benny Gantz, a retired general and a centrist, promised a government that would end Israel’s divisions and work for the majority of the country’s citizens. He did not declare where he stands on annexation of Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley, or whether he accepts the idea of a Palestinian state.[15]
The new election, however, ends in a deadlock; Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likyd party loses several seats ending up with 32 (in the 120-seat Knesset), one seat behind Gantz’s Blue and White Party. Liberman’s party also gained several seats to an overall 8 seats.[16] It will take weeks to negotiate a new coalition government.
Israel’s election: The most important things to know
Israeli elections in 1 minute (video: 01:18 min)
October 6 – Syria
U.S. military withdrawal from Syria and Turkey’s incursion into Syria
The United States President Donald Trump orders American troops (about 1,000) to withdraw from northeastern Syria. The move is controversial and seen as a betrayal of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that consists mostly of the Kurdish fighters, and draws condemnation even from the President’s Republican allies. The Kurds have been key US allies in fighting the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) in Syria; they also guard thousands of IS fighters in prisons and camps in areas under their control and it is unclear whether they will be able to have them detained. It is feared that the destabilization of northern Syria could lead to jihadist resurgence. It is also feared that the U.S. withdrawal from northern Syria clears the way for Turkey to invade the area.[17]
(Oct 9): Turkey’s military launches an offensive on Kurdish–held areas in northeastern Syria. According to the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the operation is intended to create a “safe zone”, a buffer clear of Kurdish fighters regarded by Turkey as terrorists due to their ties with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkey. Turkey plans to repopulate the zone with about two million Syrian refugees that fled to Turkey as a result of the Syrian civil war.[18] The offensive is condemned by many countries around the world.
(Oct 16): The U.S. House of Representatives passes a joint resolution to rebuke President Trump’s decision to pull out the U.S. troops from Syria. It also calls for President Erdogan to cease military operations against Kurdish-led forces in Syria.[19] As a result of the incursion, 300,000 civilians are displaced and 120 civilian killed in 11 days.[20]
(Oct 22): Turkey and Russia make a pact according to which Russian and Syrian forces will oversee the Kurdish pullback from the border area about 20 miles deep and 260 miles along the Turkish border. After that Russian and Turkish militaries will patrol the area. The pact cements Turkey’s annexation of a significant part of Kurdish-held land in Syria where in the past few years they created a self-governing sub-region called Rojava. It also cements Russia’s status as the main power broker in the region.[21]
Turkey vs Syria’s Kurds
October 21 – Lebanon
Anti-government protests
After five days of mass anti-government protests and strikes across Lebanon, the government approves economic reforms that include cutting the country’s huge deficit, cutting the salaries of the politicians by half, and financial help for people in poverty. Initially, the protests erupted after the government announced a monthly tax on using WhatsApp, and although the government withdrew the proposed tax, protests continued with people turning their anger at corruption on the highest levels and deepening economic problems.[22]
(Oct 29): Amid continued protests and economic crisis, Prime Minister Saad Hariri and his coalition government resign.[23]
Background: Lebanon has the third highest public debt in the world, 147 percent of the country’s gross domestic products (GDP). Unemployment is close to 10 percent and 30 percent of people live below the poverty line.[24] The country’s public services, such as electricity and water, have been regularly disrupted.[25]
October 27 – Iraq / Syria
Islamic State
The leader of the Islamic State (IS) group and the world’s most wanted man, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, kills himself and two of his children by detonating a suicide vest during a military raid conducted by the US forces on a compound where he was hiding in Syria’s village of Barisha in northwestern Idlib Province.[26]
(Oct 31): Islamic State confirms the death of al-Baghdadi and announces that little known Abu Ibrahim al Hashimi al-Qurayshia become its new leader.[27]
Background: In 2014, Baghdadi announced the formation of the caliphate in areas belonging to Iraq and Syria and declared himself its leader. Baghdadi and his ISIL jihadist group were known for their brutality and atrocities committed under their rule, as well as various terrorist attacks around the world. Although the group steadily has lost most of its territory to Iraq and Syria, its fighters remain active and dangerous.
Who was Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi?
November 11 – Iraq
Protests in Iraq
The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) is urging the government of Iraq to stop violence against anti-government protesters and introduce meaningful reforms. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been protesting across the country since October 1 during which security forces killed at least 319 people. People demand more jobs, an end to corruption, and better public services. The UN Mission calls on the Iraqi government and politicians to immediately release all peaceful demonstrators detained recently and prosecute those responsible for the excessive use of force. They also call on Iraq to fulfill the promise to pass electoral reform and hold early elections.[28] The Iraqi economy has slowed down from 13.1 percent in 2016 to -2.1 percent in 2017 with unemployment at 16 percent.[29]
November 18: Israel / Palestinian Territories
Reversal of the U.S. policy on Israeli settlements in the West Bank
The United States declares that it no longer considers Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land of the West Bank to be illegal. These settlements are communities established by Israel on land occupied in the 1967 Middle East war. This declaration marks rejection of 2016 United Nations resolution that settlements on the West Bank are a ‘flagrant violation’ of international law and the US legal position on the issue since 1978. It is also a renunciation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which outlaws transfers of population by an occupying power. By shifting its policy on this issue, the U.S. breaks with the position of most of its allies. The US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo argues that the U.S. no longer views the Israeli settlements as inconsistent with international law and that it is for Israelis and Palestinians to negotiate their status.[30]
November 20 – Israel
Forming a government and inditement of Prime Minister
The leader of Israel’s Blue and White Party, Benny Gantz, announces that he is unable to form a coalition government. He was given the mandate to form a government by President Reuven Rivlin after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also failed to form a government. Both leaders were unable to agree a power-sharing deal and who would serve as prime minister first. In this situation, any member of the Knesset (parliament) can lead the government if he/she will collect at least 61 signatures within the next 21 days.[31] If this does not happen, Israel will hold another election. In the meantime, Netanyahu is serving as Israel’s caretaker prime minister.
(Nov 21): Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is indicted on charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust in connection with three different cases. The charges allege that Netanyahu received gifts while in office, worked out a deal for favorable press coverage by one Israeli newspaper in exchange for backing a bill that would weaken a rival newspaper, and made regulatory decisions that favored one telecommunications group in exchange for positive coverage on the news website. He denies any wrongdoing.[32]
December 12 – Israel
Politics: elections
After the politicians fail to form a majority coalition government, the Knesset approves March 2 as the next parliamentary elections, the third one in less than a year.[33]