After scrapping an agreement to receive over one million vaccines from Israel, the Palestinian Authority announced plans to renegotiate the deal. PA Health Minister Mai Alkaila confirmed that her office would discuss how to complete the implementation of the vaccination drive in a safe and effective manner with Pfizer and the Israeli Health Ministry.
At issue are 1.4 million unused doses that Israel had purchased and whose due date is set to expire at the end of June, late July, and late August. Jerusalem announced the planned transfer late last week and immediately sent an initial shipment of 100,000 vaccines to Ramallah. Under the terms of the deal, Israel was to hand over its soon-to-expire vaccines in exchange for an equivalent part of the PA’s shipment of fresh Pfizer inoculations, which are scheduled to arrive later in 2021.
But the PA reneged. “We won’t use them, and they will be returned [to Israel],” said Alkaila. The PA Health Ministry announced that it was returning 90,000 vaccine doses to the Jewish state, saying that they are set to expire on June 30.
Had Ramallah not retracted its rejection of the Pfizer vaccines, local media reported that three countries already contacted Israel about the possibility of obtaining those inoculations.
While life in Israel has largely returned to normal, the Palestinian Authority has struggled to vaccinate its public. Ramallah has cobbled together a response based largely on the international COVAX vaccine-sharing initiative through the World Health Organization.
The results of Iran’s presidential election show that the world must act to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said at the opening of his government’s first Sunday cabinet meeting.
Ebrahim Raisi, a judge responsible for tens of thousands of executions and who is under US sanctions for human-rights abuses, was elected president of the Islamic Republic on Saturday.
“Raisi’s election as president of Iran is a signal to world powers that they need to wake up,” Bennett said. “This may be the last signal a moment before returning to the Iran deal. They must understand who they’re doing business with and what kind of regime they are choosing to strengthen. A regime of executioners cannot have weapons of mass destruction,” Israel’s premier added.
Amid warnings from Israel over the election of Ebrahim Raisi in Iran, National Security adviser Jake Sullivan tells @GStephanopoulos the U.S. “paramount priority” is “to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.” https://t.co/PrcCGugq6i pic.twitter.com/9BctR2fseF
— ABC News (@ABC) June 20, 2021
Meanwhile, Hassan Nasrallah, head of the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group based in Lebanon, congratulated Raisi: “Your victory has renewed the hopes of the Iranian people and the people of the region who see you as a shield and a strong supporter… for the resistance against aggressors.”
Raisi’s election puts hardliners firmly in control of the government in Tehran as negotiations in Vienna continue to try and revive the 2015 accord meant to limit Iran’s nuclear program, at a time when the Islamic Republic is enriching uranium at its highest levels ever.
The government announced plans to ease restrictions on goods and mail entering and leaving the Gaza Strip, after a tight ban was imposed during last month’s conflict between Israel and Hamas. In addition, Saleh al-Ziq, a senior Gaza-based official in the Palestinian Authority Civil Affairs Commission, said that Gazans stuck abroad since the 11-day escalation of violence between the Jewish state and Palestinian terrorist groups would now be allowed to reenter the enclave via Israel’s Erez Crossing.
With a ceasefire between the two sides having ended the fighting in late May, local media reported that the United Nations will now play a role in facilitating the transfer of funds from Qatar to Gaza. The Palestinian Authority will reportedly not be involved in the cash transfers. Qatar announced shortly after the ceasefire went into effect that it would provide $500 million for Gaza’s reconstruction. Doha has denied frequent accusations that the money it sends goes to terror groups in the enclave.
Despite these conciliatory gestures, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, speaking at a memorial ceremony for those killed in the 2014 war in the Gaza Strip, sent a message to Hamas, warning that Israel’s “patience has run out.”
“The residents of the Gaza periphery are not second-class citizens,” Bennett said, and listed some of the towns and cities that have borne the brunt of rocket fire from the Strip: “Those who live in Sderot, Ashkelon, and Kfar Aza deserve to live in peace and security.”
In the week since the new government was formed, the Israeli Air Force has already bombed Gaza twice, in response to incendiary-carrying balloons launched from the Palestinian enclave, which caused large fires across southern Israel.
Israel’s Alternate Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid will in the next few weeks travel to the United Arab Emirates, marking the first visit to the Gulf state by an Israeli government minister since the signing of the historic Abraham Accords last year, local media reported. The trip would also mark Lapid’s first visit abroad as Israel’s top diplomat.
Last week the UAE joined leaders from around the world in congratulating Israel’s newly installed government, assembled by Lapid and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
The UAE Foreign Affairs Ministry said that it was looking forward to “working together to advance regional peace, strengthen tolerance and coexistence, and embark upon a new era of cooperation in technology, trade, and investment.”
The United Arab Emirates in 2020 became only the third Arab country to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel, under a deal brokered by the administration of former US President Donald Trump. Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan followed suit, signing similar normalization agreements with the Jewish state.
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