On Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a group of ambassadors from several of NATO countries that Israeli intelligence had prevented “several dozen major terrorist attacks” on European cities, including some 9-11 type plots that “involved civil aviation”.
Pope Francis met with the grand imam of Cairo’s Al-Azhar Mosque at the Vatican on Monday, embracing his Sunni Muslim visitor in a sign of improved ties between the two religions.
On Monday, Pope Francis will host Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, Imam of Cairo’s Al-Azhar and considered to be the highest authority in Sunni Islam. This meeting puts the world’s 2.2 billion Catholics and 1.7 billion Sunni Muslims at the same table to discuss mutual interests for the first time.
Mustafa Mughniyeh has declared that Israel is a friend and a strategic ally opposite the Saudi enemy, and therefore, from this day on, there is no more war against Israel.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah appeared upset with reports that Sunni Arab leaders are increasingly viewing Israel as an ally in the fight against Iran.
The Saudi government has broken off all diplomatic ties with Iran on Sunday, with the Iranian government accusing the Saudis of stoking tensions in the Middle East.
The rapid (although not unpredicted) entry of radical Sunni jihadists into Mosul, Tikrit and other largely Sunni areas of Iraq, and their movement toward Baghdad, has prompted cries from left, right and center about the failure of U.S. policies in the region.
Sunni rebels, including al-Qaeda-linked fighters, have reportedly again taken control of a Maalloula, a symbolic Christian village northeast of the capital Syrian Damascus.