The Times of Israel is liveblogging Tuesday’s developments as they unfold.
Netanyahu to meet Pompeo in Portugal
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel Wednesday to Lisbon, Portugal, to meet with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, amid spiraling tensions over Iran.
The trip comes a day after Netanyahu’s reported plans to meet Pompeo on the sidelines of the NATO conference were called off after London said the prime minister did not give organizers sufficient notice.
Netanyahu will return to Israel on Thursday.
As videos flood internet, analysts say Iran crackdown ‘way harsher’ than past
Videos showing harrowing scenes of bleeding protesters, burning roadblocks and snipers on rooftops have emerged after Iran lifted a near-total internet blackout, opening a window onto what analysts say was one of Tehran’s bloodiest crackdowns.
This repression “was harsher” than during previous protests in Iran, Kamran Matin, senior lecturer in International Relations at Sussex University in Britain, tells AFP in Nicosia.
“All the videos I have seen from before the internet was shut down show that from the moment of the gathering of people to ‘shoot to kill’ was very short.”
Many videos from some of the estimated 100 areas where demonstrations erupted appear to show security forces firing at close range at unarmed demonstrators or beating them with batons.
Shaky footage shows bloodied people prone on the street, shouts and panicked screaming as others rush to their aid.
Crowds can be heard chanting slogans against the security apparatus and the ruling elite, venting frustrations over high inflation and unemployment.
Liberman: I don’t know what’s worse, 3rd elections or narrow government
Yisrael Beytenu’s Avigdor Liberman now appears to be leaving the door open to the possibility of joining a narrow right-wing government, amid rumblings of discontent within his party.
“It’s hard to weigh what’s worse — early elections or a narrow government, but I understand the Yisrael Beytenu MKs who are protesting our conduct,” he tells the Knesset Channel.
Yesterday, at his faction meeting, Liberman referred to himself in the third person, asking, “What does Liberman really want?” Answering the question, he said, “Liberman wants a unity government. Unlike everyone else, Yisrael Beytenu was the only party that from the very first day of the election [campaign] said it wanted a unity government.
“The easiest path would have been for us to join a narrow government. We didn’t do it because the State of Israel needs a broad government. It needs a government made up of the two major parties or it will not be able to make the decisions it must make,” said Liberman, whose Yisrael Beytenu party holds eight parliamentary seats.
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