Aug. 1 – Arab states have for the first time, called on the Palestinian militia group Hamas to disarm and give up its power in Palestine, following a joint declaration signed at a United Nations conference co-hosted by Saudi Arabia and France on Tuesday.
The declaration was signed by the Arab League, which is made up of 22 members including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt, alongside the whole of the European Union and a further 17 countries.
Hamas, which has in recent years been funded and backed by the Islamic Republic of Iran, is also a member of the regime ’s Axis of Resistance in the Middle East, which Middle Eastern countries say has become a destabilizing force in the region.
The Islamic Republic’s parliament approved an unusually high number of security-related bills following the Iran-Israel war in June.
The 12-day war, which included Israeli and U.S. attacks on critical nuclear and defense infrastructure inside Iran, was met with concerns that the regime’s defenses were less robust than previously thought.
The sheer volume of legislation being passed has been seen by some analysts as an attempt by the country’s parliament to play a greater role in security matters.
And a piece of legislation designed to suppress dissent inside Iran, dubbed the “fake news” bill, has been withdrawn by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s cabinet, following concerns that it could stoke a new wave of protests in the country.
The bill, which would have given the state extensive powers to quash political dissent online, was set aside after reformist and moderate groups said the legislation would further erode trust between the theocratic regime and the Iranian people.
The decision to withdraw the bill is likely to be opposed by hardliners, who make up the majority of the Islamic Republic’s Parliament.
