Michael Jansen

Middle East Contributor at Irish Times

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Articles

International aid ship en route to Gaza will be stopped, warns Israeli military

3 days ago | irishtimes.com | Michael Jansen

A ship belonging to an international non-profit organisation is nearing the critical stage of its journey to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza after a previous attempt failed due to a drone attack on a separate vessel in the Mediterranean. By Wednesday, Madleen, which belongs to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), had covered more than 700km of its 2,000km journey, skirting Greek territorial waters and entering the eastern Mediterranean. It set sail from the Italian port of Catania on Sunday.
Trump tells Iran sanctions will remain until it ends nuclear programme

4 days ago | irishtimes.com | Michael Jansen

US president Donald Trump has demanded Tehran dismantle its nuclear programme as the price for the lifting of sanctions which are crippling Iran’s economy. “WE WILL NOT ALLOW ANY ENRICHMENT OF URANIUM!” he wrote on his Truth Social on Monday night. Iran says its right to enrichment of uranium is non-negotiable.
‘Fresh ideas’ mooted to close gap in US-Iran N-deal talks

6 days ago | gulftoday.ae | Michael Jansen

Donald Trump has said he warned Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu against attacking Iran because Washington and Tehran are close to reaching a deal on limiting that country's nuclear programme in exchange for lifting sanctions. He said this would be an unprecedented agreement as US as well as UN inspectors would be included on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) teams monitoring Iran's nuclear sites.
Ivy fight

1 week ago | gulftoday.ae | Michael Jansen

Why is Donald Trump waging war on Harvard, the oldest and among the most prestigious universities in the United States and is ranked among the top five around the world? Founded 1636, 140 years before the Britain’s 13 North American colonies declared independence in 1776. The university was named after its first benefactor, John Harvard.
Palestinians wary as US-backed aid group begins operations in Gaza

1 week ago | irishtimes.com | Michael Jansen

Palestinians voiced wariness on Tuesday toward a US-backed foundation set to bring aid to Gaza amid signs of famine, with Hamas warnings about biometric screening procedures keeping many away from distribution points. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) said it began operations on Monday, but there was little indication of Palestinians turning up at distribution centres in southern Gaza even after almost three months of Israel blockading the enclave.
Iran will survive if nuclear deal not agreed with US, says president

1 week ago | irishtimes.com | Michael Jansen

Iran will find a way to survive if talks on a nuclear deal with the US fail and sanctions remain, the country’s president said on Monday. “It’s not like we will die of hunger if they refuse to negotiate with us or impose sanctions,” Masoud Pezeshkian said. His statement followed Sunday’s upbeat statement by US president Donald Trump that the latest round of negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme between Washington and Tehran was “very, very good”.
Gaza, from prosperity to below the poverty line

1 week ago | gulftoday.ae | Michael Jansen

For millennia Gaza served as a commercial hub and bridge between Egypt and the Eastern Arab World. Palestinian writer and activist Edward Said wrote about travelling from Cairo, where his family resided, through Gaza and Jerusalem en route to the Lebanese mountains to escape Egypt’s sweltering summers. Palestinian friends said their relatives living in Jerusalem would travel to Cairo via Gaza in winter to escape the cold.
Route to recovery

2 weeks ago | gulftoday.ae | Michael Jansen

In the good old days, it used to take three hours to travel in a service taxi from Beirut to Damascus. We swooped up Mount Lebanon along the wide Damascus highway through the towns of Aley, Bhamdoun and Sofar before slipping down to the fertile Bekaa Valley and beginning the second climb up the barren Anti-Lebanon range.
Tehran accuses US of lacking seriousness on deal to limit Iran’s nuclear programme

2 weeks ago | irishtimes.com | Michael Jansen

Tehran has accused Washington on Monday of lacking seriousness and goodwill during negotiations on a deal to limit Iran’s nuclear programme in return for the lifting of sanctions. Iranian ministry for foreign affairs spokesman Esmail Baghaei compared changes in the US position on uranium enrichment to a “game of snakes and ladders – just as we make progress, the US adopts a different stance”.
Lifting Syria sanctions a complex, time-taking task

2 weeks ago | gulftoday.ae | Michael Jansen

On the regional political front, Donald Trump's Gulf tour yielded positive results for Syrians and negative consequences for Palestinians. Following a meeting with Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, Trump announced an end to 49 years of punishing US sanctions on Syria. Following Trump’s change of policy, US secretary of state Marco Rubio and Syrian foreign minister Asaad al-Shaibani met in Turkey to discuss normalisation between the two countries.