Senior Hamas official Mahmud Zahar said on Monday, January 23, that the Palestinian terrorist group will never give up its armed struggled against Israel, Agence France-Presse reported. “We are fighting for our dignity and rights. Jihad is our path, our life, our pride and we will not renounce it no matter the sacrifices,” said Zahar, quoted on the website of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing. Hamas will “never give up its armed struggle against the Zionist enemy,” he said during a speech in Zeitun, a neighborhood in east Gaza. The statement comes as Gaza Strip officials openly attacked the movement’s leader-in-exile Khaled Meshaal, who has decided not to run again this summer for the leadership of Hamas, for prioritizing “peaceful resistance.” The next elections for chief of Hamas’ political bureau are expected to be held in July or August, Hamas sources have said. Among the leading candidates to replace Meshaal are his number two, Mussa Abu Marzuq, who also lives in exile, the leader of the Hamas government in Gaza, Ismail Haniya, and Zahar.

Frustrated by Iran’s continued nuclear efforts, key U.S. lawmakers on Monday, January 30, unveiled plans for more economic and political sanctions aimed at Tehran, Agence France-Presse reported. Democratic Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Johnson and the panel’s top Republican, Senator Richard Shelby, said the panel would vote on their “Iran Sanctions, Accountability and Human Rights Act” on Thursday. “Iran’s continuing defiance of its international legal obligations and refusal to come clean on its nuclear program underscore the need to further isolate Iran and its leaders,” said Johnson. The legislation “sends a clear signal through strong measures that Iran must abandon its nuclear weapons program and its designs for the spread of international terror,” said Shelby. The draft legislation would target companies that do business with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as companies that supply Iran with equipment used to commit human rights abuses. It could also give the United States the authority to sanction foreign companies that buy oil from the National Iranian Oil Company or have it shipped by the National Iranian Tanker Company. The House of Representatives passed companion legislation in mid-December with many similar provisions.

The question of Iranian influence in Iraq has long been a concern, NPR reported on December 14. "Everyone knows how dangerous the Iranian influence is. My advice ... to Maliki [is] ... Look into your people and bring them together. Don't look at outsiders to support you. You should get support from within," says the spokesperson for the predominantly Sunni Iraqiya party Maysoun al-Damalouji. Though al-Damalouji's party won the national elections last year, Iran stepped in to help form a larger Shiite coalition that managed to keep Maliki, a Shiite, in power. Damalouji says this means Maliki owes Iran a few favors — whether it's support for the leader of Iran's other major Arab ally, Syria, or opposing the return of American military trainers to Iraq.

Low-level Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that were scheduled to conclude on January 26 will continue for another month, The Jerusalem Post reported Monday, January 30. According to a report on Israeli Army Radio, the Palestinian representative to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean announced the Palestinian intention to continue the talks until March during the organization’s 19th bureau meeting in Amman on Monday. Israeli representative Molcho and Palestinian negotiator Erekat have met 5 times in Jordan-sponsored talks in accordance with a Quartet plan, in which the sides were to agree upon a framework for high-level talks. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday was somewhat pessimistic about the prospects of future peace talks with the Palestinians, but expressed hope that exploratory talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in Amman would act as a springboard for direct negotiations. The prime minister stated that Israel was interested in continuing exploratory talks with the Palestinians with a view of moving towards “concrete negotiations.” He was critical of the Palestinians, saying that, thus far, “they have refused to discuss with us our security needs.”

Jordan's King Abdullah met with President Barack Obama at the White House on January 17. In his remarks, the King said, "Although this is still in the very early stages, we have to keep our fingers crossed and hope that we can bring the Israelis and Palestinians out of the impasse that we’re facing.  We’re in coordination on a regular basis with the President, as well as with his administration. We’re very, very grateful to the economic support that you’re showing Jordan in this very difficult time.  As we move into political reform, obviously the economy and the situation that challenges the livelihood of Jordanians is very, very important as we move forward.  But we are very, very optimistic.  We had the opportunity to talk about the full impact with the President this afternoon."

Hizballah is believed to have taken advantage of the ongoing upheaval in Syria to obtain advanced weapons systems, including long-range rockets and Russian-made air-defense systems, The Jerusalem Post reported Thursday, January 19. While the Lebanese terrorist group is known to have a large quantity of shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles, the Israeli military now assumes that the group has received the SA-8, a truck-mounted surface-to-air missile system reported to have a range of 30 kilometers. In addition, Hizballah is believed to have received several dozen more M600 long-range missiles, as well as additional 302 mm. Khaibar-1 rockets, which have a range of about 100 kilometers. Israel is particularly concerned with the possibility that Syria’s arsenal of chemical weapons will fall into terrorist hands, amid predictions that President Bashar Assad’s regime will fall in the coming months. Syria has one of the most extensive chemical weapon arsenals in the world, reportedly including sarin, VX and mustard gas.

Ali Naimi, Saudi Arabia’s oil minister, has insisted the kingdom will be able to make up for any disruptions to global oil supplies, amid mounting tensions over the European embargo on Iranian oil, the Financial Times reported Monday, January 30. Without naming Iran, Naimi told an audience in London that Saudi Arabia would continue to be a “reliable, steady and dependable supplier of energy to the world”. He cited the example of Libya last year, when the kingdom increased oil output to make up for the volumes lost during the North African country’s civil war. His comments came as Iran ramped up its criticism of the Saudis, with a senior Iranian official describing the Saudi royal family as “tyrant rulers”. The remarks highlighted Tehran’s frustration over Saudi Arabia’s willingness to make up for Iranian oil blocked from entering Europe as a result of the E.U. decision to ban Iranian oil imports. Analysts agree that oil markets should be able to cope with any disruption caused by the E.U. ban given a weak global economic outlook that has softened oil demand.

As Syrian forces pushed rebels back from strongholds near Damascus on Monday, January 30, some of the world’s top diplomats converged on the United Nations to try to press President Bashar Assad to leave office through a Security Council resolution, The New York Times reported. Much of the attention focused on Russia, which stoutly opposes an Arab League proposal, backed by Western and Arab diplomats, that calls for Assad to cede power as part of a transition to democracy. “We have seen the consequences of neglect and inaction by this Council over the course of the last 10 months, not because the majority of the Council isn’t eager to act — it has been,” U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said. If negotiations fail again this week, she said, the risk is “more violence and intensified chaos.” That prediction was already happening in Syria on Monday, as the Syrian Army besieged several towns on the outskirts of Damascus that had been under rebel control. The death toll on Monday was estimated in the dozens in a conflict that has caused more than 5,400 civilian deaths according to the United Nations.

Turkey is preparing to sue the Iranian government because the latter has declined to reduce the price of natural gas it sells unless a consensus is reached by the end of this week, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yıldız told reporters in Ankara on January 16. Yıldız said the Turkish government had earlier requested that Iran discount the price of natural gas Turkey buys from this country; however, the eastern neighbor rejected this demand. “We carried out a comprehensive study that determined that the amount of money we pay Iran for natural gas is too high. … We shared this with Iranian officials, but apparently they disagree with us,” Yıldız explained. Underlining that the government has to “protect the public interest” in any international agreement, Yıldız said the government has considered taking the issue to an international court of arbitration. “We are determined to take this step unless a desired solution is reached with Iran,” the minister said, adding that the Turkish side is ready to sit down to discuss the issue once again before the end of this week. Turkey depends on Iran for one-third of its natural gas imports.