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Mansour Abbas Becomes Speaker of Israeli Knesset for 5 Days

Mansour Abbas. (AP)
Mansour Abbas. (AP)
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Mansour Abbas Becomes Speaker of Israeli Knesset for 5 Days

Mansour Abbas. (AP)
Mansour Abbas. (AP)

Amid strong opposition from the Israeli extreme right, the Knesset Committee appointed alternately MPs Mansour Abbas and Zvi Hauser as speakers from March 22 until April 4, because Speaker Mickey Levy will be traveling abroad.

Abbas is currently Deputy Speaker of the Knesset and leader of the United Arab List. He was appointed as the chair of Special Committee on Arab Society Affairs in the Knesset on April 27, 2021.

Under Israeli law, when the Israeli president is abroad, the speaker serves as acting president of the state.

On Monday, a number of right-wing deputies protested Abbas’s appointment.

MP Itamar Ben Gvir criticized the decision and described it as “dangerous.”

He said: “Imagine that the Arab Speaker of the Knesset will replace, by law, the Jewish president if the latter is absent.”

“Some people in the Knesset presidency have gone crazy, and we must act immediately,” he said.

Last week, Levy requested the Knesset Committee to approve the appointment of his two deputies as his replacements while he travels abroad for two weeks starting Tuesday.

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Iraq, UK Agree on Trade Package Worth up to $15 Billion, Defense Deal

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer (R) and Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (L) shake hands during their meeting in Downing Street in London, Britain, 14 January 2025. (EPA)
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer (R) and Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (L) shake hands during their meeting in Downing Street in London, Britain, 14 January 2025. (EPA)
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Iraq, UK Agree on Trade Package Worth up to $15 Billion, Defense Deal

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer (R) and Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (L) shake hands during their meeting in Downing Street in London, Britain, 14 January 2025. (EPA)
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer (R) and Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (L) shake hands during their meeting in Downing Street in London, Britain, 14 January 2025. (EPA)

Iraq and Britain have agreed on a trade package worth up to 12.3 billion pounds ($14.98 billion) and a bilateral defense deal, the Iraqi and British prime ministers said in a joint statement on Tuesday.

The deal, envisaging more than 10 times the total of bilateral trade in 2024, was announced after a meeting between Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and British counterpart Keir Starmer at the latter's Downing Street offices.

It includes a 1.2-billion-pound project in which British-made power transmission systems will be used for a grid interconnection project between Iraq and Saudi Arabia, as well as a 500-million-pound plan to upgrade the Al-Qayyarah air base in northern Iraq.

A water infrastructure project by a UK-led consortium that will help provide clean water in arid southern and western Iraq is also part of the deal, the statement said. The project would be worth up to 5.3 billion pounds in UK exports.

Sudani and Starmer also signed a defense deal that "establishes the basis for a new era in security cooperation".

Sudani said earlier that the UK-Iraqi security deal would develop bilateral military ties after last year's announcement that the US-led coalition set up to fight ISIS would end its work in Iraq in 2026.

The Iraqi premier began an official visit to the United Kingdom on Monday amid historic geopolitical shifts in the Middle East.

Iraq is trying to avoid becoming a conflict zone once again amid a period of regional upheaval that has seen Iran's allies Hamas degraded in Gaza and Hezbollah battered in Lebanon during wars with Israel, and Bashar al-Assad toppled in Syria.