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Netanyahu Awaiting Results of US Midterm Elections Before Forming Govt

Netanyahu waves to the crown during a rally on November 2. (Reuters)
Netanyahu waves to the crown during a rally on November 2. (Reuters)
    Tel Aviv - Nazeer Magally
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Netanyahu Awaiting Results of US Midterm Elections Before Forming Govt

Netanyahu waves to the crown during a rally on November 2. (Reuters)
Netanyahu waves to the crown during a rally on November 2. (Reuters)

Israel's Likud party chief Benjamin Netanyahu met with the leaders of his allied right-wing and religious bloc in Jerusalem on Sunday for talks on forming the country’s next government.

However, political sources close to him said the former PM is waiting the results of Tuesday’s US midterm election before deciding on the final lineup of his cabinet.

Netanyahu believes that if the US Republican Party wins, he will have no problem forming a pure right-wing government.

However, if the Democratic Party remains dominant, the incoming PM would need a center party partner, fearing that President Joe Biden will exert pressure on his new government to respect the basic rights of Palestinians and halt settlement policies.

The sources said Netanyahu intends to retain the Ministry of Defense in order to lead future negotiations to expand his government to include Benny Gantz’s party and the United Arab List led by Knesset member Mansour Abbas.

Two of his closest associates are already competing for this portfolio, namely Avi Dichter, a former minister in one of Netanyahu’s governments and former Shin Bet director, and General Yoav Galant, former commander of the Southern Command in the army.

On Sunday, Netanyahu met heads of all the right-wing parties, except for the Jewish Power party leader Itamar Ben Gvir, who is on vacation.

The sources said Netanyahu already hinted he would not appoint Ben-Gvir as Defense Minister, upon the latter’s request, but is ready to give his ally the Public Security Ministry.

Netanyahu has pledged that negotiations to form his cabinet would not exceed more than two weeks, however, differences over ministerial positions may last for several weeks.

Last Tuesday, Netanyahu’s bloc won a total of 64 seats out of 120 in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.

When official results are published on November 9, President Isaac Herzog will kick off consultations with every party that made it into the Knesset to determine which lawmaker to select as Prime Minister.

He is expected to give Netanyahu the nod.

Netanyahu then has 28 days for negotiations to form a government. If he needs more time, Herzog can grant him a one-time extension of 14 days.

After the incoming PM successfully forms a cabinet, he would present it to parliament for approval.

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World

Türkiye Detains 125 ISIS Suspects in Nationwide Sweep

A general view of the house where Turkish security forces launched an operation believed to contain suspected ISIS militants, in Yalova province, Türkiye, December 29, 2025. (Reuters)
A general view of the house where Turkish security forces launched an operation believed to contain suspected ISIS militants, in Yalova province, Türkiye, December 29, 2025. (Reuters)
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Türkiye Detains 125 ISIS Suspects in Nationwide Sweep

A general view of the house where Turkish security forces launched an operation believed to contain suspected ISIS militants, in Yalova province, Türkiye, December 29, 2025. (Reuters)
A general view of the house where Turkish security forces launched an operation believed to contain suspected ISIS militants, in Yalova province, Türkiye, December 29, 2025. (Reuters)

Türkiye on Wednesday detained scores of people suspected of affiliation with the ISIS group during nationwide raids, the interior minister announced on X.

"We captured 125 ISIS suspects in simultaneous operations carried out in 25 provinces this morning," Ali Yerlikaya said.

World

Israel’s Mossad Tells Iranian Protesters ‘We Are with You'

Shopkeepers and traders protest in the street against the economic conditions and Iran's embattled currency in Tehran on December 29, 2025. (Handout / Fars News Agency / AFP)
Shopkeepers and traders protest in the street against the economic conditions and Iran's embattled currency in Tehran on December 29, 2025. (Handout / Fars News Agency / AFP)
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Israel’s Mossad Tells Iranian Protesters ‘We Are with You'

Shopkeepers and traders protest in the street against the economic conditions and Iran's embattled currency in Tehran on December 29, 2025. (Handout / Fars News Agency / AFP)
Shopkeepers and traders protest in the street against the economic conditions and Iran's embattled currency in Tehran on December 29, 2025. (Handout / Fars News Agency / AFP)

Israel's Mossad spy agency issued a direct call urging Iranians to press on with protests, saying it was supporting them "on the ground" as demonstrations spread in capital Tehran and other Iranian cities.

"Go out into the streets together. The time has come. We are with you," Mossad wrote in a post on its Farsi-language X account, Israel's army radio reported on Wednesday.

"Not just from a distance or through words. We are also with you on the ground."

Protests that began on Sunday with Tehran shopkeepers rallying against Iran's worsening economy have spread to other cities, drawing in students as well.

The Iranian rial has dropped against the US dollar and other world currencies, forcing up import prices and hurting retail traders.

The appeal also came after talks this week between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump, following which Trump warned Iran of fresh strikes if it rebuilt its nuclear or ballistic missile programs.

Arch-foes Iran and Israel fought a 12-day war earlier this year, after Israel launched a wave of strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities as well as residential areas, saying it aimed to cripple the country's atomic research and ballistic missile capabilities.

Iran responded with drone and missile attacks on Israel. Later in the conflict, the United States joined Israel in briefly targeting Iranian nuclear sites before a ceasefire was declared.

Iran, which does not recognize Israel, has long accused it of conducting sabotage operations against its nuclear facilities and assassinating its scientists.

It also backs militant groups around the region as part of its so-called "Axis of Resistance", including Lebanon's Hezbollah and the Palestinian movement Hamas, both of which Israel has fought major wars with Israel in the past two years.

Former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran in July 2024 in an attack attributed to Israel.

World

Global ‘Fragmentation’ Fueling World’s Crises, Warns UN Refugee Chief

Children play at the Balata camp for Palestinian refugees, east of Nablus in the occupied West Bank on December 30, 2025. (AFP)
Children play at the Balata camp for Palestinian refugees, east of Nablus in the occupied West Bank on December 30, 2025. (AFP)
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Global ‘Fragmentation’ Fueling World’s Crises, Warns UN Refugee Chief

Children play at the Balata camp for Palestinian refugees, east of Nablus in the occupied West Bank on December 30, 2025. (AFP)
Children play at the Balata camp for Palestinian refugees, east of Nablus in the occupied West Bank on December 30, 2025. (AFP)

The outgoing United Nations refugee chief fears an increasingly fragmented world is fueling global conflicts and crises, and inflaming hostility towards people desperately fleeing for safety.

Reflecting on his decade at the helm of the UNHCR, Filippo Grandi told AFP that one of the most worrying developments had been how divisions had left the world seemingly incapable of resolving conflicts -- and increasingly unwilling to deal with the repercussions.

"This fragmentation of geopolitics that has caused the emergence of so many crises is perhaps the most worrying thing," the Italian diplomat said in his final interview as UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

"This world is unable to make peace; has become totally unable to make peace."

Grandi meanwhile lamented a "race to the bottom" in terms of countries tightening laws and practices to keep asylum seekers and refugees out.

He noted "a growing hostility, a rhetoric by the populist politicians targeting and scapegoating people on the move".

- 'Horrifying violations' -

Speaking at UNHCR's Geneva headquarters a day before the end of his tenure, Grandi said he had been inspired over the past decade by how regular people worldwide showed kindness and hospitality to people on the move.

"In spite of all the politics, in spite of the real challenges that these movements represent," he said, there is still a "deeply entrenched sense that if somebody flees from danger, one has the responsibility to help".

He also highlighted inspiring moments, including in 2021 when he witnessed former Colombian president Ivan Duque grant legal status to 1.7 million Venezuelans.

And more recently, "at the border between Lebanon and Syria and talking to people who had made the choice to go back just a few weeks after the fall of the Assad regime".

But the exhilaration felt in such moments had been matched by the "anger and profound sadness" felt in others.

"The worst is always when you witness an exodus that is caused by the most horrifying violations of human rights," he said, pointing to Myanmar and Sudan.

On Thursday, Grandi, 68, will be handing over the UNHCR reins to Barham Salih, 65, Iraq's president from 2018 to 2022, who was once a refugee himself.

"He will be an excellent leader for this organization," Grandi said, adding though that he had warned Salih: "It will be tough".

- 'Very painful' -

Grandi acknowledged it was "very painful" to be leaving when his agency is going through a profound crisis.

The UNHCR, like many other UN agencies, has been clobbered by international aid cuts since US President Donald Trump returned to office in January, and numerous other leading donors have also tightened their purse-strings.

The deep cuts have forced the agency to reduce aid and shutter services -- at a time when global displacement is surging.

In June, the UNHCR estimated that more than 117 million people have fled from their homes -- a figure that has nearly doubled in the past decade.

"We had to reduce the organization by about a third," Grandi said, adding that "even more painful" was that the agency "had to reduce what we deliver to refugees, to displaced people, to stateless people around the world significantly".

Washington, traditionally the UN's biggest donor, has branded the United Nations bloated and inefficient, and on Monday warned its agencies to "adapt, shrink or die".

Grandi said reforms could be beneficial but fears that the current "criticism of multilateralism and the UN focuses on the wrong target".

"States need institutions that help them work together," he said, warning that the very concept of international cooperation appeared to be evaporating.

"What worries me most is this 'my country first' rhetoric," he said, stressing: "It's not just Washington -- it's global".

"When that slogan is applied to international challenges, it is weak."

Grandi insisted that "no country can do any of this alone, not even the United States".

"The challenges will hit us all, including those countries first... We need to work together."