Most Gulf markets in red as Israel-Iran conflict escalates
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected U.S. President Donald Trump's demand for unconditional surrender on Wednesday, as Iranians jammed the highways out of Tehran fleeing from intensified Israeli airstrikes.
Saudi Arabia's benchmark index declined 1.2%, weighed down by a 3.3% slide in ACWA Power Company and a 2% drop in Saudi Arabian Mining Company.
Among other losers, Prince Waleed bin Talal-backed airline Flynas Company closed 3.4% lower in debut trade.
Elsewhere, oil giant Saudi Aramco eased 0.3%.
Additionally, investor uncertainty surrounding today's U.S. Federal Reserve meeting is contributing to the cautious mood, with most market participants expecting the central bank to hold interest rates steady, said Joseph Dahrieh, managing principal at Tickmill.
Dubai's main share index finished 1.2% lower, with blue-chip developer Emaar Properties losing 1.2%.
Most Gulf markets in red over Israel-Iran conflict worries
In Abu Dhabi, the index was down 0.4%.
Oil prices steadied, after a gain of 4% in the previous session, as markets weighed up the chance of supply disruptions from the Iran-Israel conflict and as they ponder a direct U.S. involvement.
The Qatari index lost 0.6%, with Qatar Gas Transport Nakilat falling 3.8%.
Outside the Gulf, Egypt's blue-chip index added 0.4%, helped by a 4.1% jump in Fawry for Banking Technology and Electronic Payment.
------------------------------------------ SAUDI ARABIA lost 1.2% to 10,591 Abu Dhabi down 0.4% to 9,496 Dubai dropped 1.2% to 5,306 QATAR fell 0.6% to 10,348 EGYPT rose 0.4% to 30,839 BAHRAIN declined 1.1% to 1,889 OMAN was flat at 4,520 KUWAIT retreated 1.6% to 8,544 ------------------------------------------
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Express Tribune
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Americans serving in IDF should lose US citizenship
Listen to article This would not be an extreme position but rather doing quite a simple thing, which is stating things as they are. Soldiers serving in national armies fighting for a cause are different from sports players playing for their league, where they keep shifting their loyalties based on whichever leagues they keep popping in and out of. Even soldiers in a mercenary army actually have one cause they fight for — money. American citizens travel to Israel and enlist in the Israeli army where they fight for Israel. Yet, somehow, this extremely bizarre thing is almost never frowned upon and not much discussed either. I remember the Obama administration revoked the US passport of Edward Snowden when he blew the whistle on the corrupt and unconstitutional workings of Obama's intelligence apparatus. Snowden basically leaked the fact that the dragnet styled bulk collection of the Obama administration meant active spying on American citizens, collecting every aspect of their digital lives and storing it in a database, violating countless constitutionally protected liberties of the American citizens. Snowden did not share intelligence collection methods and other details, which could have jeopardised foreign assets, yet President Obama revoked his US passport. The rationale cited was that Snowden harmed American national security. Let us look at the American citizens enlisting in the Israel (so called) Defense Forces. We know this much that one of the main reasons why Bin Laden turned against his former sponsor, Uncle Sam, was because of the blind American support given to Israel. The 9/11 attacks were nothing but an extreme case of blowback. American citizens actively fighting with the Israelis and killing innocent children in Gaza and elsewhere in Palestine will drive home further the fact that America is supporting the aggression against the Palestinians. That narrative didn't fail before in recruiting young men to sacrifice their lives for the sake of attacking America. There is no reason to believe it will fail this time around. In fact, now the cruelty by the Israelis is a lot more than before. And American citizens in bed with such a cruel force that kills children will only shift the target of that anger more toward America than toward Israel. Now, that is a much stronger case of harming and jeopardising American national security. Citing the same rationale that the Obama administration had employed in revoking Snowden's passport, it would only be reasonable to revoke the US passports of all those American citizens, born or naturalised, who go abroad and serve in Israeli or Ukrainian armies. Israel and Ukraine are merely names of countries that happen to be foreign. That is literally textbook practice of treason. I do not know why it shouldn't be called that. Unless the word treason is supposed to act silent in pronunciation, as many letters act in various English language words, the most reasonable and honest way one can describe an act of keeping one passport and serving in another national army is treason. Many in the US lifafa punditry would argue that Israel is a US ally and serving Israeli interests only means serving American interests. Nothing can be further from the truth than that white man made nonsense. Israel has on various occasions directly and indirectly acted as extremely harmful to US national security. Israel attacked USS Liberty in 1967, killing 34 sailors. It also shared sensitive US intelligence with the Soviets in order to gain the release of Ashkenazi Jews from Russia. Israel has also transferred military technology to China harming US interests. Israel sold weapons to Iran despite US support for Iraq against Iran in the 1980s. There are unconfirmed, yet, strong indications that Jeffrey Epstein was working for Mossad in compromising and influencing American politicians to compel them to steer US foreign policy in favour of Israel, even if it meant hurting American interests and credibility. Israel is not an American ally. You cannot even find that phrase in mainstream American commentary. Yet, Americans keep serving in that enemy state's army. For a free Palestine, we need a free America first.
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