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Media Summary

Middle East cooperation in Jordanian particle accelerator

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The Guardian online includes a feature on the “Open Sesame” particle accelerator in Jordan. The article says that the project, which works similarly to the much larger facility at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland, is “bringing the Middle East together”. Countries participating in the project include Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Cyprus, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and two countries which have no relations with Israel – Iran and Bahrain.

The Independent reports that Iran has hastily installed the advanced Russian S-300 missile defence system around the former nuclear enrichment plant at Fordow. Enrichment operations at Fordow were thought to have ceased in January as part of the nuclear agreement reached last year between Iran and the P5+1 powers (US, UK, France, Russia, China and Germany).

The online editions of the Guardian, Times, Telegraph, and Financial Times, and the Independent all report that a senior ISIS commander, Abu Muhammed al-Adnani, described by some as the terror group’s number two, has been killed in Aleppo province in Syria. Some reports suggest that he may have been killed by a US-led coalition air strike.

Meanwhile, the Times online covers comments made by the Pentagon, in which US officials said that Turkey and Kurdish forces in Syria have reached a “loose agreement” to stop fighting each other and instead focus their efforts on combatting jihadist groups.

In the Israeli media, the top story in Maariv, which is also covered prominently in Yediot Ahronot and Israel Hayom, is the comments made by the Israel Police Commissioner, Roni Alsheich, who told an Israel Bar Association conference that it is “natural” for officers to be more suspicious of Ethiopian-Israelis as immigrant communities across the world are more likely to be involved in crime. Maariv highlights an outraged response from Ethiopian-Israeli community leaders. However, Israel Radio news says that Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan defended Alsheich, saying that he was describing the erroneous mindset of policemen in order to tackle the problem, rather than endorse it.

The NRG news site says that Likud and Jewish Home ministers have criticised Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman for agreeing to measures designed to increase Palestinian development in the West Bank, such as easing construction restrictions in Area C. The ministers have apparently accused Lieberman of having been manipulated by Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai into implementing such measures.

Israel Radio news reports that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is refusing to allow the return of his exiled rival Mohammed Dahlan to his Fatah faction despite pressure from a number of Arab states, including Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Dahlan is considered a powerful rival to Abbas and the wider attempt to return him to Fatah is thought to be an attempt to unify the faction prior to municipal elections in October, where Hamas will provide the main opposition.

The lead stories in Yediot Ahronot, Israel Hayom and Haaretz all relate to tomorrow’s start of the school year in Israel. Yediot Ahronot looks at the apparently high public cost of educating a single child through to the end of high school. Meanwhile, Israel Hayom leads with a poll which indicates that 64 per cent of parents believe that what they teach their children is more important than school.