Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, criticized Saudi Arabia’s control over Islam’s most sacred mosques in Mecca and Medina. He condemned Saudi Arabia’s handling of the 2015 stampede in Mecca where between 800 and 2,400 people died after two groups of worshipers collided. Among the dead included countless Iranians, which led to a falling out between the two rivals in 2016. Saudi Arabia, subsequently, prohibited Iranians from fulfilling one of the five pillars of Islam by barring them from participating in the 2016 haj. Khamenei declared that the site “belongs to all Muslims,” and breached the “inalienable right of the pilgrims” to “security.” Following the stampede, Ayatollah Khamenei officially rejected Saudi Arabia’s custodianship of the holy sites. As of March 2017, Saudi Arabia had invited Iranian Muslims to travel to Mecca once again.

Saudi Arabia’s renowned Oxford Aviation Academy announced on Wednesday that it will be training its first class of women pilots. The elite academy has received countless applications from hundreds of women hoping to start lessons in September at a new location in Dammam. The academy is part of a $300 million project that includes a school for aircraft maintenance and an international center for flight simulators at the airport. This is seen as a part of young Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s sweeping reforms to transform and diversify the economy. It comes after the lifting of the decades-long ban on women driving. “People used to travel abroad (to study aviation), which was difficult for women more than men,” said applicant Dalal Yashar, who aspires to work as a civil pilot. “We are no longer living in the era were women were allowed (to work) in limited arenas. All avenues are now opened for women. If you have the appetite, you have the ability.” 

On Wednesday, the Lebanese parliament announced that it will be reviewing legislation to legalize medicinal marijuana, according to its speaker, as authorities seek ways to revitalize the country’s struggling economy. With public debt at 150% of GDP, the third highest rate in the world, Lebanon charged consulting firm McKinsey & Company with setting out a vision to spark economic growth. McKinsey’s proposal, submitted this month to President Michel Aoun, included a recommendation to legalize and regulate the production and sale of marijuana. Lebanese lawmakers may soon take action, speaker Nabih Berri told the US ambassador to Lebanon, Elizabeth Richard. “Lebanon’s parliament is preparing to study and adopt the necessary laws to legalize the growth and consumption of hash for medicinal purposes, like a number of European countries and some US states,” said Berri. Currently, consuming, growing and selling marijuana are all illegal in Lebanon, but in the eastern Bekaa Valley, long marginalized by the central government, its widespread production has become a multi-million-dollar industry.

On Thursday, Israel’s parliament passed a controversial bill that recognizes Israel as the official national homeland of the Jewish people and asserts that “the realization of the right to national self-determination in Israel is unique to the Jewish people.” With 62 lawmakers voting in favor of the legislation and 55 opposing it, the law was passed after extensive debate on various clauses throughout the legislation. It includes phrases such as, “the state sees the development of Jewish settlement as a national value and will act to encourage and promote its establishment and consolidation.” Another clause declares that a “united Jerusalem” is the capital of Israel and that Hebrew is the country’s official language, demoting Arabic, spoken by 20% of the population, from an official language to one of “special” standing. In response, Arab MKs tore up the bill in protest and were removed from the proceedings. Ayman Odeh, the head of the Arab Joint List, pulled out a black flag and waved it during his speech, warning of the implications of the law. “This is an evil law,” he told lawmakers, adding that “a black flag hovers over it.” He later said in a statement, “Today, I will have to tell my children, along with all the children of Palestinian Arab towns … that the state has declared that it does not want us here. It has passed a law of Jewish supremacy and told us that we will always be second-class citizens.” Several American Jewish organizations also expressed their disapproval of the law. The American Jewish Committee, a group representing the Jewish Diaspora, said it was “deeply disappointed,” adding that the law “puts at risk the commitment of Israel’s founders to build a country that is both Jewish and democratic, while the president of J Street, a Washington liberal pro-Israel group, said the bill’s purpose is “to send a message to the Arab community, the LGBT community and other minorities in Israel, that they are not and never will be equal citizens.”

On Sunday evening, President Trump unleashed an especially blustering warning, via an all-caps tweet to the Iranian regime, that any threats to the United States would be met with unspecified dire consequences. The rant signified an escalation in the ongoing rhetorical wars between representatives of the two countries.

To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 23, 2018