Angel Petrov

Attention! Someone has taken over my previous X/Twitter account. DO NOT click links in messages from @angel_a_petrov. I may delete the old one even if I manage to get it back, we'll see (I go in touch with X). As Trump would put it, thank you for your attention to this matter!

איחוד האמירויות שתקה כל עוד ישראל הדליפה על ביקורים של בכירים ביטחוניים אבל נתניהו הוא עניין אחר. אני לא חושבת שמבינים בארץ עד כמה רדיאוקטיבי מבחינה בינלאומית וערבית לאחר המלחמה בעזה. אפילו איחוד האמירויות, שאימצה את הסכמי אברהם בלב שלם, עוינת את איראן והתקשורת בשליטתה מהדהדת מסרים ישראלים לעיתים קרובות, לא יכולה להודות בפגישות איתו. הדימוי של נתניהו בעולם ובלבנון היא אחת מהסיבות לסירוב של הנשיא הלבנוני עון להפגש איתו, למרות חולשת לבנון הנוכחית והלחצים האמריקנים. פגישה כזו תערער את התמיכה הפנימית בלבנון בנשיא עון ובכך גם תחליש את מי שדוחף פנימית בלבנון לפירוק חזבאללה מנשקו.

България в една снимка

Not very clear why Ziv Agmon talks of #Netanyahu being received in the #UAE's Abu Dhabi when Reuters sources and open-source data suggest it was Al Ain.

Bold move by #Lebanon! It’s not every day a country files a formal UN complaint against #Iran for multiple violations of international agreements, interfering in a country’s domestic affairs and dragging a country into a war that left thousands dead and many more wounded and displaced. But that’s precisely what the Lebanese government just did. It’s effectively a Declaration of Independence from Tehran’s heavy-handed control. And it’s a very welcome prelude to the start of the third round of talks with #Israel, due to start tomorrow. thisisbeirut.com.lb/articles/13337…

Is narrative management replacing strategic clarity? In the high-stakes game between the US and Iran, the Kurds are being cast in a role they didn't script. @yunusabakay deconstructs the "Kurdish card" in US-Iran strategy for @amwajmedia 👇

Video from my family’s building’s external security camera showing a Russian strike

Question is why would Israel make public the visit when UAE clearly does not want to acknowledge it? It suits Israel to tout the relationship but at the cost of burning UAE? nytimes.com/2026/05/13/wor…

Kyiv this morning

Added here : my own map of russian airstrikes from february to may 2026.

a political scandal (and appropriately so, as i said during the biden admin) when hunter biden traveled on af2 with his father, the then vice president, to advance business in china. it is under no circumstances okay when it’s the trumps doing it at far larger scale. ft.com/content/8fc422…

“Four years ago, the reason not to invest in Ukraine was the war. Two years ago, it was the war plus worries about Western support. But then, Ukrainian defense tech did something inconvenient for all these excuses — it scaled to levels few could have predicted,” – writes Hans Braunfisch, Geopolitics and strategy consultant, in his op-ed. kyivindependent.com/investors-have…

It's nearly official: #elections are imminent in #Israel Coalition files motion to dissolve Knesset, no date yet for election #1134499421" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">haaretz.com/israel-news/is…

What a contrast to the time #Netanyahu was just about to visit the #UAE upon his return to power in 2023, but it was the Emirates that discouraged him from following through, concerned over possible "tensions with #Iran".

Several people asked this question, so let me explain. I deeply believe the best opinion journalism is based on new reporting, so my columns are rooted in travel and reporting. In this case, I saw a story and pursued it, and because I'm a columnist it ran in the opinion section.

Of course Trump didn't mean he doesn't think about the Americans. But amidst the #IranWar and given widespread public dissatisfaction with it, this sentence was bound to live a life of its own.

RT @ragipsoylu: Fascinating story of a female Assad guard who would torture people one day and next day he would work as an hair dresser in…

I feel a deep urge to shove a piece of paper like this down the throat of everyone who says that things in Mariupol “aren’t so clear-cut.” Here’s what the owners of properties in Mariupol get now. I also know about the same in Berdyansk. “Russian Federation Donetsk People’s Republic ADMINISTRATION OF THE MARIUPOL CITY DISTRICT OF THE DONETSK PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC NOTICE The Administration of the Mariupol City District (hereinafter — the Administration), acting in the interests of the owner of the real estate property located at the following address (hereinafter — residential premises/apartment): [address handwritten] hereby notifies you of the following: Due to the absence of title documents for the specified real estate property, properly registered in accordance with the law, you are required within three working days to vacate the apartment and hand over the full set of keys to the residential premises to an authorized representative of the Administration. In the event of refusal to vacate or violation of the evacuation deadline from the specified residential premises, sanctions assumed by Article 19.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, and Articles 139 and 330 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, may be applied against you. Notified: (signature) — (full name) — (date:)”

Interesting

Multiple reports today indicate that Hamas operatives, using physical force and threats, blocked Palestinian workers and contractors, approved by the Board of Peace and Israeli authorities, from crossing the “Yellow Line” into the southern zone of the Gaza Strip, where Rafah once stood and where new temporary communities are planned. These sites are intended to move displaced Gazans out of rodent‑infested tents and into humane living conditions. The UAE has long backed this effort as an early step toward recovery, offering civilians an alternative to perpetual misery while the larger political and reconstruction questions remain unresolved. Hamas’s fascist leadership has no interest in any improvement in Gaza unless it directly empowers them, allowing them to siphon resources, rebuild capabilities, and maintain their stranglehold over two million Palestinians. This is why I have consistently argued that the only meaningful interim step is relocating civilians gradually, in phases, across the yellow line and out of Hamas’s reach. Doing so strips the terror group of its last remaining leverage: the ability to weaponize Gazans’ suffering to extract Arab, regional, and international concessions that keep it in power. Hamas can be defeated militarily, ideologically, economically, and socially, but none of that is possible while it maintains an unbroken grip over the population. It is astonishing that some in Europe and the broader international community still cling to the same development models that entrenched Hamas’s rule in the first place; promoting projects that ignore Hamas’s absolute control over the red zone west of the “Yellow Line” and indulging the very Band-Aid approaches the group relies on to create a normalcy bias that treats its perpetual rule as inevitable. There’s an alternate strategy: the international coalition’s approach in Mosul and Raqqa to defeat ISIS almost a decade ago. This entailed removing civilians from the terror group’s grip and areas of control first, confronting the militants, then beginning the long, difficult work of stabilization and recovery.