标签： Asia

The detention of two humanitarian activists by Israeli forces in international waters has sparked international outcry, as legal representatives reveal the pair have been subjected to routine psychological abuse, poor detention conditions and explicit threats of death or decades-long imprisonment. The two men — Thiago Avila, a Brazilian national, and Saif Abu Keshek, a Spanish-Swedish citizen of Palestinian descent — were seized last Wednesday when Israeli naval forces intercepted the Global Sumud Flotilla, a civilian convoy carrying humanitarian aid to the blockaded Gaza Strip, approximately 600 nautical miles off Gaza’s coast near the Greek island of Crete.

In total, Israeli forces intercepted at least 21 vessels during the raid, detaining 175 activists across the convoy. Flotilla organizers have labeled the interception, which took place far outside Israel’s recognized territorial boundaries, as an unambiguous act of piracy on the high seas.

Adalah, the Israeli legal center representing Avila and Abu Keshek, released a detailed statement on Monday outlining the abusive conditions the two men have endured since their capture. Both have been held in solitary confinement for more than a week, held in cells kept at extremely low temperatures and illuminated by constant bright lighting — a well-documented coercive tactic used to induce sleep deprivation and psychological disorientation. Whenever the pair are removed from their cells, even for scheduled medical check-ups, they are forced to wear blindfolds, a practice Adalah says constitutes a severe violation of international medical ethics.

Avila has been subjected to repeated interrogations lasting as long as eight hours at a time, during which interrogators allegedly threatened that he and Abu Keshek would either be killed or locked away for a century. Both men deny the multiple serious charges filed against them, which include assisting an enemy during wartime, maintaining contact with a foreign agent, membership in a designated terrorist organization, providing services to that group, and transferring funds to the organization.

In protest against their unlawful seizure and abusive detention conditions, Avila and Abu Keshek have entered their sixth day of a hunger strike. Last Tuesday, an Ashkelon District Court extended their pre-trial detention until Sunday. Legal team members Hadeel Abu Salih and Lubna Tuma argued in court that the entire case is fundamentally flawed and illegal, emphasizing that Israel has no legal jurisdiction to apply its domestic law to foreign nationals seized in international waters far from its own territory.

The interception has already drawn formal condemnation from the activists’ home countries. On Friday, the governments of Spain and Brazil released a joint statement declaring the detention of Avila and Abu Keshek to be illegal under international law.

For more than a decade, Dubai has reigned as one of the world’s most iconic global tourism and business hubs, drawing millions of international visitors, transiting passengers and foreign investors drawn to its reputation as a stable, conflict-free oasis in the Middle East. But today, that standing is facing an unprecedented threat, sparked by escalating regional conflict between the U.S., Israel and Iran that has sent tourism numbers plummeting, triggered widespread hotel shutdowns and mass job losses across the emirate’s critical hospitality sector.

New data released by Dubai Airports this week underscores the severity of the downturn. First-quarter 2026 passenger traffic fell by a minimum of 2.5 million compared to the same period in 2025, with March alone seeing a staggering 66% drop in arrivals as international travelers deliberately avoid the Gulf amid rising security fears. The sharp decline comes in the wake of Iran’s retaliatory drone and missile strikes against Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states that host or cooperate closely with U.S. military forces, a escalation that followed months of rising tensions across the region.

In a urgent bid to reverse the collapse in visitor numbers, UAE authorities announced Saturday that all air travel restrictions imposed after Iran’s strikes have been fully lifted. The country’s Civil Aviation Authority confirmed the decision in an official post on its X account, noting the move followed a full review of operational and security conditions conducted in coordination with local security agencies. The policy shift is widely interpreted as a deliberate signal to reassure jittery international travelers, particularly after multiple major European carriers announced temporary suspensions of all flights to the Middle East over safety and insurance concerns.

Despite the government’s confidence-building move, hospitality workers, business owners and long-term residents who spoke to Middle East Eye – all speaking on condition of anonymity due to GCC-wide restrictions on public discussion of the impact of Iran’s actions – caution it will take time to rebuild trust among both travelers and foreign investors.

Charity, a Kenyan employee at a mid-range Dubai hotel operated by a U.S.-based chain, described the immediate fallout of the escalation, which coincided with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when tensions were at their highest. During the peak of the strikes, the hotel was filled not with leisure tourists, but with stranded airline passengers waiting to rebook with Emirates, who gathered in the lobby to meet with airline representatives. As a security precaution, the property closed its popular pool and relocated all guests from the 20-story building’s upper floors to lower levels by the end of the month. In the weeks that followed, she said, business slowed to a near standstill.

Charity says she holds out hope that the lifting of travel restrictions will reassure visitors to return, but is waiting to see tangible recovery in the coming weeks. “We’ll see over the next week if people really start to come back,” she said during a recent shift assisting a long-time American guest. “We need your people [foreign tourists] to come back.”

The dramatic slump in traffic is immediately visible even to frequent travelers at Dubai International, which has held the title of the world’s busiest airport for international passenger traffic for 12 straight years. Samina, a South Asian NGO worker who regularly travels between South Asia, the Gulf and North America, said the emptiness of the airport’s terminals is striking compared to just two months ago.

“Coming in, it’s empty,” she said of Terminal 3, Emirates’ main hub. “Terminal 1 and 2 are ghost towns,” she added, referring to the terminals that house other international carriers and UAE-based budget airline FlyDubai. As of the latest update from Dubai Airports, only 51 of the 90 airlines that normally operate out of the airport have resumed regular services. European and U.S. carriers have faced particular barriers to returning, as many struggle to secure affordable insurance coverage for operations in the region amid official government travel advisories warning against non-essential travel.

To shore up morale among residents and project an image of stability, Dubai’s local government has launched a public outreach campaign across the emirate. UAE flags are displayed prominently outside homes, commercial buildings, and on digital billboards along major highways. At the popular City Walk shopping mall, large electronic screens display messages thanking UAE residents in both Arabic and English. Portraits of UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan line major arterial roads, paired with the message: “May our nation remain in God’s protection,” while other displays feature Emirati families saluting the national flag with the same wording.

Even with these public efforts, the economic impact of the regional tensions has been felt almost immediately across nearly all sectors, business owners say. Tatiana, a Russian entrepreneur who runs a logistics and consulting firm helping foreign businesses set up operations in the Gulf, said she was shocked by how rapidly investor and resident confidence collapsed. “Within the first two weeks people [said] it’s no longer worth [living here]. They weren’t scared per se, they just felt like it’s no longer worth it,” she explained. Many businesses moved quickly to liquidate their assets, and Tatiana said her own family is now exploring relocation options in Europe to shift their operations gradually.

The ripple effects of the downturn have even reached industries not immediately associated with tourism and international travel. Antoine, an editor who trains new writers, shared that one of his clients, an employee at a local advertising agency, was tasked with laying off 1,000 workers in the UAE following widespread business liquidations. “You’d think advertising would be a war-proof industry,” he noted, expressing surprise at how quickly the sector was impacted.

For Tatiana, the damage strikes at the core of what makes Dubai’s business ecosystem work: “Our whole business is predicated on assuring people that the UAE is a safe, convenient place to do business,” she said. That sentiment is echoed by Arjun, one of the 3.5 to 4.3 million Indian expatriates who call the UAE home, who spoke after attending a late-night screening of the Michael Jackson biopic in Dubai. Arjun noted he was encouraged to see the theater nearly full, holding out hope it could signal a gradual return to normalcy – but acknowledged the damage to Dubai’s core brand has already been done. “The entire ethos of Dubai as this place free from conflict was shaken,” he said.

Most conventional discussions of threats to the global economy center on kinetic military strikes or large-scale cyberattacks on onshore data infrastructure. But a far stealthier, more destabilizing risk is now building in one of the world’s most strategically critical waterways: a coordinated sabotage campaign targeting the fiber-optic cables that crisscross the Persian Gulf seabed — infrastructure that underpins nearly all of the world’s digital and financial activity.

Recent escalations in the Middle East carry global ramifications that extend far beyond energy security, requiring urgent attention from policymakers worldwide. Iran has already disrupted oil and gas shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s busiest and most important energy chokepoint, via maritime mining operations. Now, analysts warn that a quieter, far more consequential threat is unfolding.

On April 22, 2026, Iranian media outlets linked to the Iranian government published detailed public maps of undersea cable routes, coastal landing stations, and key regional data hubs spanning the Persian Gulf. Analysts from *The Jerusalem Post* have assessed that these public disclosures are not accidental: they represent deliberate target preparation for future sabotage.

To grasp the scale of this risk, it is necessary to confront a little-known fact that shapes the entire global digital ecosystem: over 97% of all cross-border internet traffic travels not through orbital satellites, but through thin fiber-optic cables laid across ocean floors. These strands, no thicker than a standard garden hose, facilitate an estimated $10 trillion in global financial transactions every single day. They are the foundational infrastructure for bank transfers, stock market operations, cloud computing services, and the AI systems that are increasingly integrated into every sector of the modern global economy. Even with advances in satellite technology, satellites lack the bandwidth to replace even a fraction of this capacity if major cable networks are disabled.

Geographic chokepoints amplify this vulnerability dramatically. At least 17 major undersea cable systems pass through the Red Sea, with several additional core routes traversing the Persian Gulf. These are not backup redundant lines — they are the primary digital arteries connecting Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Both regions are already plagued by ongoing conflict, and their narrow channels mean a single well-executed cable cut can send shockwaves across every inhabited continent.

This threat is not hypothetical: there is a clear, documented precedent for this exact pattern of aggression. In February 2024, Yemen’s Houthi movement published a public plan on the messaging platform Telegram outlining its intent to target undersea cables connecting Europe and Asia via the Red Sea. That same day, *Foreign Policy* magazine noted that even if the Houthis lacked the independent technical capacity to carry out such an attack, Iran could easily supply the required equipment and expertise. The warning was explicit and credible, but the global community largely ignored it.

Less than three weeks later, the warnings became reality. On February 26, 2024, four undersea cables linking Saudi Arabia and Djibouti were severed in a deliberate act of sabotage, matching the pre-attack public signaling the Houthis had already provided. The pattern was unambiguous: public threat disclosure and target mapping, followed by immediate offensive action. Today, that same pattern is repeating — this time targeting infrastructure that connects the entire global digital system, not just a regional network.

Over the past decade, the Middle East has evolved from a primarily energy-focused global hub to a critical digital infrastructure hub as well. The region now hosts more than 300 data centers across 18 countries, with tech giants including Amazon, Microsoft, and Google investing billions of dollars in cloud facilities based in the Persian Gulf. A widespread cable cut would not just disrupt email and casual web browsing: it would strand hundreds of billions of dollars in digital infrastructure overnight, and could effectively shut down large swations of the global economy, since nearly all modern daily commerce, banking, and investment activity depends on continuous, high-volume internet connectivity.

What makes this threat uniquely difficult to deter is also what makes it so attractive to Iran: near-perfect plausible deniability. A missile strike is an unambiguous act of aggression that would trigger immediate diplomatic and military retaliation. But a cargo vessel dragging an anchor across a cable off the coast of the Strait of Hormuz is far more ambiguous. Was it an accidental navigational error? A fishing boat that drifted off its planned course? A proxy force operating with discreet backing from Tehran?

By the time investigators can untangle these questions — a process made even slower by the fact that cable repair vessels cannot safely operate in active conflict zones — the damage is already done. Entire global regions can remain cut off from core digital services for weeks or even months, with cascading economic consequences.

Compounding this vulnerability is the astonishingly weak international legal framework meant to deter this type of sabotage. Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), if an undersea cable is damaged in international waters, legal jurisdiction to prosecute the perpetrator falls to the perpetrator’s home country, not the state or company that owns the cable. The outcome of this framework is predictable: no state has ever been prosecuted for a deliberate cable cut, and no case of sabotage has ever been adjudicated in an international court. When states operate through proxy groups, as Iran regularly does, confirming attribution becomes even more difficult, and the threshold for meaningful retaliation is almost never met.

In 2024, the United States and more than two dozen allied nations signed the New York Joint Statement on undersea cable security, officially acknowledging the widespread vulnerability of this infrastructure. But a public acknowledgment of risk is not a deterrent, and no substantive enforcement measures have followed the statement.

To address this growing threat, policy experts argue that the international community needs a new, enforceable legal framework with real consequences. This framework would empower states that own cable infrastructure to pursue direct action against perpetrators regardless of their nationality, and would explicitly hold state sponsors accountable for attacks carried out through proxy groups. In the short term, since the U.S. already maintains a significant military presence in the Persian Gulf region, it can take immediate action to patrol and protect critical cable routes to reduce the risk of successful sabotage.

In 2024, the Houthis publicly signaled their intent to attack undersea cables, and the attacks followed shortly after. Today, Iran is engaging in the same pattern of public signaling, but for a potentially far more devastating attack that could cripple the global economy. The only open question is whether the United States and its global partners will act to prevent the attack — before the silent fall of the global digital network.

BANGKOK – In a significant shift to decades-long bilateral dispute resolution mechanisms, Thailand’s cabinet announced Tuesday it is terminating a 2001 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with neighboring Cambodia that established a bilateral framework for negotiating overlapping maritime territorial claims. The development comes 22 years after the agreement was signed, following a years-long deadlock in talks and a sharp deterioration in cross-border relations that erupted into deadly armed clashes last year.

The original 2001 MoU was designed to create a collaborative foundation for the two Southeast Asian nations to peacefully delimit their shared maritime boundaries and jointly manage overlapping claimed marine resources in line with international law. However, despite five rounds of negotiations held over more than two decades, the two sides failed to make any tangible progress toward a settlement.

The termination will not enter into legal force until Thailand formally delivers an official notification letter to Phnom Penh. Its end dashes long-held hopes in both countries that resolving the competing claims would unlock development of untapped offshore oil and gas reserves located in the disputed waters – resources that could deliver major economic gains to both nations.

Thailand’s decision to scrap the bilateral agreement follows a dramatic escalation of border tensions that spilled into open armed conflict last year. Clashes over competing land border claims broke out in both July and December 2023, leaving dozens of civilian and military casualties on both sides and forcing hundreds of thousands of residents to evacuate their homes near the border. A fragile ceasefire was reached in late December, but low-level sporadic incidents continue to be reported, and both sides have maintained large-scale military deployments along the contested border.

The 2023 fighting reignited domestic political pressure in Thailand over border sovereignty, pushing nationalist sentiment to the forefront of national politics ahead of 2024 general elections. Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul’s ruling Bhumjaithai Party included terminating the 2001 MoU as a key campaign pledge to address public concerns over territorial integrity.

Speaking after Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, Anutin sought to downplay concerns over the impact of the decision on the current fragile border calm. He emphasized the termination is unrelated to ongoing land border tensions and will not alter the existing ceasefire arrangements. He added that negotiations over the maritime dispute will continue under alternative frameworks, specifically citing the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) as a preferred platform moving forward.

Thai government spokesperson Rachada Dhnadirek echoed the prime minister’s framing, stressing that the move is a strategic adjustment to the dispute resolution framework, not a break in bilateral relations or an end to negotiations. “Thailand will continue discussions with Cambodia, but we propose shifting to mechanisms under UNCLOS, which is clearer, more comprehensive and more systematic to allow maritime disputes to be resolved effectively,” she explained.

In Phnom Penh, Cambodian officials reacted with measured regret to the Thai decision. Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn called the move “a departure from the spirit and political will that enabled our two countries to establish a framework for peacefully resolving these issues in accordance with international law.”

Despite the disappointment, Cambodia reaffirmed its commitment to peaceful resolution of the dispute under international law. Prak Sokhonn announced Cambodia will proceed with compulsory conciliation under UNCLOS mechanisms, a step that reaffirms Phnom Penh’s commitment to a peaceful, rules-based settlement.

Cambodia’s newly installed Prime Minister Hun Manet emphasized his country’s commitment to peaceful coexistence in a social media statement. “Cambodia’s approach reflects our sincere hope that both countries can reach a just and lasting solution in line with international law, allowing our peoples to live together in peace, stability, and harmony,” he wrote.

Sopheng Cheang, reporting from Phnom Penh, contributed to this report.

In a sudden Tuesday evening announcement from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, former U.S. President Donald Trump said he is halting the U.S. military mission to escort stranded commercial vessels through the blockaded Strait of Hormuz, pausing operations to give diplomatic negotiations time to finalize a deal to end the ongoing Iran war. The U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports, however, will stay firmly in place.

The pause comes just one day after U.S. forces launched the operation to open a secure shipping corridor through the strategic waterway, which has been choked off by Iran since the conflict began. In his social media statement, Trump cited three key factors driving the decision: requests from Pakistan and other regional nations, the military gains the U.S. has made during the campaign against Iran, and what he called “Great Progress” toward a full, final agreement with Iranian negotiators. The White House has declined to offer additional context or confirm the details of the negotiation progress Trump referenced.

The current conflict kicked off on February 28, when the United States and Israel launched joint military strikes against Iranian targets. A ceasefire has been in place for nearly a month, but the truce has remained deeply fragile as tensions over control of the strait continue to escalate.

In a parallel diplomatic development, official Chinese state news agency Xinhua confirmed Wednesday that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing. This trip marks Araghchi’s first visit to China since the war began, a meeting that carries significant weight given China’s deep economic and political ties to Tehran that grant Beijing unique leverage over the Iranian government. Ahead of the meeting, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio publicly urged China to pressure Iran to lift its control of the strait, a critical global energy chokepoint.

Before Trump’s announcement, Rubio told reporters at a White House press briefing that any lasting peace agreement would require Iran to meet two core U.S. demands: rolling back Tehran’s disputed nuclear program, and reopening the Strait of Hormuz to unimpeded global commercial traffic. “We would prefer the path of peace,” Rubio said, framing the U.S. push to open the strait as a strictly defensive mission focused on rescuing thousands of stranded civilian mariners. Rubio described the trapped sailors as “sitting ducks, they’re isolated, they’re starving, they’re vulnerable,” noting that at least 10 sailors have already died since the strait was closed.

During the first day of the U.S. operation Monday, American military forces said they sank six small Iranian boats that threatened commercial shipping. To date, only two commercial vessels have successfully traversed the new U.S.-guarded corridor, while hundreds of ships remain bottled up in the Persian Gulf. Iranian officials have disputed the U.S. account of the clash, with Iranian state media reporting that two small civilian cargo vessels were hit in the strikes, killing five civilian crew members. Iran has also decried the U.S. corridor effort as a direct violation of the existing ceasefire.

Top U.S. military leaders have downplayed the escalation, however. Speaking at a Pentagon press briefing Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine said Iran’s retaliatory attacks had not crossed the threshold into “major combat operations.” Caine called Tuesday “a quieter day” in the strait, adding that more than 100 U.S. military aircraft are now patrolling the airspace above the waterway to secure the corridor. The U.S. blockade of Iranian ports, implemented April 13, has already cut off most of Tehran’s oil export revenue, severely straining Iran’s already ailing economy. Caine also emphasized that U.S. forces would not open fire unless fired upon first. “There’s no shooting unless we’re shot at first, OK? We’re not attacking them,” Rubio echoed to reporters at the White House.

Iran’s top parliamentary speaker and chief nuclear negotiator Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf offered a muted response to the U.S. mission, signaling that Tehran has not yet committed to a full response. In a post on X, Qalibaf said, “We know full well that the continuation of the status quo is intolerable for America; while we have not even begun yet.” He did not directly reference the backchannel negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, which are currently being mediated through Pakistan.

The closure of the strait has already sent shockwaves through the global economy: before the war, the waterway carried the vast majority of global oil and natural gas exports, as well as fertilizers and other key petroleum products, and its closure has caused global fuel prices to surge dramatically. Breaking Iran’s control of the strait would also eliminate Tehran’s most powerful geopolitical leverage, a key goal for the Trump administration as it pushes for deep cuts to Iran’s nuclear program.

Major global shipping companies remain deeply wary of the new U.S. corridor, even after the pause. Danish shipping giant Maersk confirmed one of its operated vehicle carriers successfully exited the strait Monday with U.S. military assistance, but leading container line Hapag-Lloyd AG said its risk assessment “remains unchanged” and that transits through the strait “are for the moment not possible for our ships.” Former military officers with experience in the region have also warned that opening the 34-kilometer wide strait is an extremely dangerous and challenging operation, even with military escorts— a security measure the U.S. is not currently providing for most commercial vessels. Currently, Iran requires all transiting vessels to use a northern corridor along the Iranian coastline, where ships must undergo vetting by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and in many cases pay fees to the Iranian government. The U.S.-backed corridor runs through Omani territorial waters to the south, outside of Iran’s control.

Iran’s retaliatory strikes have fallen heaviest on the United Arab Emirates, a key U.S. Gulf ally. The UAE Defense Ministry confirmed it faced a second consecutive day of Iranian drone and missile attacks Tuesday, though no damage or casualties were reported. On Monday, Emirati air defense systems intercepted 15 missiles and four Iranian drones, with one wayward projectile sparking a fire at a major UAE oil facility that wounded three Indian nationals. The British military also reported two cargo ships were set ablaze off the UAE coast Monday, and a second cargo vessel was hit by an “unknown projectile” in the strait Tuesday. Iran has officially denied launching any attacks on the UAE “in recent days,” per a statement read by joint military command spokesman Ebrahim Zolfaghari on Iranian state TV.

The Trump administration has also drawn scrutiny for its handling of congressional war oversight, citing the April 8 ceasefire to argue the president is not required to submit a formal update to Congress under the War Powers Resolution. The 1973 law requires presidents to secure formal congressional approval for military action within 60 days of launching operations.