Crisis Deepens for India and Pakistan Over Kashmir Attack | Jordan Joins Regional Push to Sideline Islamist Opposition | How Trump Plays into Putin’s Hands, and more

Settlers Accused of Attacking Palestinians, Torching Buildings in West Bank Village  (Times of Israel)
Israeli settlers rampaged through a Palestinian town in the northern West Bank overnight, setting fires and attacking residents, a security source said Thursday, amid what Palestinians say is a campaign of intimidation to push them off their land. Two residents of Bardala were lightly injured by gunfire from the attackers, a local resident told The Times of Israel. No arrests were reported and there was no official comment from Israeli authorities.

Jordan Joins Regional Push to Sideline Islamist Opposition  (Rory McCarthy, The Conversation)
The Jordanian authorities have banned the Muslim Brotherhood, the largest opposition movement in the kingdom, in a major new crackdown. On Wednesday April 23, security forces raided Brotherhood offices, confiscating assets and property, and outlawed all of the group’s activities.
One week earlier, 16 Brotherhood members were arrested for allegedly plotting attacks on targets inside Jordan using rockets and drones. The Brotherhood, whose members Jordanian interior minister Mazen al-Faraya says “operate in the shadows and engage in activities that could undermine stability and security”, has denied any links to the attack plots.
The ban on the Brotherhood, an Islamist movement that wants a greater role for religion in public life, comes at a time when the Jordanian government is facing intense pressure over the war in Gaza.

In Talking with Tehran, Trump Is Reversing Course on Iran – Could a New Nuclear Deal Be Next?  (Jeffrey Fields, The Conversation)
Negotiators from Iran and the United States are set to meet again in Oman on April 26, prompting hopes the two countries might be moving, albeit tentatively, toward a new nuclear accord.
The scheduled talks follow the two previous rounds of indirect negotiations that have taken place under the new Trump administration. Those discussions were deemed to have yielded enough progress to merit sending nuclear experts from both sides to begin outlining the specifics of a potential framework for a deal.
The development is particularly notable given that Trump, in 2018, unilaterally walked the U.S. away from a multilateral agreement with Iran. That deal, negotiated during the Obama presidency, put restrictions on Tehran’s nuclear program in return for sanctions relief. Trump{,} instead turned to a policy that involved tightening the financial screws on Iran through enhanced sanctions while issuing implicit military threats.
But that approach failed to disrupt Iran’s nuclear program.

Inside France’s Lawless Prisons, Where Inmates Rule by Fear  (Adam Sage, The Times)
Arson and death threats may be a show of force by drug lords running operations from behind bars as the government tries to crack down on their activities.

Crisis Deepens for India and Pakistan Over Kashmir Attack  (Salman Masood, New York Times)
Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated sharply on Thursday, as the Pakistani government said it would consider it “an act of war” if India followed through on a threat to block the flow of crucial rivers as punishment for a deadly militant attack in Kashmir. After a high-level meeting of Pakistan’s National Security Committee, the government announced a series of sweeping retaliatory measures, including the closing of its airspace to Indian carriers, a reduction of India’s diplomatic staff in Islamabad and a suspension of all trade with India. The Indian government has not officially identified any group as being behind the attack on Tuesday in a scenic tourist area of Indian-administered Kashmir. But it announced a flurry of punitive measures against Pakistan on Wednesday, including the suspension of an important water treaty, in response to what it said was Pakistan’s support of terrorist attacks inside India.

Normalization with Israel Complicated but Beneficial, Syrian Sources Say  (Jerusalem Post)
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has signaled a willingness to explore the possibility of normalizing relations with Israel, according to senior Syrian officials. The move would represent a major shift in Damascus’ longstanding stance toward its southern neighbor, which it has technically been at war with since 1948. The remarks were made during a meeting earlier this month in Damascus with US Representatives Marlin Stutzman and Cory Mills and were first reported by Bloomberg News. Syrian government sources confirmed the account to The Media Line, emphasizing that any such normalization process would need to preserve Syria’s unity and full sovereignty.