If it helps, the probably mean "hard-line, Arab country" but were treating "Arab country" as a noun phrase of its own, hence the lack of a comma separating adjectives. That is to say, I don't think they were trying to describe it as being "hard-line Arab", but it's a bit of a Freudian slip.
Just a typo or grammatical error. Commas are favored in headlines, especially as a substitute for conjunctions. For example: "Landlords, corporate reps to appeal repatriation at court" saves space by replacing "and" with just a comma. I made that up but you can see examples going through any newspaper, especially physical ones.
If it helps, the probably mean "hard-line, Arab country" but were treating "Arab country" as a noun phrase of its own, hence the lack of a comma separating adjectives. That is to say, I don't think they were trying to describe it as being "hard-line Arab", but it's a bit of a Freudian slip.
Just my guess.
Are commas commonly removed in headlines or did they just make a typo?
Just a typo or grammatical error. Commas are favored in headlines, especially as a substitute for conjunctions. For example: "Landlords, corporate reps to appeal repatriation at court" saves space by replacing "and" with just a comma. I made that up but you can see examples going through any newspaper, especially physical ones.
Especially back when you had to literally cast the headlines in lead.
It really wouldn't make sense to throw commas out for headlines. The whole point of a headline is to communicate clearly and concisely!