Middle East & North Africa

Tehran, IRNA - Iran’s Oil Minister Javad Owji says that the Islamic Republic is producing about 3.2 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil.

Owji made the remarks on Sunday in a meeting in Tehran, adding that Iran’s production of crude oil will surpass 3.3 million bpd by late August.

Referring to the Ministry's plans for investment in oil and gas industry projects, up to the end of the current Iranian calendar year, semi-finished civil projects valued at $15 billion will be operational.

13 August 2023; MEMO: Turkiye has assured that it will not accept irregular migrants to its territory from third countries, after a new deal with the United Kingdom to tackle people smuggling raised speculation that it would do so.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Western-backed maritime forces in the Middle East on Saturday warned shippers traveling through the strategic Strait of Hormuz to stay as far away from Iranian territorial waters as possible to avoid being seized, a stark advisory amid heightened tensions between Iran and the U.S.

A similar warning went out to shippers earlier this year ahead of Iran seizing two tankers traveling near the strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of the world’s oil passes.

12 August 2023; MEMO: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has blocked the entry of nearly 170 passengers aboard a Wizz Air flight from Israel, Anadolu Agency reported on Friday.

11 August 2023; MEMO: India's Armed Forces have been accused of being involved in the March 2018 abduction of Princess Latifa, the daughter of Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, according to a complaint lodged with the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague in the Netherlands.

11 August 2023; MEMO: Iran may free five detained US citizens as part of a deal, under which $6 billion in Iranian funds in South Korea would be unfrozen, and has moved four of them from jail to house arrest, Reuters reports.

The following are the prisoners in Iran who will be moved to house arrest:

11 August 2023; MEMO: Israeli police downgraded a homicide charge, on Friday, against an illegal Jewish settler suspected of killing a Palestinian in what the United States has described as a "terror attack", Reuters reports.

11 August 2023; MEMO: Israel's intelligence agency, Shin Bet, said it thwarted an Iranian espionage attempt on Friday when it detained and then deported a Jewish-Iranian who flew into the country with a tissue box it said was meant to hide surveillance equipment, Reuters reports.

11 August 2023; MEMO: An attack on a military bus in Syria's east killed 23 government troops and wounded more than 10, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) war monitor said on Friday, Reuters reports.

Daesh, which operates sleeper cells in lands it once ruled, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on its Telegram channel.

11 August 2023; MEMO: China's energy company, Sungrow, said this week that it will provide its inverter skid technology and 1+X modular inverter solution for a 2.2 Gigawatt (GW) solar plant that Neom Green Hydrogen Company (NGHC) is building in Oxagon. The project site is in a port area close to the futuristic Neom City project, Reuters reports.