Middle East & North Africa

AMMAN, April 26 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) — Jordan is weighing the possibility of building low-power nuclear reactors and is analyzing offers from specialized companies, including those from Russia, authorities said in this capital.    

Khaled Tukan, chairman of the Jordan Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC), told the Sputnik news agency that his institution is comparing technologies and expects to receive government approval to start negotiations soon.

JEDDAH (Saudi Arabia), April 26 (NNN-SPA) — Saudi Arabia’s General Directorate of Narcotics Control (GDNC) said on Tuesday it had foiled an attempt to smuggle over 12 million amphetamine pills.

The GDNC thwarted an attempt to smuggle 12,729,000 tablets of amphetamine concealed in a shipment of pomegranate fruit passing through the Jeddah port, GDNC spokesman Marwan Alhazmi said.

The operation was carried out in coordination with Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Zakat and Tax in Jeddah, he said.

DUBAI, April 26 (Reuters) - Sudan's capital resounded with gunfire and explosions on the western outskirts on Wednesday, eroding a truce amid collapsing basic services, dwindling food supplies and the opening of a prison that let out allies of a jailed former autocrat.

With the conflict between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) showing no sign of easing, the army said former president Omar al-Bashir had been transferred to a military hospital before hostilities started on April 15.

25 Apr 2023; MEMO: Ahmed Haroun, a former Sudanese official in Omar Al-Bashir's regime, said that he escaped Kober Prison with other former officials and stated that they would be responsible for their own protection.

Haroun, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), added in an audio statement aired on Sudan's Tayba TV channel yesterday, that he and other former officials are ready to appear before the judiciary when it is functioning.

26 Apr 2023; MEMO: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said yesterday that the main reason for violence in the occupied territories is Israel's unilateral measures, international news agencies reported.

In a speech at the UN Security Council meeting on the Palestinian issue, Lavrov said that the main reason for the outbreak of violence is Israel's unilateral measures to create facts on the ground and use force to protect them.

25 Apr 2023; MEMO: Sheikh Izzedine Amarneh, a blind Islamic religious scholar, has started a hunger strike in protest against his administrative detention by the Israeli occupation, his family announced yesterday.

Amarneh, who has recently received his doctorate from a university in Malaysia, was detained during a raid on his family house in Yabad, near the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, on 21 February 2022.

25 Apr 2023; MEMO: Egypt's Foreign Ministry yesterday confirmed the killing of Mohamed Al-Gharawy, assistant administrative attache at the embassy in Khartoum.

In a post on facebook, the ministry said Al-Gharawy was killed "on his way from his home to the embassy headquarters to follow up on the evacuation of Egyptian citizens."

25 Apr 2023; MEMO: After China's success in restoring relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran, political and diplomatic circles in Israel are anticipating a Chinese attempt to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, citing the rapprochement between Tehran and Riyadh brokered by Beijing. However, Israel remains committed to the US, and calls for its increased involvement in the Middle East.

25 Apr 2023; MEMO: The Times of Israel reported that the Anonymous Sudan group claimed responsibility for hacking the website of the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad.

The group said in a post on Telegram that "This attack is just a preparatory attack… for the big attack," according to the Israeli news website.

25 Apr 2023; MEMO: The leader of the Ennahda Movement, Rached Ghannouchi, is preparing to start a hunger strike in protest against the "ill-treatment" he has been subjected to since his detention.

Sources from the movement said Ghannouchi "announced, during the investigation with him, that he intends to start a hunger strike as a protest for the ill-treatment and prohibiting his family to visit him after the police imposed unfair restrictions on the visit."