Middle East & North Africa

JERUSALEM, Mar 10 (NNN-MA’AN) – Israelis yesterday, stepped up their protest against the controversial government plan, to overhaul the judiciary, blocking Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu’s route to the airport, ahead of an official trip to Italy.

On a nationwide “Day of Resistance,” dozens of demonstrations were being held in major cities and crossroads, paralysing traffic in several areas.

From the morning hours, convoys of protestors have been blocking the entrance to Ben Gurion Airport, in order to disrupt Netanyahu’s departure for an official visit to Rome.

DUBAI, March 10 (Reuters) - Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed on Friday to re-establish relations after seven years of hostility which had threatened stability and security in the Gulf and helped fuel conflicts in the Middle East from Yemen to Syria.

The deal was announced after four days of previously undisclosed talks in Beijing between top security officials from the two rival Middle East powers.

9 Mar 2023; MEMO: Thousands of Israelis, on Thursday, are expected to participate in the "Day of Resistance" rallies to protest the Israeli government plan to introduce judicial changes, seen by the opposition as an attempt to reduce the powers of the judicial authority in favour of the executive authority, Anadolu News Agency reports.

The main rally is taking place in central Tel Aviv this afternoon, where nearly 3,000 Israeli police personnel are deployed to prevent protesters from blocking roads.

9 Mar 2023; MEMO: Syria's Aleppo International Airport will resume operations tomorrow morning after being shut down because of an Israeli air strike, state media said today, citing a statement by the Ministry of Transport, Reuters reports.

The ministry called on all air carriers to reschedule all flights and said the airport is ready to receive relief aid planes for earthquake victims.

9 Mar 2023; MEMO: Former Israeli police officers have called on Benjamin Netanyahu to fire National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir in an open letter addressed to the prime minister published yesterday.

The former officers stated that Ben-Gvir works "contrary to the powers granted to him by law, interferes in the decision-making process during operations, and exploits events [on the ground] and the police for his political purposes."

BAGHDAD (AP) — Only a few months into its term, Iraq’s government is suddenly enforcing a long-dormant law banning alcohol imports and arresting people over social media content deemed morally offensive. The crackdown has raised alarm among religious minorities and rights activists.

Some see the measures as an attempt by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani to head off potential political challenges from religious conservatives and to distract from economic woes, such as rising prices and wild currency fluctuations.

9 Mar 2023; MEMO: Greece has sentenced a fisherman to 280 years in prison for steering a migrant boat in rough waters, finding him guilty on charges of human trafficking.

The 45-year-old Egyptian man, identified as H Elfallah, was with his 15-year-old son on board a battered former fishing vessel holding 500 migrants making their way across the Mediterranean in November last year.

9 Mar 2023; MEMO: The Israeli Air Force said, on Thursday, that it had dismissed a reservist officer in the military for trying to orchestrate group walkouts from training flights as part of a spreading protest at judicial reforms planned by the government, Reuters reported.

9 Mar 2023; MEMO: The United States has released a Saudi Arabian engineer who was imprisoned for more than 20 years at Guantanamo Bay military prison, Al Jazeera reports.

According to the report, the US Department of Defence said that Ghassan Al Sharbi, 48, was returned to Saudi Arabia after a review board determined, in February 2022, that his detention "was no longer necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat to the national security of the United States".

9 Mar 2023; MEMO: The Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee of the Israeli Knesset approved, on Thursday, a Bill that cancels parts of the 2005 Disengagement Law, which led to the evacuation of four settlements in the northern West Bank.

The Bill would repeal the clauses of the Disengagement Law that ban Israelis from living in the region where the four settlements of Homesh, Ganim, Kadim and Sanur previously stood in the northern Occupied West Bank.