Middle East & North Africa

TEHRAN, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman chided the United States for its "politically-motivated and opportunistic" approach toward the issue of exchanging prisoners with Iran.

In an interview with semi-official Mehr news agency published on Saturday, Nasser Kanaani said that despite the agreement between the two sides on the prisoner swap, the U.S. government has not fulfilled its pledge, and conditioned the issue on other matters, including the talks on the revival of a 2015 nuclear deal, which has led to a halt in the prisoner swap process.

ISTANBUL (AP) — Search and rescue teams have saved more survivors from the ruins of the Feb. 6 earthquake that devasted swaths of Turkey and Syria even as the window for finding people alive continues to shrink.

Here’s a look at the key developments Saturday from the aftermath of the earthquake.

THREE RESCUED IN HATAY

On the 13th day of rescue operations, a couple and their son were extracted from under an apartment building in Antakya, the capital of Hatay province. The child later died.

17 Feb 2023; MEMO: Ertugrul Gazi, the first Turkish-flagged floating storage and gasification unit (FSRU), has been put to work at full capacity to meet the demand for natural gas after the devastating earthquakes that hit the country on 6 February, Anadolu reports.

According to a statement by Turkish energy company BOTAS, teams are working around the clock to repair the damage in the gas mains transmission lines in the Kahramanmaras region after the earthquakes.

17 Feb 2023; MEMO: A Daesh group leader was killed and four US troops wounded in a US helicopter raid on northeast Syria, the Defense Department said in a statement on Friday.

The statement said "an explosion on target resulted in four US servicemembers and one working dog wounded" on Thursday, adding that "the targeted Daesh senior leader, Hamza al-Homsi, was killed."

It did not elaborate on what Homsi's role was.

17 Feb 2023; MEMO: Youssef Qramo fled conflict in Syria for safety in neighbouring Turkey but after the deadly earthquake which devastated parts of both countries, he and thousands of fellow Syrians are returning to their homes in the war zone – at least for now.

TEHRAN, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Thursday described his state visit to China as "very successful and fruitful."

Raisi made the remarks in an address to reporters upon arrival in Tehran from his Beijing visit, according to the website of the Iranian president's office.

Noting that he held meetings with Chinese leaders, Raisi said the strategic level of the two countries' communication had given a strategic aspect to bilateral talks so that the two countries could pursue the issues of common interest.

ISTANBUL, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Two Chinese search and rescue teams departed Türkiye Thursday as their mission to save earthquake survivors came to a close.

Footage from local media showed an 11-member team and a 60-member team greeted by officials from the Turkish Foreign Ministry before their departure.

The two teams, respectively from the southern Chinese cities of Guangzhou and Wuhan, had been based in the southern province of Kahramanmaras, the epicenter of dual earthquakes.

SAMANDAG, Turkey (AP) — Nearly two weeks after a massive earthquake leveled tens of thousands of buildings and displaced millions of people in Turkey and Syria, many are still struggling to fulfill their basic needs and some are bedding down in tents, factories, train cars and greenhouses.

People pushed from their homes in the disaster zone described a wide range of conditions: Some were able to find regular hot showers, while others feared freezing to death.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Protesters in Iran marched through the streets of multiple cities overnight in the most widespread demonstration in weeks amid the monthslong unrest that’s gripped the Islamic Republic, online videos purported to show Friday.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company’s gas processing firm said Friday it plans to sell 4% of its shares to local investors in the latest initial public offering to be made by a state-run energy company in the Middle East.

The move follows a similar IPO by the Saudi oil giant Aramco in 2019 that raised some $30 billion, and comes months before the United Arab Emirates is set to host this year’s U.N. climate talks.