Middle East & North Africa

Israel priority to normalise ties with Arabs before peace with Palestine: Netanyahu

01 Feb 2023; MEMO: Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said his priority is to normalise Israel's relations with Arab countries before peace with the Palestinians, Anadolu News Agency report.

"I think that the way we're going to succeed is not let the Palestinian tail wag the body of the Arab world," Netanyahu told CNN in an interview published on Wednesday.

Turkey: No legal, constitutional impediment to my candidacy for presidency again; Erdogan

02 Feb 2023; MEMO: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that there is no legal obstacle to his candidacy for the presidency this summer.

In an interview aired on national TV channel TRT yesterday, Erdogan added that his bid for another presidential term is in line with the law and the constitution.

"The people chose me as the first president in the presidential system," he said.

Palestinians Protest Blinken’s Visit Amid Rising Israeli-Palestinian Tensions In West Bank

RAMALLAH/GAZA, Feb 1 (NNN-WAFA) – U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken’s visit to the West Bank, prompted outrage among many Palestinians, who demonstrated yesterday, to express their opposition to the U.S. top diplomat’s presence in the Palestinian territory.

The protesters, in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, raised the Palestinian flags and chanted anti-U.S. slogans, accusing it of being biased towards Israel and all its violations of Palestinian rights.

Erdogan says Turkey positive on Finland's NATO bid, not Sweden's

ANKARA, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Turkey looks positively on Finland's application for NATO membership, but does not support Sweden's bid, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday.

"Our position on Finland is positive, but it is not positive on Sweden," Erdogan said of their NATO applications in a speech to his AK Party deputies in parliament.

Sweden and Finland applied last year to join the trans-Atlantic defence pact after Russia invaded Ukraine, but faced unexpected objections from Turkey and have since sought to win its support.

Close to 1 mln people at high risk of cholera outbreak in Ethiopia: UNOCHA

ADDIS ABABA, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Close to 1 million people are at high risk of cholera disease in the 10 affected districts of southeastern Ethiopia, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).

The UNOCHA, in its latest situation update issued late Monday, warned over the ongoing cholera outbreak as the death toll climbed to 28 in the country.

Lebanon sets new exchange rate, dramatically devalues pound

BEIRUT (AP) — Three years into a crippling financial crisis, Lebanon’s Central Bank on Wednesday set a new exchange rate that effectively devalued the country’s currency by 90% but did little to bridge the gap with the soaring black market rate.

The dramatic measure is meant to stabilize the free-falling Lebanese pound and eliminate the multiple exchange rates that currently exist, a key demand of the International Monetary Fund for a bailout package for Lebanon.

Palestinians face removal as far-right Israel vows expansion

KHAN AL-AHMAR, West Bank (AP) — Protesters streaming up the windswept hills east of Jerusalem interrupted Maha Ali’s breakfast.

Palestinian chants of support for her West Bank Bedouin community of Khan al-Ahmar, at risk of demolition by the Israeli army since it lost its legal protection over four years ago, drowned out the singing birds and bleating sheep.

While intended to encourage the village, last week’s solidarity rally unsettled Ali. Israeli politicians assembled on the opposite hill for a counter protest, calling for Khan al-Ahmar’s immediate evacuation.

Iran: Beating female Palestinian inmates in Israel's Damon Prison abhorring

Tehran, IRNA – Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani in a Twitter message reacted to the beating up of arrested Palestinian women in Damon Prison by Zionist officers, calling it abhorring.

Kanaani in his English language tweet wrote, "Beating female Palestinian inmates in #ZionistRegime's Damon Prison abhorrent."

He has also asked, "Do self-proclaimed rights defenders in Europe & US believe #HumanRights and women's rights apply to Palestinian prisoners in Israel's horrifying jails?"

OIC holds extraordinary meeting to respond to desecration of holy Quran

Tehran, IRNA – The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has held a meeting to review possible actions against recent cases of desecration of the holy Quran in Europe.

OIC’s extraordinary meeting was held on Tuesday at the organization’s headquarters in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

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