Middle East & North Africa

RAMALLAH, Oct 17 (NNN-WAFA) – Another Palestinian man succumbed to the wounds sustained from Israeli soldiers’ gunfire, in the village of Qarawat Bani Hassan, near the West Bank city of Salfit, Palestinian medics said yesterday.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health said in a statement that, Mujahid Dawoud, 30, from the village, succumbed to critical wounds early yesterday.

On Saturday afternoon, five Palestinians were injured during clashes with Israeli soldiers in the village of Qarawat Bani Hassan, including Dawoud, who suffered severe wounds in the chest.

TEHRAN, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said Monday that the contradiction in the U.S. officials' words and actions is the main obstacle to an agreement on the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal, according to the official news agency IRNA.

Speaking at a weekly press conference, Kanaani added that U.S. officials sent messages to voice their viewpoints about the nuclear talks on the one hand, while showing contradictory behaviors in practice on the other.

DAMASCUS, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- The visiting UN special envoy to Syria, Geir Pedersen, on Monday called for progress on the political front to resolve the Syrian crisis.

Speaking to reporters following his meeting with Syria's Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad, Pedersen recounted the difficulties facing the Syrian people, saying that despite a ceasefire being established in 2020, many civilians are still being killed, and 15 million Syrians still need humanitarian assistance.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A weekend fire at Iran’s notorious Evin Prison damaged one of the largest buildings in the complex, according to satellite photos analyzed Monday. Authorities raised to eight the number of inmates killed, doubling the initial toll.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey and Greece on Monday exchanged more mutual recrimination over 92 migrants who were found stripped naked by Greek authorities at the two countries’ joint border, a day after the United Nations called for an investigation into the incident.

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Nearly 2.9 million tickets have been sold for the World Cup in Qatar, FIFA and organizers said Monday, leaving about 7% of seats still available.

People living in the United States, Saudi Arabia and England topped the list of international ticket buyers, while Mexico was the biggest market outside Qatar for corporate hospitality sales.

More tickets will become available before the tournament starts on Nov. 20, FIFA’s tournament director Colin Smith said at a news conference in Doha held with Qatari organizers.

16 October 2022; MEMO: Russia and Ukraine are yet to agree on an extension of the landmark deal to allow the export of grain from Black Sea ports, amid negotiations over the altering of some aspects of it.

In an interview in Istanbul yesterday, the UN coordinator for the Black Sea Grain Initiative, Amir Abdulla, revealed that Moscow and Kyiv are seeking to change some terms of the Turkish and UN-brokered agreement in order to extend it beyond its 19 November deadline.

17 October 2022; MEMO: Iran expects Iraq to prevent the northern Kurdistan region from being a launch pad for "terrorist" threats and attacks against Iranian territory, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said on Saturday. A statement issued by the Iranian Foreign Ministry explained that Abdollahian met Iraqi National Security Adviser Qassem Al-Araji and discussed bilateral relations and the situation in the Kurdistan region in northern Iraq, Russia's Sputnik has reported.

17 October 2022; MEMO: Turkiye's exports to the Middle East and Gulf countries have increased by 24.8 per cent this year to date, with an estimated value of $24.7 billion, Anadolu has reported. Data was cited from the Turkish Exporters' Assembly.

Iraq imported goods from Turkiye valued at $7.5bn, followed by Israel with $5.1bn and the United Arab Emirates with $2.5bn, explained the same source.

17 October 2022; MEMO: Sudan is in talks with the United Arab Emirates on a project to build a port along the country's Red Sea coast, the Sudanese finance minister announced yesterday.

Gibril Ibrahim told reporters in the United States that his government had signed an agreement with the UAE to build the port. His remarks came on the fringes of the International Monetary Fund meetings in Washington DC.