Middle East & North Africa

02 September 2022; MEMO: The foreign ministers of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Iran held talks on Thursday to discuss ways of boosting bilateral relations, Anadolu News Agency reports.

This came in a phone call that Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan received from his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the Emirati state news agency, WAM, reported.

02 September 2022; MEMO: Israel will purchase four Boeing KC-46A refuelers for its air force, in a deal valued at $927.5 million, the Israeli government and a US defence contractor announced yesterday.

First deliveries of the aircraft, which will replace Israel's ageing fleet of Re'em Boeing 707 tankers, are expected to roll out in 2025.

03 September 2022; MEMO: A 40-year-old Palestinian prisoner has died in an Israeli hospital in yet unclear circumstances, the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) announced on Saturday morning.

In a statement, the PPS said that Mousa Abu Mahameed, from the Bethlehem village of Beit Tamar, died this morning at Asaf Harofeh hospital in Israel.

02 September 2022; MEMO: A Saudi app that lets ordinary people "play the role of a police officer" may have alerted authorities to the tweets of a student whose sentencing to 34 years in jail has drawn international condemnation.

Just weeks after the verdict against Salma Al-Shehab – a doctoral candidate at Britain's Leeds University – rights groups say another woman was given a 45-year sentence for her social media posts – highlighting a crackdown targeting women online.

02 September 2022; MEMO: Egypt and Greece, yesterday, signed in Cairo a protocol to support bilateral cooperation in the fields of military training and rehabilitation.

The Egyptian Army spokesman, Colonel Gharib Abdel Hafez, said in a statement that Lieutenant-General Osama Askar, Chief of Staff of the Army, met his Greek counterpart, General Konstantinos Floros, and his accompanying delegation at the Ministry of Defence headquarters in Cairo.

02 September 2022; MEMO: Israeli officials commented on Friday on the latest response Tehran presented in the context of talks to revive the nuclear agreement, which the US announced was "not constructive".

The Israeli officials considered the Iranian response "makes the return to the nuclear agreement soon unlikely, but this does not mean it is the end of the story."

02 September 2022; MEMO: Israeli settlers yesterday destroyed water pipes in Kisan village, east of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.

A village council member, Ahmed Ghazal, told Safa Press Agency that settlers cut the water pipes network in Wadi Abyan area. As a result, the water supply was cut off to a number of houses in the village.

In another incident in Bethlehem, Israeli occupation forces opened fire at a Palestinian vehicle in the Aqba Hasna area.

03 September 2022; MEMO: The Romanian government has announced that it will buy three unmanned aerial vehicle (UAVs) systems from Turkish defence firm, Baykar, along with logistics support for an estimated $300 million before tax, the Defence Ministry said, Reuters reports.

According to the report, the Ministry said it has requested approval from the Romanian Parliament to begin the tender process to acquire 18 Bayraktar TB2 drones.

03 September 2022; MEMO: Russia's envoy to the Vienna talks, Mikhail Ulyanov, stated that the Iranian response to US proposals on the nuclear agreement could be accepted if there is political will.

03 September 2022; MEMO: Qatari Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, has stated that his country has strong relations with the US and that China is its largest energy supplier and political ally. Al-Thani affirmed that both nations: "Have an important role to play in the global peace and stability."