Middle East & North Africa

30 August 2022; MEMO: Morocco's Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Bourita has cancelled a meeting scheduled for September with the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell.

The Spanish Radio and Television Corporation (RTVE) quoted diplomatic sources as saying that Bourita had cancelled the scheduled meeting without giving reasons, however, observers believe the cancellation was linked to Borrell's recent statements on the Sahara issue.

30 August 2022; MEMO: An Indonesian politician is currently visiting illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank where he has met local leaders, Israel Hayom newspaper reported.

The paper said Samuel Tabuni, a candidate for the position of governor of the Indonesian province of West Papua, arrived in Israel to visit settlements in the West Bank.

30 August 2022; MEMO: Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said that any roadmap to revive the nuclear agreement between his country and world powers must include ending the UN nuclear watchdog's inquiry into "safeguard issues" related to nuclear particles found at undisclosed locations in the country.

"Without resolving safeguards issues, talking about an agreement would be meaningless," Raisi said during a news conference held in Tehran yesterday,  one year since he took office.

30 August 2022; MEMO: Iraq's influential Shia cleric and head of the Sadrist movement, Moqtada Al-Sadr, announced yesterday that he will stage a hunger strike in protest over the mounting violence in the capital Baghdad, after deadly clashes erupted between his followers, rival supporters and security forces.

30 August 2022; MEMO: Israeli occupation forces uprooted 100 olive trees on Monday in the vicinity of Sair, east of the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, Anadolu has reported.

The Mayor of the Palestinian town, Mousa Al-Faroukh, said that the Israeli forces uprooted the trees in order to take over the Palestinian-owned land and get it ready for its de facto annexation by the illegal Jewish settlement of Asfar. The army, he added, wants the land for an additional watchtower for the settlement.

30 August 2022; MEMO: Palestinian minors being held in Israeli jails have been subjected to sexual harassment by officers from Israeli Nahshon Battalion, Quds Press reported yesterday.
According to the news site, the PLO's Commission for Prisoners and Freed Prisoners reported that several minors detained in Maggedo Prison "had been subject to sexual harassment by officers from Israeli Nahshon forces."

The detained boys said "they had been harassed intentionally by the Nahshon forces several times."

30 August 2022; MEMO: Iraqi Prime Minister, Mustafa Al-Kadhimi m, yesterday called on the leader of the Sadrist movement, Moqtada Al-Sadr to call on his supporters to withdraw from government institutions in the Green Zone, the Iraqi News Agency reported.

"The dangerous developments that took place on Monday when demonstrators stormed the Green Zone and entered government institutions, indicate the seriousness of the repercussions of the continuation and accumulation of political differences," Al- Kadhimi said.

30 August 2022; MEMO: Egypt's former presidential candidate Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh has just had his fourth heart attack in prison, following a prolonged period in detention without proper medical attention.

Just one week ago Aboul Fotouh's son said that authorities in Al-Mazraa Prison were refusing to carry out a medical examination on him and that his father was "subject to a slow death" in detention.

ISTANBUL, Aug 29 (NNN-ANADOLU) – A tour bus, rolling off a cliff in Türkiye’s north-western province of Bursa, left at least three dead and 37 wounded yesterday, Demiroren News Agency (DHA) reported.

The tour bus was driven off the cliff, and rolled downwards until it hit a tree, and initial reports indicated that, the bus had brake failure, according to the report.

Emergency response teams, medical units, and rescue teams have arrived at the scene, and all the wounded have been transferred to various hospitals, said Bursa Governor, Yakup Canbolat.

RAMALLAH, Aug 29 (NNN-WAFA) – The Palestinian foreign ministry, yesterday condemned Israeli Jewish settlers, for breaking into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, through a gate that Palestinian media said, was “solely used by Muslims” in the Old City of Jerusalem.

This is the first time that the Israeli police have allowed Jewish settlers to enter the Islamic holy site through the Lions’ Gate, one of the gates leading to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, according to an earlier report.

“This unprecedented step is a blatant violation of the Mosque’s status quo,” said a ministry statement.