Middle East & North Africa

21 June 2022; MEMO: A judge in Tunisia has revealed that a new list is being prepared of more than 400 of his colleagues to be dismissed after 25 July, coinciding with the referendum on the new constitution, Arabi21 has reported.

"The judges are determined to defend their just cause," explained Murad Al-Masoudi. "They are steady in their defence of the judicial authority, and note that the executive authority is in a critical situation and has no way out apart from sitting at the negotiating table."

21 June 2022; MEMO: The head of Sudan's Transitional Sovereignty Council, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, yesterday denied recent reports about his country's move to cut relations with Israel.

Al-Burhan told Al-Hurra that Sudan's ties with Israel had never been "severed."

JERUSALEM, June 20 (Xinhua) -- Israel is building a U.S.-sponsored air defense alliance in the Middle East which has already thwarted attempted Iranian attacks, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Monday.

Dubbing the regional alliance as Middle East Air Defense (MEAD), Gantz said it is being built "in the wake of Iran's attempts to hit the region with rockets, cruise missiles and drones," according to an official transcript of his meeting with the parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

ISTANBUL, June 20 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday criticized developed nations for lack of responsibility for the global refugee crisis.

"The real burden of the issue of migration and refugees is felt by countries like ours that are neighbors of the crisis regions, and not the developed countries who cry out loud," Erdogan said in a video address to the Global Parliamentary Conference on Migration that opened in Istanbul on the annual World Refugee Day.

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — The Earl and Countess of Wessex met Tuesday with the president of Cyprus as part of a three-day visit to the former British colony to underscore close bilateral ties and to meet soldiers serving with a U.N. peacekeeping force and those stationed at two U.K. military bases.

The Earl — the youngest child of Queen Elizabeth and her late husband Prince Philip — and his wife were received by Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and his wife Andri at the Presidential Palace in the capital, Nicosia.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s weakened coalition government announced Monday that it would dissolve parliament and call new elections, setting the stage for the possible return to power of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or another period of prolonged political gridlock.

The election will be Israel’s fifth in three years, and it will put the polarizing Netanyahu, who has been the opposition leader for the past year, back at the center of the political universe.

“I think the winds have changed. I feel it,” Netanyahu declared.

ANKARA, June 20. /TASS/: Turkey won’t greenlight Sweden and Finland’s bid to join NATO at the bloc’s Madrid summit set for late June, the head of the Ankara-based Foreign Policy Institute told TASS on Monday.

"Turkey cannot be expected to give the greenlight at the Madrid summit. Sooner or later, Sweden and Finland will join NATO. It is highly unlikely to happen this year and may require the alliance to hold another summit," Huseyin Bagci pointed out.

TEHRAN, Jun 20 (NNN-IRNA) – Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, yesterday, slammed the U.S.-led West, for its expansionist policies that undermine national independence and sovereignty, according to Khamenei’s official website.

“The Americans and westerners are constantly seeking to expand their sphere of influence in various regions, including East and West Asia, and to undermine the independence and sovereignty of nations,” Khamenei said, in a meeting with Kazakh President, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, in the capital Tehran.

BAGHDAD, Jun 20 (NNN-NINA) – Iraq seeks to raise its crude oil production to eight million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of 2027, to fulfil its commitment to export quota, within the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Iraqi Oil Minister, Ihsan Abdul-Jabbar Ismail, said yesterday.

“Iraq is working to increase its capabilities, to raise its oil production capacity, and we have large projects to increase production, and we are committed to reaching the peak production of eight million bpd by the end of 2027,” Ismail told reporters.

BAGHDAD, Jun 20 (NNN-NINA) – The Iraqi health ministry reported yesterday, 13 cases of cholera, mostly in the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan.

Of the 13 cases, 10 were detected in the Kurdish province of Sulaymaniyah, one in neighbouring Kirkuk Province, and two in the southern province of al-Muthanna, according to a ministry statement.

The ministry urged citizens to pay attention to personal hygiene, and ensure that “water used for drinking and cooking is sterilized.”