Middle East & North Africa

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Hussein al-Sheikh, a senior Palestinian official increasingly seen as a successor to the 86-year-old President Mahmoud Abbas, says relations with Israel have gotten so bad that Palestinian leaders cannot go on with business as usual.

But even if they are serious this time around, they have few options. And they appear unlikely to do anything that undermines their own limited power in parts of the occupied West Bank, which largely stems from their willingness to cooperate with Israel.

DAMASCUS, June 10 (Reuters) - Syria halted flights to and from Damascus International Airport on Friday, the transport ministry said, a few hours after Israeli air strikes hit south of the capital.

A Syrian military official quoted by the state news agency said Syrian air defences intercepted the Israeli missiles, downing most of them, but that the early morning attack caused one civilian injury and some material damage.

Cham Wings Airline, a private Syrian carrier, said it was rerouting all its flights to Aleppo International Airport.

ADDIS ABABA, June 10 (Xinhua) -- The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has announced its plan to repatriate 900 Ethiopian migrants from conflict-torn Yemen's Marib province aboard "voluntary humanitarian flights."

In a press statement late Thursday, the IOM said the first 150 of the Ethiopian migrants were returned on Thursday.

Several more such flights are planned to return the remaining 750 Ethiopian migrants home, it said.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank may soon get a taste of the military rule that Palestinians have been living under for 55 years.

If Israel’s parliament does not act, a special legal status accorded to the settlers will expire at the end of the month, with wide-ranging consequences. Lawyers who live in the settlements, including two members of Israel’s Supreme Court, will no longer be allowed to practice law. Settlers would be subject to military courts usually reserved for Palestinians and would lose access to some public services.

BAGHDAD, Jun 9 (NNN-NINA) – An unidentified drone crashed yesterday, in the north of Erbil, capital of Iraq’s semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan, wounding three people, the regional Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) said, in a statement.

The drone exploded at 9:35 p.m. local time (1835 GMT), after it crashed in a restaurant in Erbil, some 375 km north of the capital, Baghdad, the CTS statement said.

The explosion also caused damage to the restaurant building and several nearby civilian cars, it added.

ANKARA, June 9 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Turkiye’s foreign minister has said a United Nations plan to restart Ukrainian grain exports along a sea corridor was “reasonable” during talks with his Russian counterpart in Ankara.

“Various ideas have been put out for the export of Ukrainian grains to the market, most recently is the UN plan [including] a mechanism that can be created between the UN, Ukraine, Russia, and Turkiye,” Turkiye’s Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Wednesday, speaking alongside Russia’s Sergey Lavrov.

ANKARA, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his visiting Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday pledged to enhance cooperation between the two countries.

"There is a wide cooperation potential between Venezuela and Turkey, especially in trade, energy, mining, construction business, health, agriculture and tourism," Erdogan said at a joint press conference with Maduro in the capital Ankara.

The two economies are complementary, holding various opportunities for new cooperation and mutual investments, he added.

TEHRAN, June 8 (Xinhua) -- The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) announced Wednesday that it has decided to turn off two surveillance cameras of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The AEOI said it has decided to, as of Wednesday, shut off the IAEA's surveillance cameras for the online enrichment monitor (OLEM) and the flow meter, according to state-run IRIB TV.

The statement said the AEOI's remedial measures are implemented in reaction to the IAEA's "illegal behaviors."

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was on a surprise visit to the United Arab Emirates on Thursday, a snap trip that came as efforts to salvage a deal over Iran’s nuclear program were stalled amid a deepening standoff with Tehran.

The visit was Bennett’s second public trip to Abu Dhabi since Israel and the UAE agreed to normalize ties in 2020 after years of quiet cooperation, mainly over their shared concerns over Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Eight months after national elections, Iraq still doesn’t have a government and there seems to be no clear way out of the dangerous deadlock.

Political elites are embroiled in cutthroat competition for power, even as the country faces growing challenges, including an impending food crisis resulting from severe drought and the war in Ukraine.