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13 July 2022; MEMO: Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said yesterday that Beirut will defend its marine resources just like it had defended its land from the Israeli occupation.

Manila, Jul 12 (AP/PTI) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken renewed a call to China to comply with a 2016 arbitration ruling that invalidated Beijing's vast claims in the South China Sea and warned that Washington is obligated to defend treaty ally Philippines if its forces, vessels or aircraft come under attack in the disputed waters.

Moscow, Jul 12 (AP-PTI) The Kremlin says that Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Iran next week.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Putin will travel to Tehran next Tuesday to attend a trilateral meeting with the leaders of Iran and Turkey, the so-called Astana format of meetings for Syria-related talks.

Peskov told reporters Tuesday that during the visit, Putin will also have a separate meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

09 July 2022; MEMO: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Friday it had held productive discussions during a staff visit to Egypt on economic policies and reforms to be supported by an extended fund facility, reports Reuters.

"In the period ahead, we are continuing our close engagement with the authorities towards reaching staff-level agreement," the IMF statement said.

The IMF announced that Egypt had made a request for a new programme in March as it came under new financial pressure from the war in Ukraine.

07 July 2022; MEMO: The Taliban and the United Arab Emirates are poised to strike a deal for the Gulf nation to run Kabul Airport and several others in Afghanistan that could be announced within weeks, according to sources familiar with the negotiations, Reuters reports.

The Taliban, whose government remains an international pariah without formal recognition, have courted regional powers, including Qatar and Turkiye, to operate Kabul airport, landlocked Afghanistan's main air link with the world, and others.

06 July 2022; MEMO: Greece has secretly been establishing a system of defence against Turkish drones, using Israeli technology to counter them in the case of an attack.

In the Greek newspaper, Kathimerini, its diplomatic-defence correspondent and journalist, Vassilis Nedos, wrote that Athens has set up a "veritable umbrella against enemy unmanned aerial vehicles" over the past two months, particularly over islands and important sites in the country.

06 July 2022; MEMO: Turkiye has decided to join the Svalbard Treaty, in a move which could advance the country's polar ambitions and access to the Arctic region.

According to the Turkish newspaper, Hurriyet Daily News, the Bill to become a party to the Svalbard Treaty has been signed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, officially making the country an applicant to the treaty.

06 July 2022; MEMO: The United States, on Wednesday, imposed sanctions on a network of Hong Kong, Emirati and other companies that it accused of helping to deliver and sell Iranian petroleum and petrochemical products to East Asia, applying pressure on Tehran as Washington seeks to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, Reuters reports.

06 July 2022; MEMO: Tunisia's annual inflation rate rose to 8.1 per cent in June, up from 7.8 per cent in May, the state-run National Institute of Statistics announced yesterday. This is the "highest in three decades," it said, noting that the increase was attributed to the "consequences of the Russian-Ukrainian war."

06 July 2022; MEMO: Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, on Wednesday, rejected US claims that Tehran has made new "extravagant demands" during indirect talks in Doha to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, Anadolu News Agency reports.