Middle East & North Africa

BAGHDAD, Feb 2 (NNN-NINA) – The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), said that, the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, paid a two-day visit to Tehran, that aimed at supporting Iraq’s stability.

A UNAMI statement said that, Hennis-Plasschaert, held talks on Jan 31 and Feb 1 (yesterday), with Iranian officials, over regional issues as part of efforts to support stability in Iraq.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel’s energy minister said on Tuesday it would take Iran around six months to produce enough fissile material for a single nuclear weapon, a timeline almost twice as long as that anticipated by a senior member of the Biden administration.

Israel is wary of the Biden administration’s intent to reenter the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal and has long opposed the agreement. Washington argues that the previous Trump administration’s withdrawal from the deal backfired by prompting Iran to abandon caps on nuclear activities.

AIN DEFLA, Algeria (Reuters) - Algerian soldiers fired high-calibre rounds into a scrubby hillside of the Ain Defla mountains last week, part of an operation against the persistent threat of Islamist militants after they launched a fresh attack last month.

They stalked in the rain between pine trees along muddy tracks, rifles raised, before dropping into a crouch, many of them too young to remember the 1990s jihadist insurgency that killed 200,000 Algerians.

ADDIS ABABA, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- The global fight against the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has marked the beginning of a struggle that changed "everything globally," a senior African Union (AU) Commission official has said.

The statement was made by Amira Elfadil, AU Commissioner for Social Affairs, as she emphasized that the declaration of COVID-19 as an outbreak early on followed by a public health emergency of international concern and later a pandemic "marked the beginning of a struggle that changed everything globally."

02 Feb 2021; MEMO: The Turkish Ministry of Defence announced the completion of training sessions for Libyan soldiers on air defence systems in Konya state.

The ministry said in a statement yesterday that the Libyan military personnel who participated in the training had now returned to their country.

The statement added that the training comes within the framework of the Military Training, Cooperation and Consultancy Agreement signed between the two nations.

02 Feb 2021; MEMO: The Palestinian factions, including Hamas, have been invited for talks in Cairo on reconciliation as well as the recently announced elections. The details were announced on Monday by Taher Al-Nunu, the media advisor of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

"We will visit Cairo on 7 February," explained Al-Nunu. "The Hamas leadership has assigned deputy leader Saleh Al-Arouri to lead the movement's delegation."

02 Feb 2021; MEMO: Japan yesterday announced the provision of $20.5 million in food aid for Yemen.

In an official statement, the Japanese embassy in Yemen said that the funds were aimed at "providing food and nutrition to the Yemeni people," adding that it was expecting to secure food for "2,285,000 people."

02 Feb 2021; MEMO: Yemen's Houthi group on Sunday said it held the Saudi-led Arab coalition responsible for the country's economic and humanitarian crises, calling for a fact-finding committee to investigate the coalition's activities in Yemen.

02 Feb 2021; MEMO: The Israeli army said on Monday that a drone crashed in Lebanon's territory, Anadolu Agency reported.

In a statement, the army's spokesman Avichay Adraee said: "A short while ago, an Israeli army drone fell inside Lebanese territory."

"The drone crashed during an operational activity on the border with Lebanon," he said.

02 Feb 2021; MEMO: Iran said on Monday it had successfully tested a satellite launcher to help achieve its "most powerful rocket engine", in a move likely to trigger protests from the United States and stoke tensions over Tehran's nuclear and missile programmes, Reuters reported.

The United States, Iran's long time foe, fears such long-range ballistic technology used to put satellites into orbit could also be used to launch nuclear warheads. Tehran denies the US accusation.