Middle East & North Africa

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Friday with Morocco’s King Mohammed VI and invited him to visit Israel, Netanyahu’s office said.

The two leaders spoke about moving forward with a U.S.-brokered agreement announced earlier this month to normalize bilateral ties, according to the Israeli statement.

Netanyahu also thanked King Mohammed for hosting an official Israeli delegation this week.

King Mohammed underscored the close ties between the Moroccan Jewish community and the monarchy, the Royal Court said in a statement.

CAIRO (Reuters) - Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has received his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, as part of a national COVID-19 vaccination plan being implemented by the ministry of health, state news agency SPA reported on Friday.

TRIPOLI, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) on Saturday welcomed the exchange of prisoners between rival parties.

"UNSMIL welcomes the remarkable success registered today by the exchange of prisoners from both sides under the supervision of the Joint Military Commission (5+5), and thanks to the good offices of the tribal sheikhs and elders," the UN body tweeted earlier Saturday.

ADDIS ABABA, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from the recent armed attack in western Ethiopia's Benishangul-Gumuz regional state has risen to 207, the country's federal rights group confirmed late Friday.

Among the victims were 133 adult men, 35 adult women, some 20 elderly persons as well as 17 children, one of them a six-month-old baby, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC), a rights group established by the Ethiopian parliament, said in a statement late Friday.

BAGHDAD, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi prominent Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Friday warned Iran and the United States not to involve Iraq in their conflict.

"Iraq has become a victim to the U.S.-Iranian conflict and has been greatly affected as if it is an arena for their conflicts," al-Sadr said on his official Twitter account.

"Therefore, I call on Iran to distance Iraq from its conflict, and I warn the (U.S.) occupier against continuing its conflict ... Iraq and the Iraqis are not a party to the conflict," he added.

ANKARA, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) -- Turkey's decision to appoint a new ambassador to Israel is in line with its ambition of normalizing relations with the Jewish state and represents a bid that would generate geostrategic benefits for both nations, Turkish experts said.

On Dec. 9, along with a series of other ambassador appointments, Ankara announced that Ufuk Ulutas, chairman of the Center for Strategic Research at the Turkish Foreign Ministry, had been selected for the critical post.

RABAT, Morocco (AP) — Morocco announced it has acquired 65 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from China’s Sinopharm and Britain’s AstraZeneca, as the north African kingdom prepares to launch a COVID-19 vaccination program that aims to immunize 80% of the country’s adult population.

Health Minister Khalid Ait Taleb announced the figure at a Cabinet meeting Thursday. The government didn’t indicate whether the vaccines were purchased or provided by Covax, the global project to provide vaccines to developing countries, or a combination of both.

ADDIS ABABA, Dec 25 (NNN-XINHUA) – The Ethiopian Defense Forces killed some 42 “anti-peace elements” as part of the crackdown on perpetrators of the latest “gruesome” attack that killed at least 100 civilians in Ethiopia’s western Benishangul-Gumuz regional state, local government officials said.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon’s top Christian cleric urged politicians on Friday to rid themselves of external pressure and form a government to end political deadlock and help resolve a severe financial crisis.

Fractious politicians have been unable to agree on a new administration since the last one quit in the aftermath of the Aug. 4 Beirut port explosion, leaving Lebanon rudderless as it sinks deeper into economic crisis.

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) -Ethiopia will hold a parliamentary election on June 5, 2021, the National Electoral Board said on Friday, as Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed tries to quell outbreaks of deadly political and ethnic violence in several regions.

Abiy’s Prosperity Party, a pan-Ethiopian movement he founded a year ago, faces challenges from increasingly strident ethnically-based parties seeking more power for their regions.

Africa’s second most populous nation has a federal system and 10 regional governments, many of whom have border disputes or face low-level unrest.