Middle East & North Africa

US does not need negotiations to rejoin nuclear agreement: Iran

10 Dec 2020; MEMO: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the United States does not need time or negotiations to rejoin the 2015 nuclear agreement, only a "signature", the Fars news agency reported.

Speaking at the cabinet meeting yesterday, Rouhani said if the other parties rejoined the nuclear agreement, Iran would also return to all its obligations.

Turkey not concerned by threats of 'possible EU sanctions': Erdogan

10 Dec 2020; MEMO:  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday that his country is not concerned by any economic sanctions the European Union might impose against Ankara, Anadolu reported.

"Officially, since 1963, the EU has already been implementing sanctions on us constantly. The EU has never been honest and never stood behind its promises. But we've always been patient," Erdogan told reporters ahead of his visit to Azerbaijan.

Iran accuses US of thwarting its efforts to purchase covid vaccine

10 Dec 2020; MEMO:  Iranian officials have accused the United States of thwarting its efforts to purchase the coronavirus vaccine, Bloomberg reported yesterday.

The agency said Tehran hoped to use the billions of US dollars held in South Korean won currency to purchase the vaccines under an agreement it had reached with Seoul a few months ago.

Israel’s Netanyahu: Vaccination campaign to begin Dec. 27

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Wednesday that Israel will begin vaccinating the public against the coronavirus on Dec. 27, making it one of the first countries in the world to innoculate its citizens.

He spoke just hours after the United Arab Emirates said a Chinese coronavirus vaccine tested in the federation of sheikhdoms is 86% effective. The Emirati statement provided few details but marked the first public release of information on the efficacy of the shot.

Iran Arrests “Some” Involved In Assassination Of Nuke Scientist

TEHRAN, Dec 9 (NNN-ISNA) – Iran’s security services identified and arrested “some people” involved in the recent assassination of Iran’s top nuclear scientist, an adviser to the Iranian parliament speaker, said.

“The perpetrators of this assassination will not escape justice,” the adviser, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, was quoted as saying.

Iranian nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, died from severe injuries, in a hospital, on Nov 27, following an armed attack on his car in Absard district, 60 km north-east of the capital Tehran.

Iraq's Kurdish region to hand over oil to Baghdad: Finance minister

09 Dec 2020; MEMO:  The Kurdistan Regional Government's Minister of Finance Awat Sheikh Janab yesterday announced that the government will abide by the fiscal deficit bill obliging Erbil to hand unspecified amounts of oil to the federal government in Baghdad in return for federal revenues, Anadolu news agency reported.

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