Middle East & North Africa

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Afghanistan’s chief peace envoy Abdullah Abdullah said Saturday that the U.S. decision to begin withdrawing troops from Afghanistan has come too soon, as his country is still struggling to attain peace and security amid an ongoing conflict.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Abdullah also described as “shocking” an Australian military report that found evidence that elite Australian troops unlawfully killed 39 Afghan prisoners. He welcomed a decision by Australian authorities to pursue the perpetrators.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran on Saturday shuttered businesses and curtailed travel between its major cities, including the capital of Tehran, as it grapples with the worst outbreak of the coronavirus in the Mideast region.

Top Iranian officials initially downplayed the risks posed by the virus outbreak, before recently urging the public to follow measures like wearing masks and avoiding unessential travel.

Tehran, Nov 21, IRNA - Iranian Interior Minister announced here on Saturday that the June 2021 presidential election will be held in coordination with the Health and Medical Education Ministry across Iran.

Speaking about preparations for the next presidential election in Iran, Abdolreza Rahmani-Fazli said that due coordination will be made with health ministry.

Meanwhile, Iran will use experiences of other countries which have already held elections in the pandemic situation, Rahmani-Fazli added.

About 20,000 volunteers applied for the Chinese coronavirus vaccine Friday in Turkey.

Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said the vaccine has been initially tested on health workers since Sept. 15 but citizen volunteers are needed for tests to continue.

“We announced that we seek volunteers among citizens and received 20,000 applications before the end of the day. Thank you on behalf of 83 million (citizens),” he said on Twitter.

21 Nov 2020; AA: Turkey's kitchenware sector has gained advantages against Chinese rivals and became a significant competitor during the pandemic, the head of the Turkish Houseware Association (Zucder) said Friday.

The kitchenware sector has $3.61 billion in exports during the first 10 months of 2020 throughout the pandemic, according to Mesut Oksuz.

21 Nov 2020; AA: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Saudi King Salman bin Abdelaziz discussed relations between their countries in a telephone conversation late Friday.

Erdogan and Salman agreed to improve ties and keep a dialogue channel open to resolve issues, according to a statement by the Turkish Presidential Communications Directorate.

They also discussed the G20 Leaders Summit which is currently chaired by Saudi Arabia.

20 Nov 2020; MEMO: Israeli police on Friday prevented hundreds of Palestinian residents of the occupied West Bank from reaching Al-Aqsa Mosque to perform Friday prayer, Anadolu Agency reports.

According to an Anadolu Agency correspondent, Israeli police stopped worshipers from the West Bank at checkpoints at the entrances to the Old City in Jerusalem and allowed only a very small number of them to reach Al-Aqsa Mosque after identity checks.

21 Nov 2020; MEMO: Iran's deputy health minister resigned Friday amid a spike in the number of novel coronavirus cases in the country, according to Iranian media, Anadolu Agency reported.

Reza Malekzadeh accused Health Minister Saeed Namaki of mismanaging the pandemic and causing many casualties, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported.

Iran confirmed 479 more coronavirus-related fatalities on Friday, raising the nationwide death toll to 43,896, according to the country's Health Ministry.

21 Nov 2020; MEMO: World Food Programme (WFP) Representative and Country Director in Sudan Hameed Nuru reported plans for WFP and US agencies to move humanitarian aid from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Sudan via United Nations (UN) planes, and then to areas hosting Ethiopian refugees by helicopter, Al-Sharq news website reported on Friday.

TRIPOLI, Nov 20 (NNN-Xinhua) — Libya wishes to increase oil and gas trade with Spain, Mustafa Sanalla, chairman of the state-owned National Oil Corporation (NOC) of Libya said.

Sanalla made this remark during a meeting with Javier Garcia-Larrache, Spanish ambassador to Libya, according to a statement issued by the NOC.

“We are happy with our partnership with the Spanish company Repsol and there has been a commercial exchange between Libya and Spain in the oil and its derivatives field that exceeded 7.5 billion dollars during the last three years,” Sanalla said.