Middle East & North Africa

TRIPOLI, Oct 27 (NNN-AFRICANEWS) — Libya is set to restart the last of its major oil fields following a ceasefire in its civil war.

The state energy firm lifted force majeure on exports from El Feel on Monday.

The OPEC member has mostly been offline since January.

The move will help the attempt by the Tripoli-based National Oil Corporation to boost Libyan production to 1 million barrels each day within a month.

Libya has been in chaos since a 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi.

CAIRO, Oct 27 (NNN-MENA) – Egypt confirmed yesterday that it will participate in a tripartite video ministerial meeting between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan, over the Ethiopian grand hydropower dam, built over the Nile River, said the Egyptian water ministry in a statement.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Yemen’s Houthis want to strengthen bilateral ties with Iran in various fields, the foreign minister for the Houthi administration that runs north Yemen told Iran’s new ambassador to the country on Tuesday, Houthi-run Saba Net news reported.

Iranian ambassador Hassan Eyrlo said Iran would make every effort to achieve peace in Yemen, in a meeting with Foreign Minister Hesham Sharaf Abdallah during which Eyrlo presented his diplomatic credentials.

27 Oct 2020; MEMO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has prevented cabinet ministers from travelling to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) before he visits the country, the Walla news agency reported yesterday.

The agency said a number of ministers, including Minister of Transport Miri Regev, have in recent weeks contacted Netanyahu’s office and informed him of their interest to visit the UAE and hold meetings with their counterparts to enhance cooperation between the two countries.

27 Oct 2020; MEMO: The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said as many as 56 pro-Turkey fighters were killed when Russian warplanes attacked their training camp in northwestern Syria.

The organisation reported that Russian planes targeted a training camp controlled by the Faylaq Al-Sham faction in the Jabal Duwayli area in Idlib province, killing at least 56 fighters and wounding more than a hundred others.

27 Oct 2020; MEMO: Insulting Muslims is an “opportunistic” abuse of free speech, Iran’s foreign minister said on Monday, in an apparent reference to remarks by French President Emmanuel Macron perceived to be critical of Islam.

“Muslims are the primary victims of the ‘cult of hatred’,” the minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, tweeted, without directly addressing Macron.

27 Oct 2020; MEMO: British Petroleum (BP) has started production of natural gas from Kattameyeh field in the north of Egypt, local media reported yesterday.

Production of natural gas started in this field, which is located in the North Damietta offshore concession area, in partnership with the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS).

27 Oct 2020; MEMO: Iraq does not consider the Muslim Brotherhood a “terrorist organisation”, prime minister’s spokesperson Ahmed Mulla Talal said on Sunday.

TEHRAN, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Ministry has summoned the French charge d'affaires over growing anti-Islam comments in France and French officials' support for them, Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency reported Tuesday.

In their meeting on Monday, a ministry official told French charge d'affaires to Tehran Florent Aydalot that "any insult and disrespect to the Prophet of Islam and the pure values of Islam are strongly condemned and rejected by every person and in every position," according to the news agency.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest for international travel, is getting busier. But it’s a long way from what it once was amid the coronavirus pandemic as it prepares for a possible ”extended, slow recovery,” its CEO told The Associated Press.

After long-haul carrier Emirates drastically cut its flights in March and slowly resumed its routes, passenger numbers at the mammoth airport serving East-West travel have crept up to over 1 million a month — just below 15% of what they were a year ago, CEO Paul Griffiths said.