Middle East & North Africa

23 Oct 2020; MEMO: The Israeli authorities on Thursday demolished the Palestinian Bedouin village of Al-Araqib in the Naqab desert for the 179th time since the year 2000, Anadolu Agency reported.

The agency quoted a member of the Local Committee for the Defence of Al-Araqib, Aziz Al-Turi, stating that this is the fourth time the village, which is inhabited by 22 families, has been demolished since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

TUNIS, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) -- Tunisian President Kais Saied held a meeting on Thursday with visiting French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, during which they discussed boosting bilateral ties and the Libyan peace.

The two sides discussed the need to strengthen the existing bilateral cooperation between the two countries and the need to diversify it in various fields, in particular in the fight against terrorism and extremism, the Tunisian presidency said in a statement.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Long-time Iraqi civil servant Qusay Abdul-Amma panicked when his monthly salary was delayed. Days of waiting turned to weeks. He defaulted on rent and other bills.

A graphic designer for the Health Ministry, he uses about half his salary to pay his rent of nearly 450,000 Iraqi dinars a month, roughly $400. If he fails to pay twice in a row his landlord will evict him and his family, he fears.

“These delays affect my ability to survive,” Abdul-Amma said.

22 Oct 2020; MEMO: An Israeli delegation made a rare visit to Sudan on Wednesday to discuss normalising ties, Israeli public broadcaster Kan radio said, as a minister predicted a possible diplomatic breakthrough between the two countries, Reuters reports.

Israeli Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen told Israel’s Channel 13 News that he believed Israel was “very close to normalising ties with Sudan”.

22 Oct 2020; MEMO: The Egyptian government has allocated almost $35 billion to repay debt and loan instalments during the 2020/2021 fiscal year which started in July, an official report has revealed. Last year, the Egyptian government repaid around $23bn to its creditors.

Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait said previously that Egypt has repaid loans of more than $100bn over the past five years.

22 Oct 2020; MEMO: The Israeli occupation authorities on Wednesday banned the student branch of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in the occupied West Bank, calling it an “illegal and terrorist” organisation, Quds Press reported.

22 Oct 2020; MEMO: Human Rights Watch has called on Egyptian authorities to immediately halt executions and retry detainees on death row after they executed 49 people in 10 days.

“Egypt’s mass executions of scores of people in a matter of days is outrageous,” says deputy MENA director Joe Stork.

“The systematic absence of fair trials in Egypt, especially political cases, makes every death sentence a violation of the right to life.”

22 Oct 2020; MEMO: Sources in Sudan and Egypt have revealed that Saudi Arabia is to pay $335 million to the US in order to accelerate normalisation of ties between the government in Khartoum and Israel, Safa news agency reported on Wednesday.

TEHRAN, Oct 22 (NNN-TASNIM) – Iran’s Air Defence Forces began a large-scale military exercise yesterday, in different parts of the country.

In the air defence drill, codenamed “Guardians of Velayat Sky-99,” units from the Army and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), also participated.

According to the report, Iranian fighter jets, bombers, homegrown drones, missile systems, radars, electronic warfare equipment, and communications systems, have been deployed in the war game.

RIYADH, Oct 22 (NNN-SPA) – Saudi Arabia launched a national strategy to become a global leader in artificial intelligence (AI) by 2030.

Abdullah bin Sharaf Alghamdi, president of Saudi Data and AI Authority, announced the launch of the National Strategy for Data and AI, at the Global AI Summit, which kicked off virtually yesterday.