Middle East & North Africa

17 Sep 2020; MEMO: Iranian President, Hassan Rouhani, on Tuesday accused the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain of seeking to grant Israel bases in the Gulf region, warning that they should bear the consequences of their actions.

Rouhani described the Gulf countries’ normalisation agreements with Israel as a “violation of regional security and international resolutions”, saying, “we are surprised at how those who claim to be Arabs reach out to those who kill Palestinian Arabs every day”.

17 Sep 2020; MEMO: Prince Ali bin Al-Hussein, the half-brother of Jordan’s King Abdullah II, has mocked a photograph showing the signatories to the normalisation agreement with Israel standing next to each other, without wearing masks in a blatant violation of precautionary measures against the coronavirus.

KHARTOUM, Sept 17 (NNN-AFRICANEWS) –Sudan has arrested 41 people and seized a large amount of explosives big enough to blow up the capital Khartoum, authorities said.

The materials included amonium nitrate, the same chemical that caused a deadly explosion in Lebanon on Aug 4.

“Forty-one people were arrested in possession of explosives, enough to destroy (the capital) Khartoum,” said public prosecutor Tagelsir al-Hebr in a press conference, adding that his office had opened an investigation.

16 Sep 2020; MEMO: Egypt is building two highways across the pyramids plateau outside Cairo, reviving and expanding a project that was suspended in the 1990s after an international outcry.

The Great Pyramids, Egypt’s top tourist destination, are the sole survivor of the seven wonders of the ancient world and the plateau is a UNESCO world heritage site.

16 Sep 2020; MEMO: An improvised explosive device has targeted a British diplomatic vehicle near the heavily guarded Green Zone in the Iraqi capital Baghdad yesterday, Anadolu news agency reported.

The agency quoted a local security source as saying that the British diplomatic vehicle was on route from Baghdad International Airport to the Green Zone when the explosive device went off badly damaging the vehicle.

16 Sep 2020; MEMO: Amazon started initial negotiations to acquire 100 acres in Egypt’s western city of Sohag to establish warehouses to serve the Upper Egypt region, SeeEgy reported on Monday.

16 Sep 2020; MEMO: Qatar has completely rejected normalising ties with Israel, stressing that this is not the core of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle.

Speaking to Bloomberg on Monday, spokesperson of Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Lolwah Rashid Al-Khater said: “We don’t think that normalization was the core of this conflict and hence it can’t be the answer.”

16 Sep 2020; MEMO: The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas said yesterday that Israel is exploiting normalisation with Arab countries to escalate violations against Al-Aqsa Mosque and demolish more Palestinian homes in Jerusalem.

“Storming Al-Aqsa Mosque by dozens of Israeli settlers early this morning and the plans of some extremist Jewish groups to carry out mass raids in the Muslim compound on Thursday are the outcomes of normalisation deals with the Israeli occupation,” Hamas said.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri said on Wednesday no sect had the exclusive right to the ministry of finance or other government portfolios, a reference to an issue at the centre of a dispute over the formation of a new government.

In a tweet, Hariri said rejecting the idea of switching control of ministries was frustrating “the last chance to save Lebanon and the Lebanese”, in reference to a French efforts to get Lebanese leaders to adopt a new government and reforms.

TRIPOLI, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- More than 20 illegal migrants have drowned off the Libyan coast, said the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on Tuesday.

"IOM staff report that over 20 migrants lost their lives at sea last night, off Libya," the IOM tweeted.

"This new tragedy signals yet again the need for increased search and rescue capacity in the Mediterranean," the IOM said.