Middle East & North Africa

TRIPOLI, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- The forces of the UN-backed government on Tuesday said they disposed of some explosives left by war in south of the capital Tripoli by using a robot for the first time.

"Using a robot for the first time in Libya, an amount of cluster bombs and explosives were detonated by the explosives teams of the interior ministry after collecting them from neighborhoods in southern Tripoli, which were freed from the fleeing terrorist militias of (Khalifa) Haftar (commander of the eastern-based army)," the UN-backed government forces said in a statement.

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military struck Hamas militant sites in the Gaza Strip early Wednesday in response to rocket fire toward Israel the previous night that coincided with the signing of normalization agreements between Israel and two Arab countries at the White House.

The barrage against Israel began Tuesday night just as the ceremony in Washington was getting underway to formalize the new agreements with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Two Israelis were lightly wounded.

TEHRAN, Sept 15 (NNN-IRNA) – Iran’s Foreign Ministry, on Monday, lambasted an American press report about an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate the U.S. ambassador to South Africa, in revenge for the killing of top Iranian commander, Qasem Soleimani.

“We advise U.S. officials to refrain from resorting to repetitive and rotten methods, to create anti-Iranian atmosphere on the international stage,” the ministry’s spokesman, Saeed Khatibzadeh, said.

15 Sep 2020; MEMO: Iran yesterday dismissed claims it is planning to assassinate the US Ambassador to South Africa, Lana Marks, in retaliation for America’s assassination of its General Qassem Soleimani, news agencies reported.

Spokesman of the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Saeed Khatibzadeh, said: “We suggest that the Americans prevent worn-out tricks to create propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

15 Sep 2020; MEMO: Hamas refused US presidential adviser Jared Kushner’s proposal that the movement hold talks with the American administration, the group’s chief, Ismail Haniyeh, told Al Jazeera in an interview.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish and international lawyers’ groups have voiced concern over the arrest of dozens of lawyers, saying they had been doing their job when representing clients accused of links to the network Turkey blames for an attempted coup in 2016.

The Ankara state prosecutor’s office ordered the detention of 60 people on Friday, including 48 lawyers and others in the legal sector, suspected of operating in support of the network of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen.

15 Sep 2020; MEMO: Ten pro-Iran militants, most of them Iraqi, were killed in Israeli air strikes on eastern Syria yesterday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported.

The rights group said the strikes had taken place south of the the town of Boukamal near the Iraqi border, adding that the raids were the “third in a month in eastern Syria’s Deir El-Zour city.”

15 Sep 2020; MEMO: An Israeli occupation court yesterday ordered that Al-Qa’qa’ Mosque in Jerusalem’s Silwan neighbourhood be demolished because it was built without planning permission, Anadolu reported.

The court gave Palestinians 21 days to challenge the order or the Islamic site will be demolished.

Anadolu said the mosque is 110 square metres over two floors and was built in 2012. An order had previously been given for it to be demolished in 2015.

15 Sep 2020; MEMO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday that peace deals with the UAE and Bahrain would pump millions of dollars into Israel’s treasury, local media reported.

Prior to leaving for Washington to sign and celebrate the two peace deals with the two Gulf states, Netanyahu addressed Israelis saying that it is a “historic” trip.

“Two peace deals in one month,” the Times of Israel reported him saying.

15 Sep 2020; MEMO: An Israeli court has sentenced a Jewish settler to three life terms following the killing of a Palestinian couple and their baby in an arson attack in 2015.