Middle East & North Africa

16 August 2023; MEMO: Iran’s Special Prosecutor’s Office for Clergy Affairs has opened a number of cases against former President, Hassan Rouhani, on charges of “interfering in the foreign exchange and stock markets”, a judiciary spokesman said yesterday.

Addressing a weekly news conference in the capital Tehran, Masoud Setayeshi said: “Rouhani is a cleric, and cases against him have been filed in the special prosecutor’s office in line with the relevant jurisdiction.”

16 August 2023; MEMO: The Palestinian Authority said on Tuesday that Saudi Arabia’s appointment of a consul general in Jerusalem means that it “rejects the city’s annexation” by the occupation state of Israel, Quds Press has reported.

16 August 2023; MEMO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s relationship with Defence Minister Yoav Gallant is close to boiling over, Yedioth Ahronoth revealed on Tuesday.

The two men are apparently at odds regarding Gallant’s full support for the Israel Defence Forces and its senior leaders despite more and more army reservists refusing to show up for military service in protest against Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul.

16 August 2023; MEMO: Sudan’s Civil Aviation Authority has reopened airspace in the eastern part of the country for air traffic.

The authority stated in a statement released late yesterday that it reopened “Sudanese airspace to air traffic on the eastern routes of the country, starting today, Tuesday.”

An alternative air navigation centre was established in the city of Port Sudan in the east of the country.

16 August 2023; MEMO: More than 2,000 Moroccans visited Israel during the first half of 2023, a massive 66 per cent increase on the same period last year, Sama news agency reported on Tuesday. According to a report published by the Abraham Accords Institute for Peace, 200 Moroccans visited Israel in June alone.

16 August 2023; MEMO: Benjamin Netanyahu is afraid that a bill confirming military service exemption for Ultra-Orthodox men might expand anti-government protests within the Israel Defence Forces, local media reported on Tuesday.

16 August 2023; MEMO: Israel today claimed that occupation forces targeted and destroyed a weapons laboratory and explosives warehouse belonging to the Palestinian Fatah movement.

The site, in the Palestinian refugee camp of Balata in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, was destroyed by Israel’s army and Border Police using explosives last night.

The Palestinians who investigated the blast site claimed that the location was only used as a centre by Fatah.

DAMASCUS, Aug 14 (NNN-SANA) – Syria is beefing up its forces in the eastern province of Deir al-Zour, where its troops were recently ambushed by the Daesh militants, a war monitor reported, yesterday.

The Syrian army brought in reinforcements for its 17th and 18th divisions, stationed in al-Mayadeen City, in the eastern countryside of Deir al-Zour, after the Daesh militants attacked its bus there and killed 35 Syrian soldiers early on Friday, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

RAMALLAH, Aug 15 (NNN-WAFA) – Two more Palestinians, including a teenager, were killed today, during clashes with Israeli soldiers in Aqabat Jabar refugee camp, close to the West Bank city of Jericho.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health said that, Qusai Al-Walaji, 16, and Mohammad Najoum, 25, died after Israeli soldiers shot them during clashes in the refugee camp.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said in a statement that, two other Palestinians were injured during the clashes and were sent to a local hospital.

14 August 2023; MEMO: Iran and the de-facto government of Yemen, the Houthi-led National Salvation Government (NSG), held their first joint economic cooperation commission on Saturday.