Middle East & North Africa

BEIRUT, Aug 29 (NNN-NNA) – Syrian ambassador to Lebanon, Ali Abdel Karim Ali, said, yesterday that, his country will cooperate with Lebanon, by allowing donations from Arab countries to reach Beirut through Syria.

Ali’s remarks came, during his meeting with Lebanese Foreign Affairs Minister, Charbel Wehbi.

Ali said, Syria is keen on cooperating with Lebanon, because both countries have common interests, especially in the security area.

“We should cooperate in the security area, to confront any conspiracies being prepared in both countries,” Ali said.

DAMASCUS, Aug 29 (NNN-SANA) – A car bomb exploded yesterday evening, near a Turkish military point in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib, a war monitor reported.

The bomb went off, on the M4 road south of the Jisr al-Shughur area, in the countryside of Idlib, near the administrative border with Hama province, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The car exploded while reconnaissance drones were hovering overhead, said the observatory, adding that, the drones might have hit the car before it could reach the Turkish point.

TEHRAN, Aug 29 (NNN-IRNA) – The bodies of two Iranian fishermen, killed by the coast guards of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), were delivered to Iran, semi-official Fars news agency reported.

“The dead bodies of the two fishermen were delivered to Iran in Bandar Abbas city on Thursday, and were transferred to their hometown in Sistan and Baluchestan province,” Ahmad Ali Goodarzi, Iranian border police commander, was quoted as saying.

Also, a number of Iranian fishermen detained by the UAE guards returned to the country, said Goodarzi.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey said it will hold a military exercise off northwest Cyprus for the next two weeks, amid growing tension with Greece over disputed claims to exploration rights in the east Mediterranean.

The long-running dispute between Turkey and Greece, both NATO members, flared up after the two countries agreed rival accords on their maritime boundaries with Libya and Egypt, and Turkey sent a survey vessel into contested waters this month.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The ruler of the United Arab Emirates issued a decree Saturday formally ending the country’s boycott of Israel amid a U.S.-brokered deal to normalize relations between the two countries.

The announcement now allows trade and commerce between the UAE, home to oil-rich Abu Dhabi and skyscraper-studded Dubai, and Israel, home to a thriving diamond trade, pharmaceutical companies and tech start-ups.

28 Aug 2020; MEMO: The Russian Chief of the General Staff, General Valery Gerasimov, yesterday blamed the US army for the armoured vehicles collision that injured seven American soldiers in northeastern Syria on Tuesday.

28 Aug 2020; MEMO: The Libyan tribe Qadhadhfa yesterday called on all its members to withdraw immediately from the forces of renegade General Khalifa Haftar.

This came in a statement of the Social Council of the Libyan tribe Qadhadhfa, reported by local media.

The declaration called on members of the Qadhadhfa tribe to “withdraw immediately and remove Haftar’s mercenaries from their areas in Sirte.”

28 Aug 2020; MEMO: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned on Wednesday that the health care system in the besieged Gaza Strip will not be able to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

28 Aug 2020; MEMO: The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) is planning two donor conferences to fundraise for efforts to rebuild Beirut after a massive explosion devastated the city on 4 August, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported.

TRIPOLI, Aug 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — New evidence has uncovered that a drone operated by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) killed 26 unarmed cadets at a military academy in Libya’s capital Tripoli in January 2020.

At the time of the strike on Jan 4, Tripoli was under siege by the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA).

It has denied responsibility for the attack and suggested the cadets had been killed by local shelling.

But evidence indicates the cadets were hit by a Chinese Blue Arrow 7 missile.