Middle East & North Africa

24 July 2020; MEMO: The Iraqi Oil Marketing Company (SOMO) yesterday denied reports claiming it had violated the OPEC+ production cut agreement in July.

24 July 2020; MEMO: The Permanent Representative of the State of Qatar to the United Nations, Ambassador Sheikha Alya Bint Ahmed Bin Saif Al-Thani, has reiterated her country’s commitment to resolving the crisis with the blocking countries by diplomatic means through constructive dialogue.

Sheikha Alya made the remarks during a virtual meeting of the United Nations Security Council held yesterday to discuss the situation in the Middle East and the Palestinian issue.

24 July 2020; MEMO: The President of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, slammed the government on Thursday and called for officials to stop floating the idea of holding early elections.

24 July 2020; MEMO: The former head of the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, Shabtai Shavit, said Israel cannot prevent Iran from joining the nuclear weapons club, however it can deter it from using the bomb.

In a lengthy interview with the Times of Israel, Shavit said: “I’m not one of those who say that the moment they [the Iranians] have a bomb they will physically threaten Israel’s existence. No. But a state with the bomb can use it to create all kinds of axes of influence to advance its interests.”

24 July 2020; MEMO: After 86 years of operating as a museum, Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia today reopened as a mosque, a move that has become a cause of celebration for Muslims not only in Turkey but the world over.

The re-opening of the mosque began at 08:00 GMT with Quran recitations and remembrance of God.

24 July 2020; MEMO: On Thursday, the Israeli authorities released Hassan Yousef, a prominent leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas, from the city of Ramallah, after a year and a half of administrative detention without charge.

Witnesses told Anadolu Agency that the Israeli authorities released Yousef at the Ofer Security Checkpoint near Ramallah.

24 July 2020; MEMO: The Syrian regime of President Bashar Al-Assad has imposed a fee of $100 on anyone travelling out of the country to be tested for Covid-19. The charge is intended to boost the regime’s acquisition of hard cash in dollars.

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Warfare has stopped - for now - in the Libyan capital, but long power blackouts caused by years of poor maintenance still cause misery in the scorching summer weather.

The blackouts have led to protests, and armed men storming electricity facilities to demand engineers bring back power, underscoring continued instability even after an assault by eastern forces on Tripoli ended last month.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey on Thursday appointed appointed three imams for Hagia Sophia, one of them a professor of religious studies, as the nation prepares for the first Muslim prayers in the Istanbul landmark in 86 years following its conversion back into a mosque.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is scheduled to join hundreds of worshipers Friday for prayers inside the former Byzantine cathedral that became a mosque with the 1453 Muslim conquest of Istanbul and then a museum in 1934 after Turkey became a secular republic.

CAIRO (AP) — Sudanese authorities have found a mass grave believed to contain the bodies of 28 army officers shot in a foiled coup attempt against former President Omar al-Bashir in 1990, the public prosecutor said late Thursday.

It was the second Bashir-era mass grave uncovered in as many months.

Al-Bashir’s repressive rule collapsed last year, when the military ousted him after months of street protests.