Middle East & North Africa

9 August 2023; MEMO: Saudi Arabia's Embassy in Tehran resumed its operations earlier this week after more than a seven-year hiatus, Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported on Wednesday.

The state agency cited an unnamed "official source" in the Foreign Ministry as confirming that the Saudi Embassy in the Iranian capital resumed its work "three days ago."

10 August 2023; MEMO: Israeli universities have been preparing to hold strikes in protest against the ongoing judicial overhaul, Israeli Hebrew newspaper Maariv reported organisers of anti-judicial reform protests saying.

"Academia stands at the forefront of the struggle to preserve democracy," the protest movement said yesterday.

10 August 2023; MEMO: The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday hailed Australia's decision to reinstate the use of "occupied Palestinian territories" in its official communications, Egyptian news site Al-Ahram reported.

DUBAI, Aug 9 (NNN-WAM) – President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, yesterday met with visiting U.S. National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan, to discuss bilateral, regional, and international issues.

During the meeting, held in the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi, the two sides “discussed the close, strategic ties between the UAE and the U.S., and expressed their shared interest in further strengthening these bonds,” said the report.

JERUSALEM, Aug 9 (NNN-WAFA) – Israeli forces, yesterday, demolished the home of a Palestinian gunman, who killed two Israeli brothers in the occupied West Bank in Feb.

Abd el-Fatah Kharousha, 49, carried out a drive-by shooting attack near the Palestinian town of Hawara on Feb 26, killing Hallel Yaniv, 21, and Yagel Yaniv, 19, from the Israeli settlement of Har Bracha.

TEHRAN, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- A senior Iranian diplomat has accused the United States of deliberately perpetuating instability in Afghanistan, aiming to generate crises for neighboring countries after its unsuccessful two-decade occupation.

In an interview with Iran's state news agency IRNA on Wednesday, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, Iran's special representative for Afghanistan, alleged that the United States has been sponsoring "terrorist" groups in Afghanistan after it withdrew all its forces from the Central Asian country in 2021.

ANKARA, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Türkiye is poised for a good tourism season, but meeting the targets for 2023 will be challenging due to the country's high inflation and lack of affordable options for budget-conscious foreign travelers, said industry insiders.

The number of tourists visiting Türkiye in the first half of this year increased by 17 percent compared to the same period last year, reaching 22.9 million, Tourism and Culture Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said on July 31 in Istanbul.

08 August 2023; MEMO: Palestinian Aed Abu Ramadan inspects his dragon fruit plants daily as the time of harvest is here. Though the fruit is not native to the besieged Gaza Strip, Aed has cultivated it and seen it flourish in spite of the difficulties faced by farmers in the enclave.

08 August 2023; MEMO: Iraq's water reserves are at the "lowest" in the country's history, a spokesman for the Water Resources Ministry was quoted as saying yesterday, having reduced to almost half of last year's amount.

"Current water reserves in Iraq are the lowest in the history of the country, and are 50 per cent of last year," spokesman Khaled Shamal told Rudaw.

08 August 2023; MEMO: A dispute between Iran and South Korea over $7 billion in frozen assets is set for legal arbitration, a presiding committee of the Iranian parliament announced on Tuesday. The dispute is between the Central Bank of Iran and the government of South Korea.