Middle East & North Africa

27 May 2020; MEMO: A private Israeli plane landed at Khartoum International Airport yesterday morning following a phone call between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the President of Sudan’s Sovereignty Council, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, reported Arab48.

According to Al-Quds Al-Arabi, a Hawker 800 mid-size and twinjet plane, with the registration number N84UP, arrived at the principal airport of the African state.

27 May 2020; MEMO: Israeli occupation forces yesterday announced the destruction of ten wells in the town of Az-Zawiya, west of Salfit in the north of the West Bank.

The Palestinian News Agency (Wafa) quoted local sources as saying that occupation forces handed over demolition notices to owners of the water wells in the western region of the town.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran’s new parliament convened on Wednesday after the Feb. 21 elections under strict health protocols and social distancing rules to ward off the coronavirus in one of the hardest-hit Middle Eastern countries.

Many lawmakers wore masks and their temperatures were taken before entering the parliament building in southern Tehran, Iranian media reported.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Oman will on Friday end a lockdown of its Muscat governorate - which includes the capital - that has been in place since April 10 as the sultanate eases its coronavirus containment measures, the state news agency reported on Wednesday.

It said a state committee had also ordered government entities to ensure at least 50% of employees are working from their offices from May 31.

TEHRAN, May 27 (NNN-TASNIM) – The Permanent Secretariat of the International Conference on Supporting Palestinian Intifada (Uprising), at the Iranian Parliament, strongly condemned the Israeli regime’s plan to annex major parts of the occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank.

26 May 2020; MEMO: Turkey believes that the US and Europe no longer trust Khalifa Haftar in Libya, Presidential Spokesperson İbrahim Kalın has disclosed in a television interview.

He added that the steps his country has taken in the troubled North African state have changed the balance of power and prevented the ongoing conflict from turning into a civil war.

26 May 2020; MEMO: Doctors at Mounira General Hospital have resigned on mass to protest against the death of their colleague from coronavirus.

The doctors said Walid Yahya, 32, was not given a test or access to a bed in ICU despite displaying symptoms of the virus.

Walid’s death has underscored an ongoing crisis in Egypt since the spread of COVID-19 where doctors have repeatedly criticised the government for failing to protect them, including providing adequate PPE.

26 May 2020; MEMO: Signs of a new political crisis have emerged in Iraq as the Saairun bloc, the largest in parliament with 54 seats and supported by Shia leader Muqtada Al-Sadr, has merged with other political parties to demand the dismissal of Parliament Speaker Muhammad Al-Halbousi.

The Speaker has been accused of “bias towards specific parties and disrupting parliament sessions.”

26 May 2020; MEMO: Turkey’s president on Sunday reiterated his country’s support for Palestine as the Muslim world celebrates Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

“We will not allow the Palestinian lands to be offered to anyone else,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a video message on Twitter addressed to US Muslims.

BEIRUT (AP) — Long before the pandemic struck, they lived and worked in conditions that rights groups called exploitative — low wages, long hours, no labor law protections.

Now, some 250,000 registered migrant laborers in Lebanon — maids, garbage collectors, farm hands and construction workers — are growing more desperate as a crippling economic and financial crisis sets in, coupled with coronavirus restrictions.