Middle East & North Africa

6 May 2020; MEMO: Libyan National Army leader Field Marshall Khalifa Haftar and Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad have been accused of conducting illegal drug smuggling operations by Libya’s Interior Minister Fathi Baghasha.

In a social media post yesterday, Baghasha alleged that, “Haftar’s Army Investment Commission has been in collaboration with [the] Assad regime for some time, and trying to open an air and sea corridor through Libya, so as to gain illegal financial benefits.”

6 May 2020; MEMO: Saudi Arabia’s cabinet confirmed that the Palestinian cause will remain a “central issue” for Arabs and Muslims, according to a statement issue by a Saudi Press Agency today.

KHARTOUM, May 6 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Veteran diplomat Noureldin Sati has been appointed Sudan’s ambassador to the US.

“The approval comes as part of normalising US and Sudanese diplomatic relations after being at the level of chargé d’affaires for over two decades,” the state news agency Suna said quoting Sudan’s foreign ministry.

Ties between Khartoum and Washington had been strained during Omar al-Bashir’s three decades in power, but improved after he was ousted in April 2019.

GAZA, May 6 (NNN-XINHUA) — The Israeli army attacked monitoring military sites belonging to the Islamic Hamas movement on Wednesday “in response to a rocket” fired earlier from the Palestinian enclave.

“Israeli artillery targeted monitoring sites of al-Qassam brigades, the military wing of Hamas in the central and northern Gaza Strip, causing huge damages,” Palestinian security sources said.

6 May 2020; AFP: Hakam Ibrahim was seven when, like most Sudanese girls, she became a victim of female genital mutilation -- an age-old practice decried as horrific that the post-revolution government is now banning.

A mother-of-four in her 40s, Ibrahim vividly recalls the traumatic experience of what remains a widespread ritual in parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia despite a concerted human rights campaign to end it.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Firefighters brought under control a fire that broke out at a residential tower in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday night, Sharjah’s government media office said.

Seven people were treated for minor injuries from the fire in the tower in Sharjah’s Al Nahda area and taken to hospital for treatment, the media office tweeted.

Videos on social media purportedly of the fire showed burning debris falling from a tower engulfed in flames, which local media said was the 48-storey Abbco Tower. Reuters could not immediately verify the footage.

ANKARA, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Turkish and Russian forces on Tuesday carried out their eighth joint patrol in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib, the Turkish defense ministry said.

"Within the framework of TUR-RF Agreement/Protocol, the eighth TUR-RF Combined Land Patrol on M4 Highway in Idlib was conducted with the participation of land and air elements," the ministry said on Twitter.

This patrol came four days after the seventh one carried out on April 30 as the two countries accelerated the frequency of the patrolling activities.

CAIRO (AP) — A bid by separatists funded by the United Arab Emirates to assert control over southern Yemen has reopened a dangerous new front in Yemen’s civil war and pushed it closer to fragmentation at a time when the coronavirus pandemic poses a growing threat.

The separatists’ recent declaration of self-rule over the key port city of Aden and other southern provinces also further pits Saudi Arabia and the UAE on opposing sides in the conflict, now in its sixth year. A separatist leader made the declaration from the UAE — a clear sign of its backing for the move.

5 May 2020; MEMO: Unidentified gunmen yesterday kidnapped and assassinated nine members of the Syrian security forces in the Al-Mzairib district in Daraa, a military source told RT news agency.

Well-informed sources said the attack was carried out by Muhammad Qasim Al-Subaihi, known as Abu Tariq, who was accompanied by a large group of gunmen, who stormed the Daraa Police Command, kidnapped the nine policemen and took them to Al- Subaihi’s house where they shot them.

5 May 2020; MEMO: Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah insisted Germany’s decision to ban the group was a result of US pressure, in a televised speech yesterday.