Middle East & North Africa

RAMALLAH, Palestine, Mar 3 (NNN-WAFA) – Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), slammed the Israeli elections as being defined by “settlement, annexation, and apartheid.”

Erekat made his comment, after the initial results showed the Israeli right-wing party, led by Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, won a majority in the elections that were held for the third time in a year.

“Netanyahu decided that the continuation of the occupation and the conflict will bring Israel development and prosperity,” Erekat said on his Twitter account.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party emerged as the largest party in the country’s third election in under a year, exit polls indicated, but it was unclear whether the embattled Israeli leader could secure a parliamentary majority as he prepares to go on trial for corruption charges later this month.

Exit polls on Israeli TV stations appeared to show Likud and its smaller ultra-religious and nationalist allies had captured 59 seats in Monday’s vote, two short of the majority required to declare victory.

02 Mar 2020; MEMO: A Syrian refugee was killed earlier today by Greek border police following Turkey’s policy change which opened its border crossings to Europe. It is the first reported death of a refugee in this latest phase of the crisis.

02 Mar 2020; MEMO: As many as 21 members of Iran-backed militias have been killed during the recent armed confrontations between the Turkish army and the Syrian regime forces and its allies in Idlib.

The Hawzah News Agency in the Iranian city  of Qom reported that 18 members of the Pakistani Zainabiyoun Brigade and three members of the Afghan Fatemiyoun Brigade were killed in Idlib on Friday.

The news agency added that their funeral was held in Qom yesterday.

02 Mar 2020; MEMO: Some 76,358 migrants and asylum seekers have crossed the Pazarkule Border Crossing and entered Greece, Turkey’s Interior Minister, Suleyman Soylu, announced yesterday.

On Thursday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that his country would open its doors to refugees wishing to cross into Europe, stressing that Ankara has no capacity to absorb a new wave of migrants.

02 Mar 2020; MEMO: The peace treaty between Jordan and Israel is “definitely at risk” according to Omar Al-Razzaz. The Jordanian prime minister made this bleak assessment during an interview with CNN during which he warned that the treaty, signed in 1994, was at peril because of Israel’s “unilateral measures” and the Israeli government’s “violation of the sanctity of Muslim and Christian endowments in Jerusalem”.

02 Mar 2020; MEMO: US sanctions on Iran have led to the outbreak and rapid spread of the coronavirus in the Islamic Republic, President Hassan Rouhani’s adviser has said.

Hesamodin Ashena wrote on Twitter: “The economic sanctions, and Europe’s complicity, left Iran’s public health infrastructure underprepared to deal with coronavirus in a timely way.”

“Trump’s policies are partly responsible for shaping the spread of this virus, and the lives lost in the process,” he added.

02 Mar 2020; MEMO: In a last-minute bid for votes in today’s election, Benajmain Netanyahu has pledged to annex key parts of the occupied West Bank within “weeks” if re-elected.

Netanyahu made the pledge during an interview with Israeli public radio yesterday, envisioning the annexation of the Jordan Valley and other parts of the occupied West Bank.

Adding that the plan is part of “four major immediate missions” which would take no longer than two months”.

2 March 2020; AFP: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed Monday to keep the doors open for migrants heading for Europe, as he mounted pressure on Western countries to give Turkey more assistance with the Syrian conflict.

Erdogan also said he hoped to reach a deal on a ceasefire in Syria when he meets his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin later in the week following increasing clashes in the last rebel hold-out of Idlib.

He warned Europe that it will have to shoulder its part of the migrant "burden".

ANKARA/AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian government forces battled to recapture a strategic rebel-held town in Idlib province on Monday and a Turkish official said Ankara would continue to strike President Bashar al-Assad’s troops after escalating its military operations at the weekend.

Syrian state television broadcast live footage from inside Saraqeb, which lies on the country’s main north-south highway, and said it was under government control. Rebels denied the report, saying they still held the town despite heavy shelling.