Middle East & North Africa

JERUSALEM, Mar 2 (NNN-MA’AN) – Israelis today began casting ballots in parliamentary elections for the third time in less than a year.

Voting started at 7.00 a.m. local time (0500 GMT) at 10,631 polling stations across the country, and is due to end at 10.00 p.m. (2000 GMT).

According to the Central Elections Committee, which oversees the elections, there are almost 6.5 million Israeli citizens eligible to vote in this election.

DAMASCUS, Mar 2 (NNN-XINHUA) – The Syrian government and a visiting Libyan diplomatic delegation, signed, on Sunday, a memorandum of understanding (MoU), regarding reactivating diplomatic missions between both countries.

The MoU was signed following a meeting between Syrian Foreign Minister, Walid al-Moallem and a Libya delegation, headed by Libya’s Deputy Prime Minister, Abdul-Rahman al-Ahiresh and Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Minister, Abdul-Hadi al-Hawaij.

TUNIS, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Tunisian President Kais Saied received Arab interior ministers attending the 37th session of the Arab Interior Ministers Council opened in Tunis on Sunday, according to a Tunisian presidency statement.

Saudi Interior Minister Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Nayef bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the honorary chairman of the Arab interior ministers council, described a meeting with the Tunisian president as one that "emphasized the deep-rooted Saudi-Tunisian ties".

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israelis began voting Monday in the country’s unprecedented third election in less than a year to decide whether longtime Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stays in power despite his upcoming criminal trial on corruption charges.

DAMASCUS / Syria/, March 1. /TASS/: Six Turkish combat drones have been destroyed by Syrian air defense systems, a source in the Syrian defense ministry said on Sunday.

"On March 1, 2020, Syrian air defense systems destroyed six combat unmanned aerial vehicles of the Turkish army over the Idlib de-escalation zone," the source said.

According to the source, the drone were delivering strikes on the positions of the Syrian government army to provide backing to terrorist groups.

ANKARA, March 1. /TASS/: Turkish and Russian Foreign Ministers, Mevlut Cavusoglu and Sergey Lavorv, on Sunday had telephone talks ahead of a meeting between the two presidents, Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and Vladimir Putin of Russia, a source in the Turkish foreign ministry told TASS.

"Our minister had talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. They discussed [various] topics ahead of a meeting between the leaders [of the two nations]," he said.

ANKARA, March 1. /TASS/: Journalists of Sputnik Turkiye, the Turkish bureau of Russia’s Sputnik news agency, have been released after being questioned by the police in Ankara, the journalists’ relatives told TASS on Sunday.

"All of them have been released after being questioned," one of them said.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq’s parliament adjourned again on Sunday a session to approve the cabinet proposed by Prime Minister-designate Mohammed Allawi because of a lack of quorum, state TV said.

Lawmakers had already on Thursday failed to agree on a new government, prolonging deadlock and delaying attempts to resolve unprecedented mass unrest and has stalled the country’s recovery from years of war.

Political infighting and alleged widespread corruption have crippled Iraq’s efforts to recover from two U.S. invasions, sanctions and the war to defeat Islamic State in 2017.

ISTANBUL/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Turkey shot down two Syrian warplanes over Idlib on Sunday and struck a military airport well beyond its frontlines in a sharp escalation of its military operations following the death of dozens of Turkish soldiers last week.

Ankara has ramped up its attacks, including drone strikes, against the Russian-backed Syrian forces since Thursday, when 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in an air strike by Damascus.

TEHRAN, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Ministry on Sunday said that the so-called peace deal between the Taliban and the United States is an attempt by Washington to justify its illegal presence in Afghanistan.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran considers the U.S. measures as an attempt to legitimize the presence of its forces in Afghanistan ... The United States has no legal status to sign a peace deal or decide on the future of Afghanistan," the ministry said in a statement.