Middle East & North Africa

GAZA, Feb 25 (NNN-Xinhua) — A senior official of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) said a ceasefire with Israel in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip came into effect on Monday night.

Ihsan Ataya, a senior Islamic Jihad leader based in Lebanon told Xinhua over telephone that the ceasefire came into effect at 11:30 p.m. local time (2130 GMT) on Monday following Egyptian and international mediation.

“It was agreed that the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip is mutual and synchronous,” he said, adding that his group’s members “will respond to any breach or violation of the ceasefire.”

GENEVA, Feb 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Representatives from Libya’s warring sides have suspended their participation in United Nations-sponsored peace talks aimed at bringing an end to more than 10 months of fighting.

The move came despite assurances by a spokesperson for the world governing body that negotiations would still go ahead.

Ahmaida Erouhma, who leads the eastern side’s Geneva committee, said his faction’s refusal to take part in the negotiations is due to the UN’s approval of only eight of 13 names his side put forward for the delegation.

CAIRO, Feb 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Former president of Egypt Hosni Mubarak died today at Cairo’s Galaa military hospital, Egypt’s Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported today.

He was 91. The Egyptian presidential office is expected to organise the funeral.

Mubarak was in power from 1981 until he was overthrown in 2011 amid the region’s Arab Spring protests.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that there was not yet full agreement on holding a proposed March 5 summit with Russia, France and Germany on the conflict in Syria’s Idlib, but he may meet Russia’s Vladimir Putin on that date.

Syrian government forces are pushing to retake the last large rebel-held region in Syria after nine years of war and nearly a million Syrians, mostly women and children, have been displaced by the fighting since early December.

DAMASCUS, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- The Turkish forces and Turkey-backed rebels on Monday managed to capture a town in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib, after two previous failed attempts, a war monitor reported.

The Turkey-backed rebels and Turkish forces captured the town of Nairab in the eastern Idlib countryside after eight hours of intense fighting and heavy shelling, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

CAIRO, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi discussed on Monday with heads of Arab intelligence services the ways to combat terrorism, extremist ideology and organized crime in the region.

In a statement, Presidential Spokesman Bassam Radi said Sisi met with the heads of the Arab intelligence services who had participated in the Arab Intelligence Forum held in Cairo on Feb. 22-23.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The tiny island nation of Bahrain suspended flights on Tuesday to the world’s busiest airport for international travel in Dubai over fears about the spread of the new virus.

The move by Bahrain, a small island off the coast of Saudi Arabia, suggested its monarchy had doubts about screenings of incoming passengers in Dubai and nearby Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. It said the ban was immediate and would last at least 48 hours.

BEIRUT (AP) — Abdullah Mohammed would do anything for his daughter, even forcing himself to laugh with her at the sound of bombs to help her overcome her fear.

In Idlib, that’s a lot of laughter.

ANKARA, February 24. /TASS/: Turkey has announced the border with Iran will be closed in the face of a spike in confirmed coronavirus cases in Iran, the Turkish Interior Ministry said on Sunday.

"The Turkish-Iranian border has been closed over the coronavirus," A Haber television said citing the Interior Ministry’s statement.

Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said Ankara was suspending transport services with a neighboring country, in particular, flights, trains and vehicle crossings.

25 Feb 2020; MEMO: Libya’s UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) has announced the suspension of its participation in the Geneva talks scheduled to begin on Wednesday.

The UN aims to broker ceasefire talks in Geneva, but the GNA said in a press release that the Libyan National Army, led by the renegade commander Khalifa Haftar, has continued its attacks on Tripoli in an apparent violation of an ongoing truce.