Middle East & North Africa

17 Feb 2020; MEMO: Senior officials in Iran and Iraq have decided to establish a joint committee to prosecute the US officials involved in the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, Iranian IRNA Agency reported.

IRNA revealed that the decision came during a meeting held on Sunday between the Iranian deputy justice minister for human rights and international affairs, Mahmoud Abbasi, with the Iraqi deputy prosecutor, Dhari Jaber Farhood and director of human rights and international cooperation of the Iraqi Ministry of Justice, Kamel Amin Hashim.

BEIRUT, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah warned on Sunday that the U.S. Middle East peace plan, known as the Deal of the Century, will have a huge negative impact on Lebanon, TV Channel Al Manar reported.

"This deal will give Shebaa Farms, Kfarchouba Hills and Ghajar village to Israel ... and deprive Lebanon of its total rights in the oil and gas wealth," Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech remembering the martyrs of the resistance.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli opposition leader Benny Gantz is vowing to form a government that will include neither the indicted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor the predominantly Arab parties in Parliament.

In a series of TV interviews two weeks before national elections, Gantz looked to project confidence that the March 2 vote will provide the decisive outcome that eluded the two previous elections last year.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Sunday that he doesn’t believe the U.S. will pursue war with his country, because it will harm President Donald Trump’s 2020 reelection bid.

Rouhani said that Trump knows that war with Iran will “ruin” his chances of winning the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

The Iranian leader added that war would be harmful to U.S. interests and those of its regional allies, as well as Iran.

“I think the Americans aren’t after war since they know what harm it could do them,” said Rouhani in a news conference.

DAMASCUS, Feb 17 (NNN-SANA) – Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, on Sunday, highlighted his administration’s determination, to retake all Syrian areas from the rebels.

Countries hostile to Syria are still trying to protect “terrorists,” who take civilians as hostages and human shields, which cannot be allowed to continue, at the expense of the life, security and stability of the citizens, Assad said, during his meeting with Iranian Parliament Speaker, Ali Larijani.

CAIRO (AP) — Yemen’s warring sides have agreed to implement a long-delayed and major prisoner swap, the United Nations said on Sunday, in a sign that talks to end the disastrous war between the country’s internationally recognized government and its Houthi rebels could be making progress.

It would be the “first official large-scale” exchange of its kind since the beginning of the conflict in the Arab World’s poorest country, according to the U.N.

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syrian troops have made significant advances against the last rebel held enclaves in the country’s northwest, state media said on Sunday, consolidating the government’s hold over the key Aleppo province.

The Syrian government advance also appeared to put the provincial capital of Aleppo out of the firing range of opposition groups for the first time in years, another sign of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s growing control of the area.

TEHERAN, February 16. /TASS/: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has called on Turkey to abide by the agreements reached during talks with the Russian side in Sochi.

"The Sochi process has a huge significance. It should not be abandoned," he said on Sunday. "I hope we will be able to continue work with Turkey within the Astana process."

16 Feb 2020; MEMO: Iraqi foreign minister, Mohammed Alhakim, and his Kuwaiti counterpart, Nasser Al-Sabah, have discussed ending differences between their countries, Anadolu Agency reported on Friday.

16 Feb 2020; MEMO: The Houthi rebel group claimed on Saturday that it downed a Tornado fighter jet belonging to the Arab coalition, reported Anadolu Agency.

Speaking on Houthis-run Al-Masirah television, spokesman Yahya Saree said the jet was downed in Al-Jawf governorate in northern Yemen by a ground-to-air missile launched by air defense systems.

No statement has yet been made from coalition forces, regarding the claim.