Middle East & North Africa

GENEVA/TRIPOLI, Feb 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Paul Maurer, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), warns that the situation in Libya could lead to many civilians fleeing their country, if things continue to escalate.

On Thursday, fighting continued in Libya’s capital Tripoli, a day after the UN Security Council resolution called for a “lasting ceasefire”. Reports say civilian casualties were recorded.

BEIRUT (AP) — A military offensive on an opposition-controlled region of northwestern Syria has created one of the worst catastrophes for civilians in the country’s long-running war, sending hundreds of thousands of people fleeing, many of them sleeping in open fields and under trees in freezing temperatures.

The military campaign in Idlib province and the nearby Aleppo countryside has also killed hundreds of civilians, and a bitter winter has compounded the pain.

14 Feb 2020; MEMO: Israeli occupation authorities have started construction work on a new road that would link the illegal Jewish settlements of Eli and Shilo in the north of the occupied West Bank with the Jordan Valley.

14 Feb 2020; MEMO: Saudi Arabia’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Adel Al-Jubeir has praised the US-drafted Middle East peace plan to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict known as “deal of the century” saying it contains positive elements for negotiations.

“There are positive elements in Trump’s peace plan,” Al-Jubeir said on the sidelines of his visit to Romania on Thursday, adding that the elements “may establish the basis for negotiation between the two sides”.

14 Feb 2020; MEMO: Saudi Arabia has launched a new campaign of arbitrary arrests against several Palestinian expatriates living in the kingdom for supporting the Islamic resistance movement, Hamas.

14 Feb 2020; MEMO: Iran is ready to strike the United States and Israel if they give it any reason to do so, the head of the elite Revolutionary Guards said in a live broadcast on state television on Thursday, reported Reuters.

“If you make the slightest error, we will hit both of you,” Major General Hossein Salami said in a speech at a ceremony marking the 40th day since the death of top commander Qassem Soleimani.

SINGAPORE, Feb 14 (NNN-CNA) — A S$77 million Point-to-Point Support Package to help taxi and private-hire car drivers affected by the COVID-19 outbreak was announced by the Singapore government.

The Government will contribute S$45 million towards the package, with the remaining provided by taxi and private-hire car operators. 

RABAT, February 14. /TASS/: The reaction of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to the Israeli-Palestinian settlement plan proposed by the United States — the so-called "deal of the century" — was definitively negative, Russia's Permanent Representative to the OIC Ramazan Abdulatipov told TASS on Thursday.

RABAT, February 14. /TASS/: Russia and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) have similar or same approaches to main issues in world politics and conflicts in the Islamic world, Russia's Permanent Representative to the OIC Ramazan Abdulatipov told TASS on Thursday.

DAMASCUS, Feb 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Syrian air defences intercepted missiles over the capital Damascus on Thursday, state media reported, without specifying the source of the attack.

“Our air defences intercepted hostile targets over the skies of Damascus,” state agency SANA said.

It said the “missiles were launched from over the occupied Golan Heights”.

Several missiles were intercepted before they could reach their targets, it added.

A Syrian army source quoted by SANA said the attack took place at 11:45 pm.