Middle East & North Africa

(Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Sunday that he raised the cases of Canadians being detained in Egypt with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

“We always stand up for Canadians in difficulty around the world”, Trudeau told a press briefing in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he is attending an African Union summit.

"Yes I did bring up the consular cases in Egypt with President al-Sisi", he added bit.ly/2uvo9aU.

JERUSALEM, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- A rocket fired by militants in the Gaza Strip hit southern Israel on Sunday night amidst rising tensions in the region over Washington's Mideast peace plan.

The Israeli military issued a statement saying "one projectile was launched from Gaza towards Israeli territory," adding it fell in an open field.

The rocket triggered sirens in the city of Sderot and the area surrounding the besieged Palestinian enclave.

No casualties or damage were immediately reported.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — One of the men was hospitalized with kidney failure and 11 broken ribs. Another was nearly unrecognizable to his wife when he was wheeled into a courtroom. A third was stitched up after being attacked by a security dog.

Then the three Palestinians were returned to their Israeli interrogators. They had been swept up in a sprawling manhunt launched after a roadside bomb killed a 17-year-old Israeli girl and wounded her father and brother as they hiked down to a spring last August in the occupied West Bank.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — An Iranian rocket failed to put a satellite into orbit on Sunday, state television reported, the latest setback for a program the U.S. claims helps Tehran advance its ballistic missile program.

The launch happened at 7:15 p.m. local time at Imam Khomeini Spaceport in Iran’s Semnan province, some 230 kilometers (145 miles) southeast of Iran’s capital, Tehran. A Simorgh, or “Phoenix,” rocket couldn’t put the Zafar 1 communications satellite into orbit, however, due to a low speed, Iranian state TV reported.

9 February 2020; AFP: Iran started counting down Sunday to the launch within hours of a scientific observation satellite that is part of a programme the United States has previously described as a "provocation".

Arch foes Iran and the United States have appeared to be on the brink of an all-out confrontation twice since last year.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A U.S. envoy warned Israel on Sunday not to declare sovereignty over West Bank land without Washington’s consent, pushing back against calls for immediate action by ultra-nationalists within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan, unveiled on Jan 28, envisages Israel keeping key swathes of the occupied territory where Palestinians seek statehood. But the question of timing has opened up a rare rift between the allies.

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey has sent major reinforcements to Syria’s northwestern Idlib region and “all options are on the table”, a senior official said on Sunday, as Ankara tries to stem rapid advances by Syrian government forces.

The government offensive in Idlib, the last major enclave of opposition to President Bashar al-Assad, has driven more than half a million people from their homes toward the closed Turkish border, threatening a new humanitarian crisis in Syria.

09 Feb 2020; MEMO: Turkey will never allow the peace in the region to be disrupted by the US’ so-called “Deal of Century” Mideast peace plan, said Turkey’s president today, reported by Anadolu Agency. 

Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s remarks came in a statement he sent to the current 3rd Conference of the Inter-parliamentary Jerusalem Platform in Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur.

09 Feb 2020; MEMO: Hundreds of demonstrators protested Saturday in front of the Parliament building here against the Hassan Diab government and a vote of confidence to prevent a new government, Anadolu Agency reports.

The vote is expected Tuesday.

Another group gathered in front of the Association of Banks in Lebanon and protested its policy limiting foreign money transfer and withdrawing foreign currency. The policy was implemented 17 October 2019 when demonstrations began in the country.

09 Feb 2020; MEMO: Turkey sent hundreds of military vehicles on Saturday into Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, witnesses said, after Syrian government forces took control of a strategic town close to the provincial capital.

The fresh Turkish deployment came as officials from Turkey and Russia, who support opposing sides in Syria’s nearly nine-year war, met in Ankara to discuss the fighting in the last major enclave of opposition to President Bashar al-Assad.