Middle East & North Africa

TEHRAN, Feb 5 (NNN-Xinhua) — The visiting EU representative and Iranian senior officials have expressed their readiness to boost cooperation in the matters of the Iranian nuclear program, regional security and others.

Josep Borrell, EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, announced that the European states will do their utmost to protect the Iranian 2015 landmark nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

TRIPOLI, Feb 5 (NNN-Xinhua) — The state-owned Libyan National Oil Corporation (NOC) said that the country’s daily production of crude oil has dropped from more than 1.2 million barrels to fewer than 200,000 as a result of the closure of oil fields and ports.

“The NOC confirms a drop in production to the current level of 187,337 barrels per day, with losses resulting from illegal blockades amounting to 931,775,672 U.S. dollars,” NOC said in a statement.

CAIRO (AP) — Syrian militants affiliated with groups such as al-Qaida and the Islamic State group are currently being sent by Turkey to fight on behalf of the U.N.-supported government in Libya, according to two Libyan militia leaders and a Syrian war monitor.

Both sides in Libya’s civil war receive equipment and backing from foreign countries. But Turkey, which has long trained and funded opposition fighters in Syria and relaxed its borders so foreign fighters joined IS, has in recent months been airlifting hundreds of them over to a new theater of war in Libya.

04 Feb 2020; MEMO: Jordanian MP and chairman of the Palestine Committee in the Jordanian Parliament, Yahya Al-Saud, said parliament has called on the government to expel the Israeli ambassador from Amman because he has become a “persona non grata” in the kingdom.

04 Feb 2020; MEMO: Saudi Arabia intends to buy weapons from Israel’s Rafael company which is known for its precision missiles, Hebrew news sites have reported.

Israel Defence Magazine said yesterday that Saudi Arabia has expressed a desire to purchase equipment from Rafael and if permission is obtained from Israeli authorities, arms can be supplied to the kingdom through its European representative, Euro Spike.

04 Feb 2020; MEMO: Saudi and American officials have held talks in Syria’s north-eastern province of Al-Hasakah on Riyadh potentially financing Arab forces backed by the United States (US) and affiliated to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), local sources reported yesterday.

The sources told Arabi21 that the US support had come under the pretext of “resisting the Iranian expansion attempts in north-eastern Syria.”

04 Feb 2020; MEMO: Saudi Arabia yesterday refused a recent request by Turkey to obtain the investigation file conducted by the Riyadh Criminal Court on the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Turkey’s Yeni Şafak quoted local legal sources as saying that that the public prosecutor in the country’s city of Istanbul had submitted an official request to the Saudi authorities through Ankara’s justice, seeking details about the trial of those convicted in the murder.

ANKARA, February 4. /TASS/: Ankara and Russia are taking steps to ease tensions in the Syrian province of Idlib, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Tuesday.

"We seek to put an end to these conflicts together with Russia, like we did within the Astana and Sochi processes. We cannot put up with attacks on our forces, so we took retaliatory measures in Idlib and we will continue to act this way," he pointed out.

According to Cavusoglu, Ankara and Moscow "would like to ensure a permanent ceasefire and pave the way for a political solution."

KHARTOUM, Feb 4 (NNN-SUNA) – Sudan’s transitional government said, it was not informed of a meeting between the African country’s leader and Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyanu, in which the two leaders agreed to normalise relations.

Government spokesman, Faisal Mohamed Salih said, the cabinet was waiting for Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan to return from Uganda, where he met Netanyahu.

“We received the news about the meeting through the media,” Salih said in a statement.

ML--Iran-Nuclear (AP) — Iran’s president said Monday that Tehran might reconsider providing U.N. inspectors with access to Iran’s nuclear facilities if the country were confronted with “a new situation,” the official IRNA news agency reported.

Hassan Rouhani’s remarks came during a meeting with Josep Borrell, the European Union’s new foreign affairs chief, who was on his first visit to Iran since taking office.