Middle East & North Africa

ANKARA/ELAZIG, 26 Jan 2019; AA: The death toll from Friday's powerful earthquake in eastern Turkey rose to 35, the country’s vice president said on Sunday.

Fuat Oktay was speaking to reporters in the capital Ankara.

The 6.8-magnitude quake shook Turkey's eastern Elazig province late Friday. Tremors were also felt in neighboring countries including Syria and Georgia.

Tehran, Jan 26, IRNA - Iran Air Tour Company rejected speculations on social media about emergency landing of Tehran-Istanbul Flight No. 9716 for not opening the wheels.

The Iranian airliner said that minutes after taking off, the Airbus A300-600 which had left Imam Khomeini International Airport for Istanbul, the pilot diagnosed a technical problem.

Thanks to the fact that it was an international flights and the plane was still in Iran airspace, the pilot returned to Mehrabad Airport, it added.

Tehran, Jan 26, IRNA - Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in a message advised the US President Donald Trump to base his foreign policy on facts.

"@realdonaldtrump is better advised to base his foreign policy comments & decisions on facts, rather than @FoxNews headlines or his Farsi translators," Zarif tweeted on Sunday.

He then advised Trump to read his entire interview (in English) in the German weekly news magazine, 'Der Spiegel'.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi security forces firing teargas and live bullets clashed with hundreds of protesters in central Baghdad on Sunday, a Reuters witness and security sources said, following a push to clear out a sit-in camp in the heart of the capital.

At least 14 protesters were injured, the security and medical sources said.

26 Jan 2019; MEMO: The US ‘deal of the century’, which according to US President Donald Trump, aims to achieve peace in the Middle East, proposes demilitarising Palestinian resistance, Arabi21.com reported on Friday.

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Several countries backing rival factions in Libya have violated an arms embargo which they had agreed to uphold a week ago at a summit in Berlin, the United Nations said on Saturday.

Last Sunday, foreign powers backing opposing camps fighting over Libya’s capital Tripoli agreed at a summit hosted by Germany and the United Nations to push the parties to a lasting ceasefire and respect an existing U.N. arm embargo.

DUBAI (Reuters) - The United States will not lift sanctions on Iran in order to negotiate, U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted late on Saturday, seemingly in response to a Der Spiegel interview with Iran’s foreign minister.

“Iranian Foreign Minister says Iran wants to negotiate with The United States, but wants sanctions removed. @FoxNews @OANN No Thanks!” Trump tweeted in English on Saturday and later in Farsi.

ANKARA (Reuters) - Eastern military commander Khalifa Haftar is violating Libya’s truce and so cannot be expected to respect the ceasefire called between his forces and pro-government troops, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday.

Despite efforts by Turkey and Russia, Haftar abandoned talks on a ceasefire in Moscow earlier this month and his blockade of Libyan oilfields overshadowed a summit in Berlin last week aimed at shoring up a shaky truce.

GAZA, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- Israeli warplanes on Saturday night carried out several airstrikes on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in response to the launch of balloons carrying explosives into southern Israel, security sources in Gaza said.

The sources told Xinhua that the warplanes struck posts belonging to Hamas movement's armed wing in southern and central Gaza Strip.

No injuries or damages were reported.

ADDIS ABABA, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- South Sudanese nationals represent the largest refugee population in Ethiopia, totaling 329,123 at the end of 2019, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency.

Ethiopia, which hosts one of the largest refugee population in Africa along with Uganda and Sudan, is now home to more than 735,000 refugees, the majority of which from neighboring South Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea and Sudan, Kisut Gebregziabher, spokesperson for office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Ethiopia, told Xinhua.