Middle East & North Africa

09 Jan 2019; MEMO: More than 700,000 people have been displaced from Idlib governorate, northwestern Syria, over the past eight months as a result of the fighting between Syrian regime forces and opposition groups in the area.

UN Deputy Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria crisis, Mark Cutts, said in a statement on Tuesday that the humanitarian situation in Idlib is alarming where more than three million civilians “remain trapped in a war zone; the vast majority of them women and children”.

09 Jan 2019; MEMO: The National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia (Bahri) has temporarily suspended the passage of its oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz after the Iranian rocket strike on US targets in Iraq, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.

Saudi Arabia owns 43 per cent of Bahri and the suspension of its operations may cause the kingdom financial losses. Saudi did not comment on the report.

DUBAI (Reuters) - A Ukrainian airliner was on fire immediately before it crashed southwest of Tehran killing all 176 on board, according to an initial report by Iranian investigators.

Meanwhile, Ukraine said on Thursday its investigators wanted to search the crash site for possible Russian missile debris.

The Ukrainian International Airlines Boeing 737-800, flying to Kiev and carrying mostly Iranians and Iranian-Canadians, crashed shortly after taking off on Wednesday from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport.

TEHRAN, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- Iran's civil aviation authority has said it will not hand over two black boxes recovered from an ill-fated Ukrainian airliner with 176 people aboard to the plane's manufacturer Boeing or the United States, but will cooperate with Ukraine.

Both of the plane's black box voice and data recorders had been found, Iranian state television reported on Wednesday.

A Boeing 737 Ukrainian passenger plane crashed near Tehran Imam Khomeini International Airport on Wednesday morning, killing all passengers and crew members on board.

ABU DHABI, Jan 9 (NNN-WAM) — The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said it was closely following regional developments, and reaffirmed the importance of de-escalating current tensions in the Middle East.

Quoting a statement from the ministry, the Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported that the ministry had stressed on the importance of dialogue and political solutions in the current situation.

RAMALLAH, Palestine, Jan 9 (NNN-WAFA) – Palestine slammed remarks by Israeli Defence Minister, Naftali Bennett, and U.S. Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, over annexation of Area C of the West Bank.

“We strongly condemn the racist remarks and positions of Friedman and Bennett, which we consider as reaffirmation of the so-called ‘Deal of the Century,’ which has nothing to do with peace or serious negotiations,” said the Palestinian Foreign Ministry.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirate (AP) — U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf have loudly pushed for hawkish policies by Washington to pressure, isolate and cripple Iran, but this high-stakes strategy is now being put to the test by the unexpected U.S. strike that killed Iran’s most powerful military commander last week, thrusting the region closer to full-blown conflict.

Even as Gulf Arab states — like Israel — lobbied hard for tough U.S. sanctions and maximum pressure on Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have wanted to avoid outright war.

TEHRAN, Jan 9 (NNN-IRNA) – Iran’s civil aviation authority said, it will not hand over the two black boxes recovered from an ill-fated Ukrainian airliner with 176 people aboard, to the plane’s manufacturer Boeing or the United States, but will cooperate with Ukraine.

Both of the plane’s black box voice and data recorders had been found, Iranian state television reported.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian investigators said Thursday that the crew members of the Ukrainian jetliner that crashed the previous day never made a radio call for help and were trying to turn back to the airport when the plane went down.

Iran’s civil aviation authority made the comments in a preliminary crash report a day after the crash of the Ukrainian jetliner that killed all 176 people on board.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — The latest on U.S.-Iran tensions after the U.S. airstrike that killed Iran’s top general (all times local):

2:10 a.m.

Iran is informing the United Nations that it took “a measured and proportionate military response” to the U.S. airstrike that killed its top military commander and “does not seek escalation or war.”

But Iran’s U.N. Ambassador Majid Takht Ravanchi warned that Tehran would “vigorously” respond to “any further military adventurism against it” and “any aggression.”