Middle East & North Africa

TRIPOLI, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- The east-based army of Libya said on Monday they had captured the coastal city of Sirte, some 450 km east of the capital Tripoli, from the forces of the rival UN-backed government.

BEIRUT (AP) — When Syrian President Bashar Assad made a rare visit to Tehran last year, the powerful Revolutionary Guard commander Qassem Soleimani was there to greet him, along with Iran’s supreme leader and president. Iran’s foreign minister wasn’t, and he resigned in protest at being excluded from talks with a crucial ally.

It was a telling episode on who controls Iran’s policy in Syria.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — The leader of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard threatened on Tuesday to “set ablaze” places supported by the United States over the killing of a top Iranian general in a U.S. airstrike last week, sparking cries from the crowd of “Death to Israel!”

06 Jan 2019; MEMO: Iraq’s caretaker Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi revealed yesterday that he was scheduled to meet the Iranian Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani on Friday, the day the US assassinated him in a drone strike in Baghdad.

Abdul-Mahdi told the Iraqi parliament during a session to discuss the foreign presence in Iraq that he was due to discuss efforts to defuse tensions in the region with the deceased general.

06 Jan 2019; MEMO: Twenty-five members of Jordan’s parliament yesterday walked out of a session yesterday in protest against the country’s gas deal with Israel.

Officials were due to discuss the issue of waste in  the kingdom however MPs urged Parliament Speaker Atek Al-Tarawneh to change the topic at hand to the gas deal with Israel.

One MP asked the speaker: “Did not you hear what the aggressive entity [Israel] had said about its future after getting its revenues from the gas deal?”

06 Jan 2019; MEMO: Egyptian activist Mahmoud Abdel-Majeed Mahmoud Saleh died inside Egypt’s notorious Scorpion Prison on Saturday evening as a result of medical negligence, his sister said.

Saleh, a 46-year-old father of four, used to work in media, printing and publishing.

BAGHDAD, Jan 6 (NNN-NINA) – The Iraqi parliament passed a draft law, requiring the government to end the presence of foreign forces in Iraq and prevent them from using Iraqi airspace and water.

In an extraordinary session, the lawmakers voted with majority, in favour of passing a law requiring the government to cancel the request for assistance from the international coalition to fight the Daesh group, due to the end of military operations and war in Iraq.

ALGIERS, Jan 6 (NNN-APS) – Algerian President, Abdelmaguid Tebboune, pledged to review the half-century long governance system, in the North African nation, as part of his efforts to build a new republic claimed by Algerians.

Tebboune noted that his programme gives paramount priority to “politic, institutional, socioeconomic, as well as, cultural sectors, all of which are aimed at building a new republic, responding to the aspirations of our people,” the report said.

TEHRAN, Jan 6 (NNN-IRNA) – Iran announced the fifth and final step to end its commitments to the landmark 2015 nuclear deal.

“In the fifth step of withdrawing from its commitments, the Islamic republic drops the last key restriction under the nuclear deal, namely ‘restriction on the number of centrifuges’.”

Therefore, “Iran’s nuclear programme will no longer brace any practical restrictions, including the level and purity of enrichment, the mass of enriched materials and R&D activities,” read the announcement.

TEHRAN, Jan 6 (NNN-IRNA) – Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mousavi Sunday criticised as “unconstructive” some Europeans’ stances over the recent U.S. assassination of senior Iranian military commander.

“The recent Europeans’ stances (over the assassination of general Soleimani) have been rude to some extent and have not been constructive and acceptable,” Mousavi said.

He noted that “the destruction of Daesh by the resistance groups and by general Soleimani has brought security for the Europeans.”