Middle East & North Africa

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey’s main opposition party said on Monday it opposes a bill to allow a troop deployment to Libya, arguing such a move would exacerbate the country’s conflict and cause it to spread across the region.

Last week, President Tayyip Erdogan said his government would seek parliamentary consent to deploy troops to Libya after Fayez al-Serraj’s Government of National Accord (GNA) requested support. The GNA is fending off an offensive by Khalifa Haftar’s forces in the east of the North African country.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A top Iraqi militia leader warned of a strong response against U.S. forces in Iraq following air strikes in Iraq and Syria overnight that hit several bases of his Iranian-backed group and killed at least 25 people.

The U.S. military carried out air strikes on Sunday against the Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah militia group in response to the killing of a U.S. civilian contractor in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base, officials said.

TEHRAN, Dec 30 (NNN-IRNA) – Iran’s capital, Tehran, will host a conference next month, on its peace initiative for the Strait of Hormuz.

The conference is scheduled for Jan 7-8, and will focus on regional cooperation plans, particularly on Iran’s initiative of Hormuz Peace Endeavour.

Senior Iranian and regional political officials and pundits, are expected to attend the event, organised by the Foreign Ministry’s Institute for Political and International Studies.

MOGADISHU, Dec 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A Turkish military cargo plane landed in the Somali capital to evacuate people badly wounded in a devastating truck bombing in the city that killed at least 90 people, including two Turkish nationals.

The plane also brought emergency medical staff and supplies, according to a tweet from the Turkish embassy, adding these had been transferred to a Turkish-run hospital in Mogadishu.

RAMALLAH, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas insisted on Sunday that there will be no general Palestinian election unless Israel allows Palestinians to vote in the heart of East Jerusalem.

Abbas made the remarks during his Fatah Movement's Advisory Council meeting, held at the Palestinian Presidency Headquarters in Ramallah, according to the Palestinian News Agency (WAFA).

"We won't hold any elections without having Jerusalem as part of it," said Abbas, adding, "Any resident of Jerusalem must go to vote in the heart of East Jerusalem."

TRIPOLI, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- A civilian was killed and two others were injured on Sunday when an airstrike hit east of the Libyan capital Tripoli, according to a medical official.

Osama Ali, spokesman of Health Ministry's Emergency Department, said the airstrike hit a residential area in eastern Tripoli, killing a woman and injuring two foreign workers.

The casualties of the airstrike are likely to increase as medical emergency teams are still carrying out rescue operations in the area, the spokesman said.

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli Security Cabinet on Sunday voted to withhold $43 million of tax funds from the Palestinians, saying the money has been used to promote violence, Israeli media reported.

The sum represents funds that Israel says the Palestinians have used to pay the families of Palestinians who have been jailed or killed as a result of attacking Israel, according to various reports.

29 Dec 2019; MEMO: Iran summoned Kuwait’s envoy in Tehran on Saturday to protest about Kuwaiti officials meeting a representative of a “terrorist group” and hosting an “anti-Iranian” meeting, Iran’s foreign ministry said in a statement on its website, Reuters reports.

The ministry did not provide any more details about the group concerned or about which Kuwaiti officials had met the group’s representative.

29 Dec 2019; MEMO: Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu warned Saturday against attempts to create a situation in Libya similar to that in civil war-torn Syria, Anadolu reports.

“They want to turn [the situation in] Libya to [the one in] Syria. If today Libya would be like Syria, then the turn came to the other countries in the region,” Cavusoglu told the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party’s consultation meeting in Antalya, on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast.

29 Dec 2019; MEMO: At least 90 people were killed and dozens were wounded when a bomb-laden vehicle exploded at a bustling checkpoint in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Saturday, an international organisation working in the country said, in one of the most deadly recent attacks, reports Reuters.

The dead included many students and two Turkish nationals, the Somali foreign minister said.

Rescuers carried bodies past the twisted wreckage of a vehicle and a minibus taxi smeared with blood.