DIWANIYAH (Iraq), Dec 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Thousands of protesters blocked roads and bridges in southern Iraq on Monday, condemning Iranian influence and political leaders who have missed another deadline to agree on a new prime minister.
Anti-government demonstrators burned tyres in major cities across the south, forcing the closure of schools and government buildings.
TUNIS, Dec 24 (NNN-TAP) — President Kais Saied met, on Monday at the Carthage Palace, with representatives of the Libyan Cities and Tribes Supreme Council “to explore possibilities for finding an initiative to end the crisis,” said a statement from the Presidency.
The meeting was held “following a call from the Libyan Cities and Tribes Supreme Council on the President of the Republic to intervene urgently to stop the bloodshed and reunify the people of the same country”, it added.
ROME, Dec 23 (NNN-ANSA) — Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj, whose Tripoli-based administration is recognised by the United Nations, has confirmed that he asked Italy for weapons to repel the offensive staged by Field Marshall Khalifa Haftar.
“We asked for weapons from many countries, including Italy, which has the right to choose the policy it likes most,” Serraj said in an interview published Monday in Milan’s newspaper Corriere della Sera when asked about the assistance being provided by Turkey.
KHARTOUM, Dec 24 (NNN-Xinhua) — Sudan and South Sudan on Monday signed an agreement to extend an oil deal and related economic arrangements until March 2022, official SUNA news agency reported.
The agreement, signed in Khartoum, stipulates that South Sudan pays 26 U.S. dollars for each oil barrel passing through the Sudanese pipeline operator, Petrolines for Crude Oil Ltd. which belongs to the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company, and 24.1 dollars for each oil barrel transported through Bashayer Pipeline Company which belongs to Petrodar Operating Company.
BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian government forces pressed ahead Monday with a new military assault on the country’s last rebel stronghold that began last week, an offensive that has set off a mass exodus of civilians fleeing to safer areas near the Turkish border.
Under the cover of airstrikes and heavy shelling, Syrian troops have been pushing into the northwestern province of Idlib toward a major rebel-held town, Maaret al-Numan. The town sits on a key highway linking the capital Damascus with the northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest.
23 December 2019; AFP: Thousands took to the streets in Iraq's capital and across the south Sunday to protest against Iran's kingmaking influence, as the latest deadline for choosing a new prime minister loomed.
Anti-government rallies have rocked Baghdad and the Shiite-majority south since October 1, with demonstrators calling for a complete overhaul of a regime they deem corrupt, inefficient and overly beholden to Tehran.
ANKARA, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- In case of an influx of refugees towards Turkish borders, Turkey will not take such a burden on its own, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said late on Sunday.
"More than 80,000 brothers from Idlib have started marching towards our border," he said during a speech in Istanbul, pointing out that Turkey will not bear the burden alone.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Saudi Arabia sentenced five people to death on Monday for the killing of Washington Post columnist and royal family critic Jamal Khashoggi, whose murder in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul drew sharp international criticism and marred the crown prince’s relationship with members of Congress in Washington.
The Riyadh criminal court found another three people guilty of covering up the crime. They were sentenced for a combined 24 years in prison, according to a statement read by the Saudi attorney general’s office on state TV.
23 Dec 2019; MEMO: Egypt’s former military chief-of-staff Sami Anan was released from detention on Sunday almost two years after his arrest following his plans to compete in the 2018 presidential election, his office manager said on Twitter, Reuters reports.
Anan, now at home according to the manager, was held in a military prison until he suffered a stroke in July 2018 and was then moved to a military hospital in Cairo’s Maadi suburb, where he remained until his release.
23 Dec 2019; MEMO: At least nine civilians were killed in Russian airstrikes in Idlib, northwestern Syria, where acts of violence are prohibited, a local civil defense agency said on Monday, Anadolu reports.
Syrian opposition aircraft monitors said Russian warplanes hit the district of Maarat al-Numan, as well as a number of villages overnight.
According to the White Helmets, the airstrikes killed nine civilians in Idlib.
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