Middle East & North Africa

RAMALLAH, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday hailed the decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to open the way for the Palestinians to sue Israel.

He made the remarks at an ongoing session attended by members of the revolutionary council of his Fatah party in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

"This is a historic day, and now any Palestinian who gets injured by the occupier (Israel) can file a case to the criminal court," said Abbas, according to the Palestinian WAFA news agency.

20 Dec 2019; MEMO: Lebanese President Michel Aoun yesterday designated the former education minister Hassan Diab as the country’s new prime minister following a majority confidence vote of 69 out of 128 members of parliament.

According to Lebanon’s confessional system the post of prime minister must be filled by a Sunni Muslim.

20 Dec 2019; MEMO: Turkey has ranked seventh in the top ten countries in the world for expatriates to live and work in, according to a new survey conducted by the British transnational bank HSBC.

As part of the bank’s annual Expat Explorer Report of 2019, over 18,000 expats living in 163 countries were surveyed on their experiences of the political, cultural and economic conditions of the country they moved to.

20 Dec 2019; MEMO: Blue and White is maintaining its consistent lead over Likud ahead of new elections next year, a new poll has shown.

BAGHDAD, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi leaders on Thursday held meetings with visiting U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale over bilateral relations and the political situation in Iraq.

During a meeting between Iraqi President Barham Salih and Hale at the presidential palace in the capital Baghdad, Salih confirmed that the solutions to the Iraqi situation "should agree with the Iraqi national decision to be away from external interference," said a statement by the media office of the presidency said.

CAIRO, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh on Thursday received the first British flight, after Britain lifted a four-year ban on flights to the Red Sea resort, Egyptian Civil Aviation Ministry announced.

The ministry said in a statement that the first direct British flight, with 110 passengers onboard, departed from Birmingham, London.

In October, the British Embassy in Cairo announced that the British government had removed its advisory against flying to Sharm el-Sheikh.

BAGHDAD (AP) — With wisps of smoke still rising from the remnants of another night of violence, the workers came in the morning to salvage what merchandise they could from the torched warehouses in Baghdad’s central commercial district.

Boxes upon boxes of clothes, cosmetics and household goods stored by traders in the country’s most thriving market were hurled onto pick-up trucks to be taken away from Rasheed Street, a historic avenue that for weeks has been scene of ongoing violence between anti-government protesters and security forces.

19 Dec 2019; MEMO: Thousands of immigrants to Israel from the former Soviet Union “may have come only to receive an Israeli passport before moving back abroad”, reported JTA, with the total such cases amounting to up to a quarter of all Russian immigrants.

19 Dec 2019; MEMO: Ten women detained in Qanater women’s prison in Egypt have started a hunger strike to protest their ill-treatment and inhumane conditions.

The women have said they resorted to the open-ended strike as a last resort after finding no legal recourse to express their suffering.

19 Dec 2019; MEMO: Israeli authorities have approved or otherwise advanced plans for more than 22,000 housing units in occupied West Bank settlements over the last three years, according to a senior UN official.

As reported by AP, UN Middle East peace process envoy Nickolay Mladenov presented the figures in a periodic update to the Security Council, as mandated in a resolution adopted in December 2016.