Middle East & North Africa

ISTANBUL, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- Turkey on Saturday called on the European Union to increase the funding for Syrian refugees being sheltered on Turkish land.

"As long as the migration crisis is there, we have to continue to cooperate, and we have to work together," said Faruk Kaymakci, deputy minister of foreign affairs and director for EU affairs.

SHARM EL SHEIKH, Egypt, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi inaugurated on Saturday the third edition of Egypt's annual World Youth Forum (WYF) at the Red Sea resort city of Sharm El Sheikh, with several topics to be thoroughly discussed during the four-day international event.

"From the blessed lands of Sinai, I announce the inauguration of the third edition of the World Youth Forum," said the Egyptian president in his opening speech.

TEHRAN, Dec 15 (NNN-IRNA) – Spokesman for Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), played down the likelihood of restoration of diplomatic ties with the United States, through prisoner swap.

Keyvan Khosravi, spokesman for SNSC, said, prisoner swap between Iran and the U.S. is not the start of “any new path” for mutual negotiations.

Khosravi’s comments came, as Brian Hook, U.S. special representative for Iran, said, recent prisoner exchange will lead to a broader discussion on consular affairs between the U.S. and Iran.

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanese security forces fired rubber bullets, tear gas and used water cannons to disperse anti-government protesters from central Beirut in clashes that lasted for hours into early Sunday.

The violence around the epicenter of the protest in Beirut was some of the worst since the demonstrations began two months ago.

CAIRO (AP) — Just two days after rebel Libyan commander Khalifa Hifter declared a “final” and decisive battle for the capital Tripoli, heavy fighting raged for a 24-hour period between his troops and militias loosely allied with the internationally backed government based in the city, officials said Saturday.

DOHA (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Saturday U.S. troops were in Saudi Arabia on a defensive basis only and that the United States would end all sanctions on Iran when Tehran fulfilled necessary conditions.

Mnuchin also told the Doha Forum conference that attacks on Saudi oil facilities, which the United States has blamed on Iran and Tehran has denied - were attacks on the world’s economy.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Libya has not made a request to Turkey for sending troops to back forces of the internationally-recognized government battling Khalifa Haftar’s Libya National Army (LNA), Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Saturday.

“No, not yet” Cavusoglu said when asked at the Doha Forum if such a request had been made.

President Tayyip Erdogan said last week that Turkey could send troops to Libya if the Tripoli-based government of Fayez al-Serraj requested it, following a security and military deal between the two countries.

DOHA (Reuters) - The American sanctions imposed on Iran violate the United Nations charter and international law, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad told a conference in Qatar on Saturday.

‘’Malaysia does not support the reimposition of the unilateral sanctions by the US against Iran,’’ he told the Doha Forum, also attended by Qatar Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.

Malaysia and other countries have lost a ‘’a big market’’ because of the sanctions on Iran, he said.

DOHA (Reuters) - Malaysia’s Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad suggested on Saturday he may seek to stay in power after 2020, just four days after he promised to make way for his anointed successor Anwar Ibrahim.

Asked at the Doha Forum in Qatar if he would step down in 2020, the world’s oldest prime minister said he wanted to fix problems that he said had been left by the previous government before resigning.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - A Sudanese court on Saturday convicted former president Omar al-Bashir on corruption charges and sentenced him to two years of detention in a reform facility, the first ruling against the ex-leader ousted by mass unrest.

The presiding judge said Bashir, 75, who was deposed by the military in April following months of street protests against his three-decade rule, was being sent to the reform facility, rather than a prison, on account of his age.