Middle East & North Africa

12 Nov 2019; MEMO: President Hassan Rouhani said on Monday Iran would regain access to the international arms market later next year if it stuck to its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and this would prove “a huge political success”, reports Reuters.

However, while a United Nations-imposed arms embargo on Iran is supposed to be lifted in October 2020, five years after the nuclear deal took effect, it is questionable whether that will transpire given the recent unravelling of the accord.

ANKARA, November 12. /TASS/: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said that negotiations on his country joining the European Union may ‘eventually stop’ at a news conference in Ankara on Tuesday ahead of his flight to the US.

"[The EU] has levied sanctions against us since 1959. We’ve always been distracted by promises to be accepted [into the EU]. However, these promises have never been kept. You should know that today Turkey is a country that sits at the negotiation table with you, but this table is not tied to us and [the negotiations] may end soon," the Turkish president warned.

CAIRO, November 12. /TASS/: Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu arrived to the Egyptian capital Cairo, where he is scheduled to meet with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on Tuesday.

During the visit, Shoigu is also expected to head the Russian delegation to the sixth session of the Russian-Egyptian commission on defense cooperation, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman Rossiyana Markovskaya told reporters.

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said fighting with Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants that erupted after Israel killed their top field commander in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday could prove protracted.

“Israel is not interested in escalation, but we will do everything required to protect ourselves,” Netanyahu told reporters at military headquarters. “This could take time. What is needed is stamina and cool-headedness.”

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon’s banks and schools were shut on Tuesday in a new wave of disruption as politicians struggled to agree on a new government to steer the country out of its worst economic crisis since the 1975-90 civil war.

President Michel Aoun said formal consultations with MPs to nominate a new prime minister and form the cabinet would be held soon. Ahead of the formal discussions, politicians have been trying to agree on the composition of the government to replace caretaker Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri’s outgoing cabinet.

AMMAN, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Jordanian foreign minister said on Monday that the country's ambassador to Israel will return to Tel Aviv after having been recalled over the Israeli continued detention of two Jordanians.

Ayman Safadi made the announcement at a press conference, where he said the ambassador will return to Israel on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Jordan is committed to the peace treaty with Israel and peace is a strategic Arab option, he noted.

A BASE IN EASTERN SYRIA (AP) — At a base in eastern Syria, a senior U.S. coalition commander said Monday that American troops who remain in Syria are redeploying to bases, including in some new locations, and working with the Kurdish-led forces to keep up the pressure on the Islamic State militants and prevent the extremists from resurging or breaking out of prisons.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s most powerful Shiite religious leader said Monday he backs a U.N. roadmap aimed at meeting the demands of anti-government protesters who have been rallying in recent weeks despite a bloody crackdown by security forces, but he expressed concern that political parties would not carry them out.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel killed a senior Islamic Jihad commander in Gaza early Tuesday in a resumption of pinpointed targeting that threatens a fierce round of cross-border violence with Palestinian militants.

Minutes after the Iranian-backed group confirmed the death of the commander, Bahaa Abu el-Atta, at dawn, barrages of rockets could be heard fired toward southern Israel from Gaza.

The Islamic Jihad said Abu el-Atta, 42, was undergoing “a heroic act” when he was assassinated. It did not elaborate, but vowed revenge.

SHARJAH, Nov 11 (NNN-WAM) – Donations offered to Sharjah Charity International’s, SCI, Suqya Al Khair water project, provided safe drinking water in 12 countries, by drilling 434 wells and building two water networks.

A report issued by the SCI said, the water charity project was launched in Mar, 2019.