Middle East & North Africa

1 Nov 2019; MEMO: The Israeli Foreign Ministry has warned the government and security services that the arrest and administrative detention of two Jordanian citizens could lead to a diplomatic crisis with Jordan.

Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper said National Security Adviser, Meir Ben-Shabbat, intends to visit Jordan in the coming days in an attempt to resolve the issue of Hiba Al-Labadi and Abdel Rahman Miri’s detention.

1 Nov 2019; MEMO: A Lebanese security source said a loud explosion was heard near the southern Lebanese village of Nabatieh around 14.00 yesterday which could be caused by the downing of an Israeli drone.

The source added that “information indicates that a surface-to-air missile was fired from Nabatieh targeting the Israeli drone which fell in the vicinity of the town of Kafr Ruman.”

1 November 2019; AFP: Turkey started joint patrols with Russia in northern Syria Friday to verify whether Kurdish forces have withdrawn from a key border zone in compliance with a deal reached between the two governments.

The patrols, which began just before noon (1000 GMT), follow an agreement they signed in the Black Sea resort of Sochi last week which gave Kurdish forces 150 hours to withdraw from a band of territory along the border, in a process that Russia said was now complete.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Thousands of Iraqis thronged central Baghdad on Friday demanding the root-and-branch downfall of the political elite, in what was expected to become the biggest day of mass anti-government demonstrations since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

Protests in which 250 people have died over the past month have accelerated dramatically in recent days, drawing huge crowds from across Iraq’s sectarian and ethnic divides to reject the political parties in power since 2003.

DAMASCUS, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday warned that war would be the only option if political means fail to secure Turkey's troop pullout from northern Syria.

Speaking in an interview with the Syrian national TV, Assad said the recent Turkey-Russia deal on creating a safe zone in northern Syria had been conducive in pulling back Kurdish militia from the border region in coordination with the Syrian army.

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish military forces captured 18 Syrian government soldiers in northeastern Syria, Turkey’s defense minister said Thursday, in one of the most dramatic examples of an increasingly muddled battleground following the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the area.

BEIRUT (AP) — The Islamic State group declared a new leader Thursday after it confirmed the death of its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi days earlier in a U.S raid in Syria.

In its audio release by the IS central media arm, al-Furqan Foundation, a new spokesman for IS identifies the successor as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi — tracing his lineage, like al-Baghdadi, to the Prophet Muhammad’s Quraysh tribe.

AYLISHAR /Syria/, October 31. /TASS/: Russian military police stationed in Syria are departing from the Aylishar border crossing in northern Syria on a joint patrol with Turkish forces on Thursday.

"The route is difficult, because the emphasis was placed on preventing the military convoy <…> from entering the city of Kobani. That’s why we are to bypass the city travelling along country roads," military police officer Ivan Zhukov told reporters.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - U.S. forces in armored vehicles conducted a patrol on the Syria-Turkey border on Thursday, the first such exercise since a U.S. decision to withdraw from northeast Syria, according to a Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) military source and a witness.

Armored vehicles carrying a U.S. flag were seen near the Syria-Turkey border, the witness said.

A military source from the Kurdish-led SDF said the patrols would “not be one-time” only.

31 Oct 2019; MEMO: A high-level European Union (EU) delegation yesterday arrived in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, intending to support the transitional government, Anadolu Agency has reported.

“The purpose of the visit is to continue the dialogue with the Sudanese government and support, as well as the political and civil forces in Sudan and how the EU can support them in these fixes of momentous change,” the EU mission said in a statement.