Middle East & North Africa

31 Oct 2019; MEMO: Lebanese President Michel Aoun asked on Wednesday resigning Prime Minister Saad Hariri to continue managing the government until a new one is formed.

This came the day after Prime Minister Hariri submitted his resignation to Baabda Presidential Palace, after two weeks of the protests’ outbreak in Lebanon, demanding the departure of the entire political class.

31 Oct 2019; MEMO: Tribes in Basra province, southern Iraq, have given the Iraqi government 48 hours to release all protest detainees in the province.

Since the start of the second wave of protests, on Friday, security forces in Basra arrested dozens of demonstrators, claiming that they are suspected of setting fire to government institutions.

31 Oct 2019; MEMO: As many as 10,000 Sudanese soldiers withdrew from Yemen. They returned to their country, Deputy Head of the Sovereign Council of Sudan and the commander of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, has declared.

Dagalo’s remarks were reported yesterday by an anti former regime newspaper, Al-Tayyar, which quoted well-informed sources as saying. The Sudanese newspaper did not name the sources.

31 Oct 2019; MEMO: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei yesterday blamed the US and Israel for  the turmoil in Iraq and Lebanon, urging protesters in both countries to lawfully seek their rights.

Speaking at a graduation ceremony at Iran’s Khatam Al-Anbia Air Defence University, he accused the US and Western intelligence services of inflicting damage and of creating “chaos” in the region, Al Jazeera reported.

30 Oct 2019; MEMO: An Israeli soldier was sentenced on Monday to a month’s labour for killing a Palestinian child during a Great Return March protest in the occupied Gaza Strip.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — The U.S. Embassy in Tehran remains frozen in 1979 as the 40th anniversary of the Iran hostage crisis approaches, a time capsule of revolutionary graffiti, Underwood typewriters and rotary telephones.

The diplomatic compound was overrun by students angered when Washington allowed ousted Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi into the U.S. for medical treatment. What initially began as a sit-in devolved into 444 days of captivity for 52 Americans seized in the embassy.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Two rockets were fired into Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone on Wednesday, killing one Iraqi soldier and adding to the violence gripping the country amid unprecedented anti-government protests and a violent security crackdown.

Security officials said one of the Katyusha rockets landed about 100 meters (110 yards) away from the perimeter of the U.S. Embassy, triggering alert sirens. A soldier manning a checkpoint near a restaurant was killed, they added, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

30 Oct 2019; MEMO: Lebanese soldiers and security officials urged protesters to open blocked roads on Wednesday so life could return to normal after 13 days demonstrations paralysed the country and forced the prime minister to resign, reports Reuters.

Troops cleared one major route north of Beirut after briefly scuffling with demonstrators in the morning. A group of soldiers tried to pick up a vehicle blocking the highway before it drove off, al-Jadeed television footage showed.

30 Oct 2019; MEMO: The US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to recognize the mass killings of Armenians a century ago as a genocide, a symbolic but historic vote instantly denounced by Turkey.

The Democratic-controlled House voted 405-11 in favor of a resolution asserting that it is US policy to commemorate as genocide the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923. The Ottoman Empire was centered in present-day Turkey.

30 Oct 2019; MEMO: Iran yesterday warned its citizens against travelling to Iraq as anti-government protests escalate.

“Due to the ongoing escalation in Iraq, citizens and visitors are requested to delay their trips until further notice,” Mehr quoted a statement by the Iranian foreign ministry as saying.