Middle East & North Africa

15 Sep 2019; MEMO: The emergency meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on the level of foreign ministers was held on Sunday, Anadolu reports.

The meeting discussed the recent Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s remarks in which he said he would annex large parts of the occupied lands in the West Bank — including the Jordan Valley.

DUBAI (Reuters) - An Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander said on Sunday that U.S. bases and aircraft carriers in the region were within range of Iranian missiles after the U.S. accused Iran of leading attacks on Saudi oil plants, raising tensions in the Middle East.

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group said it attacked two Saudi Aramco oil plants on Saturday at the heart of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry, knocking out more than half the Kingdom’s output.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran’s foreign minister Mohammed Javad Zarif said on Sunday that the United States and its allies were “stuck in Yemen” and that blaming Tehran “won’t end the disaster”.

“Having failed at “max pressure”, @SecPompeo’s turning to “max deceit”.. US & its clients are stuck in Yemen because of illusion that weapon superiority will lead to military victory. Blaming Iran won’t end disaster,” Zarif said on Twitter.

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey’s defence ministry said on Sunday that the delivery of a second battery of Russian S-400 missile defence systems has been completed as of Sunday, and added that the systems would become active in April 2020.

Ankara and Washington have been at loggerheads over Turkey’s purchase of the S-400 systems, which the United States says are not compatible with NATO defenses and poses a threat to Lockheed Martin’s F-35 ‘stealth’ fighter jets.

TEHRAN, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Iran's First Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri said on Saturday that "the United States seeks the collapse of Iranian government through maximum pressure campaign," official IRNA news agency reported.

"Their ultimate goal is the collapse of the Iranian government and their short term goal is to disintegrate the economy of the country," Jahangiri was quoted as saying.

TEHRAN, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- The abrupt departure of former U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton from the White House would not suffice for alleviating challenges facing Tehran-Washington potential negotiations, an Iranian political expert said on Saturday.

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Tunisians are casting ballots in their North African country’s second democratic presidential election, choosing among 26 candidates for a leader who can safeguard its young democracy and tackle its unemployment, corruption and economic despair.

The voting followed a noisy but brief campaign — 12 days — marked by backbiting and charges of corruption among the contenders. All vowed to boost the country’s flagging economy and protect it from further deadly attacks by Islamist extremists.

ROSH HAAYIN, Israel (AP) — As former army chief of staff Benny Gantz campaigns to be Israel’s next leader, he is relying less on policy specifics than on the archetypal image of a military man who can rise above the political fray and defend a country that feels perpetually under siege.

JERUSALEM (AP) — A visibly frantic Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in the fight of his political life as the country heads to national elections for the second time this year.

With Netanyahu locked in a razor tight race and facing the likelihood of criminal corruption charges, a decisive victory in Tuesday’s vote may be the only thing to keep him out of the courtroom. A repeat of the deadlock in April’s election, or a victory by challenger Benny Gantz, could spell the end of the career of the man who has led the country for the past decade.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran denied on Sunday it was involved in Yemen rebel drone attacks the previous day targeting the world’s biggest oil processing facility and an oil field in Saudi Arabia, just hours after America’s top diplomat alleged that Tehran was behind the “unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply.”

The attacks Saturday claimed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels resulted in “the temporary suspension of production operations” at the Abqaiq processing facility and the Khurais oil field, Riyadh said.