Middle East & North Africa

TEHRAN, Iran, Aug 31 (NNN-TASNIM) – Iranian Energy Minister, Reza Ardakanian, said that, his country will officially join the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) in Oct.

Ardakanian said that, after Iran’s accession to the EAEU, 864 various products would be included in the preferential trade agreement between the two sides.

Also, the agreement would allow exports of 70 products on zero tariffs, while 503 other items would enjoy lowered duties, he added.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria’s Idlib region saw a lull in air raids that have been pounding the insurgent territory, a monitor and rebel official said on Saturday, after the government said it was ceasing fire.

It is the second such truce declared this month in Idlib, which is in Syria’s northwest corner - the only major swathe of the country still in rebel hands after over eight years of war. A ceasefire in early August collapsed three days in, after which the Russian-backed army pressed its offensive and gained ground.

DUBAI (Reuters) - A senior Iranian official said on Saturday the United States had shown flexibility on the licensing of Iranian oil sales and this was a sign that Washington’s “maximum pressure” policy against Tehran had been defeated, state media reported.

French President Emmanuel Macron paved the way at a G7 summit a week ago for a potential diplomatic solution to a confrontation between the United States and Iran brewing since President Donald Trump withdrew Washington last year from world powers’ 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran.

ADEN (Reuters) - Southern Yemeni separatists said they arrested dozens of government loyalists in Aden on Saturday after President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s forces withdrew from the port city following air strikes by the United Arab Emirates.

The outbreak of hostilities between Yemen’s Saudi-backed government and the UAE-backed separatists is the latest twist in a multi-faceted war in Yemen pitting several factions and armies against each other.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - A Sudanese judge formally indicted former president Omar al-Bashir on charges of possessing illicit foreign currency and corruption on Saturday.

Questioned in court for the first time, Bashir said that he had received $25 million from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as well as funds from other sources, but that he had not received or used the money for his own benefit.

A lawyer for Bashir said that his client denied the charges against him and that witnesses for the defense would be presented at the next hearing.

TEHRAN, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- Iran is not "insane" to negotiate with those who break their promises, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, senior Iranian cleric said here on Friday, referring to the U.S. exit from the Iranian 2015 nuclear deal last year.

"As the supreme leader has said, there will be no negotiations with the U.S., and both the authorities and the people agree on this," Khatami was quoted as saying by Tehran Times daily.

"Negotiation under pressure is surrender and the Iranian nation will never tolerate such disgrace," he said.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — An Iranian official has tweeted at President Donald Trump over an apparent rocket failure, showing an image of him standing next to a satellite that was supposed to be launched.

Iran’s Information and Communications Technology Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi tweeted the image Saturday of the Nahid-1 satellite.

Jahromi wrote: “Me & Nahid I right now, Good Morning Donald Trump!”

The tweet comes after satellite photos showed a rocket on a launch pad at Iran’s Imam Khomenei Space Center had exploded Thursday.

30 Aug 2019; MEMO: Israel Foreign Ministry is bankrupt, according to one official, quoted in a report by Yedioth Ahronoth.

The report stipulated that the Foreign Ministry’s officials were informed earlier that there was no budget to host delegations or guests from Israel. Thus, official meetings were cancelled, and employees were asked to “come up with solutions.”

30 Aug 2019; MEMO: On Tuesday 17-year-old Alaa Yasser Farouk told lawyers that whilst detained she heard officers electrocuting her father and then was threatened with torture if she did not confess to joining and funding the Muslim Brotherhood.

In December 2013 the military-backed government in Egypt labelled the Brotherhood a terrorist group after a suicide bomb hit the police headquarters in Mansoura killing 16 people.

30 Aug 2019; MEMO: The far-right Zehut party has quit Israel’s election race after its leader, Moshe Feiglin, struck a deal with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu which will see him receive a ministerial position should the latter successfully form a government after 17 September.