Middle East & North Africa

19 Aug 2019; MEMO: The Houthis in Yemen announced the appointment of an “ambassador of the Republic of Yemen” in Tehran, a move that the internationally recognised Yemeni government considered as “a flagrant violation” of international laws. Tehran has not made any official comment on the issue of accepting the ambassador representing the unrecognised Houthi authority on its territory.

19 Aug 2019; MEMO: Iran’s judiciary will decide whether or not to release the British oil tanker seized in Iranian waters, DPA reported the commander of the Iranian Navy saying.

“The British tanker has three violations, which must be dealt with,” Alireza Tangsiri said, stating that the Judiciary and Port Authority are entitled to make a decision on the fate of the tanker.

19 Aug 2019; MEMO: The Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI) announced yesterday that its stockpile of enriched uranium had increased from 300 kilogrammes to 370 kilogrammes, Arabi21 reported.

According to the AEOI, Iran is to continue developing its nuclear programme.

ADEN, Yemen, Aug 19 (NNN-SABA) – Warplanes of the Saudi-led Arab coalition launched 12 airstrikes against positions of the Houthi group in Yemen’s northern province of Saada on Sunday, a military official said.

The military source of Yemen’s government forces said, “the Saudi-led coalition intensified airstrikes against the main strongholds of the Houthis, particularly in Saada.”

He said that eight airstrikes targeted Maran area, that’s located to the southwestern part of Saada, causing an unknown number of casualties.

GAZA, Palestine, Aug 19 (NNN-WAFA) – The Hamas chief announced on Sunday, that, his movement is ready for negotiations on a prisoner swap deal with Israel, the Hamas official website said.

“The day is coming when the prisoners get released and we are not going to leave them,” Ismail Haniyeh said, during his visit to several families in the central Gaza Strip.

In 2017, Hamas announced the captivity of four Israeli soldiers, without revealing if they were dead or alive, while Israel said, two of the four were already dead.

TEHRAN, Aug 19 (NNN-IRNA) – Iranian ambassador to Britain Hamid Baeidijnejad said on Sunday that with the arrival of a specialist engineering team to Gibraltar, Adrian Daria (formerly Grace 1) ship was expected to leave the area on Sunday night.

18 August 2019; AFP: Abdulmalik Abdulaziz, an Uighur student, was arrested and handcuffed by Egyptian police and when they removed his blindfold he was surprised to see Chinese officials questioning him in custody.

He was picked up in broad daylight with friends, and taken to a Cairo police station where Chinese officials grilled him about what he was doing in Egypt.

The three officials spoke to him in Chinese, addressing him using his Chinese name not his Uighur one.

18 August 2019; DW: Gibraltar authorities have rejected a US warrant to seize an Iranian tanker that was previously detained by UK troops.  The ship has since been released, but the US tried to keep it in port by claiming terrorism links.

An Iranian supertanker is free to go after spending some six weeks detained in Gibraltar, the government of the British territory said on Sunday.

18 Aug 2019; MEMO: Sitting under an olive tree in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Muftia Tlaib scoffs at the attention she has recently received from the president of the United States, reports Reuters.

“May God ruin him,” she says.

Tlaib is the grandmother of US congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, at the centre of an affair that has drawn Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu together against US Democrats.

Tehran, Aug 18, IRNA – Iran's Minister of Information and Communications Technology wrote on his Twitter account that a new Iranian supercomputer will be ready by next Iranian year (March 20, 2020).

Mohammad-Javad Azari-Jahromi wrote that "Simurgh is to be '100 times' more powerful than previous ones".

Appreciating "the young creative makers" of Simurgh, Azari-Jahromi wrote that the Iranian supercomputer will serve the people by supporting businesses with the aim of developing artificial intelligence.