Middle East & North Africa

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Latest on Israel’s decision to bar two U.S. Democratic congresswomen from visiting (all times local):

12:45 a.m.

President Donald Trump is defending Israel’s decision to bar two Democratic members of Congress from visiting the country, even as he claims he didn’t “encourage or discourage” the move.

Trump told reporters on Thursday that he “did speak to people over there” regarding the decision but says he was “only involved from the standpoint that they’re very anti-Jewish and very anti-Israel.”

15 August 2019; DW: The decision to bar Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib is likely to deepen a rift within the Democratic Party over Israel. President Donald Trump backed the decision shortly before it was announced.

Israel's government decided to bar two Democratic congresswomen from entering the country on Thursday, in an unprecedented move that is likely to reverberate through the halls of the US Congress.

15 August 2019; DW: The decision to release an Iranian oil tanker seized by Britain off Gibraltar last month comes despite US pleas. The ship was suspected of violating European Union sanctions on oil shipments to Syria.

Gibraltar authorities have reportedly released an Iranian tanker, which has been at the center of a standoff with Tehran.

The US had sought to seize the supertanker through legal action.

15 Aug 2019; MEMO: Turkey will open a new military base in Qatar this autumn, daily Hürriyet reported yesterday.

“A new Turkish base has been built near Qatar’s Tariq Ibn Ziyad military base,” Hürriyet correspondent, Hande Fırat, said, adding that the military base’s inauguration ceremony was expected to be “unveiled by the Qatari Emir and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.”

15 Aug 2019; MEMO: Survivors of the 2013 Rabaa massacre in Egyptian capital Cairo have slammed Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi as “the man behind one of the deadliest atrocities of the 21st century” and called for a UN investigation into the killings.

15 Aug 2019; MEMO: Israeli authorities will finally allow Palestinian Bedouin citizens in the village of Rahma to have an elementary school “after 13 years of civil struggle”, reported Haaretz.

MECCA, Saudi Arabia, Aug 15 (NNN-SPA) – China Railway Construction Corporation Limited (CRCC), operator of the Mecca light rail, in the Hajj season in Mecca, completed this year’s pilgrimage transport service on Wednesday (yesterday).

During the seven-day operation, the total operation time was 156 hours, and more than 2.4 million trips were delivered safely and accurately.

Li Chongyang, vice general manager of CRCC, said that, the light rail system, originally planned to run 1,718 trains, actually ran 2,214 trains.

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirate, Aug 15 (NNN-WAM) -Some 40,000 people from 8,000 families in the UAE, have benefited from the Emirates Red Crescent, ERC, sacrificial meat, during Eid Al Adha.

Rashid Mubarak Al Mansouri, ERC Deputy Secretary-General for Local Affairs, stated that, 6,400 people benefited in Abu Dhabi, 4,000 people in Dubai, 3,200 in Ajman, 4,000 in Sharjah, 5,600 in Al Ain, 4,000 in Ras Al Khaimah, 1,600 in Al Dhafra, 4,000 in Fujairah, 1,600 in Umm Al Qaiwain and 5,600 in Bani Yas.

TRIPOLI, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) on Wednesday revealed the intention to turn the humanitarian truce between the UN-backed government and the rival east-based army into a permanent cease-fire.

"After the UNSMIL called upon the parties on Aug. 8 to express their commitment to a humanitarian truce on the occasion of Eid al-Adha, the mission welcomes the positive response by the parties and the palpable reduction of violence in the Tripoli area," the mission said in a statement.

TUNIS, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Independent High Authority for Elections (ISIE) announced on Wednesday that 26 candidates had been approved for the early presidential elections scheduled for Sept. 15.

"Out of a total 97 applicants, only 26 were approved for the forthcoming presidential elections," said Nabil Baffoun, the ISIE president, at a press conference in the capital Tunis.