Middle East & North Africa

12 July 2019; MEMO: First shipment of Russian S-400 missile defence system hardware to Ankara started today, Turkey’s National Defence Ministry said.

“First batch of equipment of S-400 missile defence system, which is procured to meet Turkey’s air and missile defence need, has started to arrive at Murted Air Base in Ankara as of July 12, 2019,” the ministry said on Twitter.

12 July 2019; MEMO: Iran called on Britain on Friday to immediately release an oil tanker that British Royal Marines seized last week on suspicion it was breaking European sanctions by taking oil to Syria, a foreign ministry spokesman told state news agency IRNA, Reuters reports.

“This is a dangerous game and has consequences … the legal pretexts for the capture are not valid … the release of the tanker is in all countries’ interest,” the spokesman, Abbas Mousavi, said.

ANKARA, July 11. /TASS/: The contract to buy S-400 anti-aircraft missile system from Russia was vital for ensuring Turkey’s national security, a spokesperson for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AK Parti) said on Thursday.

"S-400 systems are a necessity [for ensuring] Turkey’s national security," AK Parti spokesman Omer Celik said.

12 July 2019; DW: Three German children along with their German "IS" mother must be brought back from a Syrian refugee camp, a Berlin court has told the Foreign Ministry. The judiciary cited state obligation to protect citizens abroad.

Germany's Foreign Ministry said late Thursday it was "examining" the Berlin Administrative Court's ruling that three children and their mother, originally from Germany's northern state of Lower Saxony, be located and returned to Germany from a Syrian refugee camp.

11 July 2019; MEMO: The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS) yesterday rejected an invitation by US special envoy Jason Greenblatt to visit the White House and meet officials there, WAFA news agency reported.

According to a statement, the PJS said that the invitation is another “failed and desperate” attempt by the US administration to bypass the Palestinian leadership.

11 July 2019; MEMO: Member of PLO’s Executive Committee Hanan Ashrawi yesterday condemned the “dangerous” Israeli settlement expansion in occupied Jerusalem and its outskirts, Quds Net News reported.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The Latest on the tensions between the United States and Iran (all times local):

3:30 p.m.

The European Union says it is making some progress on its controversial barter-type system to trade with Iran and get around U.S. sanctions as part of its efforts to keep the nuclear deal alive.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The British navy said it prevented three Iranian paramilitary vessels from impeding the passage of a British oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz early Thursday, a day after Iran’s president warned of repercussions for the seizure of its own supertanker.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard denied the allegations, saying if it had received orders to seize any ships it would have done so immediately.

11 July 2019; AFP: French President Emmanuel Macron's top diplomatic advisor met with Iran's president Wednesday winding up a day of talks in Tehran aimed at saving a landmark 2015 nuclear deal and easing tensions between Tehran and Washington.

But as Emmanuel Bonne pressed the high-level talks, President Donald Trump took to Twitter to warn that US sanctions against Iran would soon be "increased substantially", charging Tehran had "long been secretly 'enriching'" uranium.

ALGIERS, July 10 (Xinhua) -- The Algerian parliament late on Wednesday elected unanimously Slimane Chenine, an Islamist-oriented lawmaker, as the new speaker of the People's National Assembly, lower house of the parliament.

Chenine was elected to replace Mouad Bouchareb, who resigned a week ago.

The election was broadcast live on state-run ENTV channel, amid boycott of several opposition parties, including the Socialist Forces Front, the Rally for Culture and Democracy and the Islamist Movement for the Society of Peace.