Middle East & North Africa

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Tunisia has banned face-covering veils in state-run buildings for security reasons, ending a policy of official tolerance with the garment.

Prime Minister Youssef Chahed signed an order on Friday demanding that ministers, governors and heads of public establishments “take the necessary dispositions to stop all people whose faces are covered from entering public buildings.”

The measure said the ban was needed “to preserve public security” and assure the smooth running of establishments.

ISTANBUL (AP) — A decade after deadly riots tore through his hometown, Kamilane Abudushalamu still vividly recalls the violence that left him an exile.

On July 5, 2009, Abudushalamu was hiding with his father on the 10th floor of an office tower in Urumqi, the capital of China’s Xinjiang region that is home to the Turkic Uighur ethnic minority. By a park, he spotted a bus on fire. Then he heard a crack as a motorcycle nearby exploded.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran should consider seizing a British oil tanker in response to authorities detaining an Iranian oil tanker off the coast of Gibraltar, a former leader of the Islamic Republic’s powerful Revolutionary Guard said Friday.

The striking comment by Mohsen Rezaei came amid heightened tensions over Iran’s unraveling 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, an accord that the U.S. withdrew from last year.

5 July 2019; MEMO: Israel Hayom reported, Thursday, that Israel is disappointed with the expected appointment of Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell as the new EU High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

According to the newspaper, Borrell will replace the current High Representative, Federica Mogherini, who was an unpopular figure in Israel because of her stubborn support for the Iran nuclear deal and for her relatively pro-Palestinian tendencies.

5 July 2019; MEMO: Saudi Arabia is holding an Iranian oil tanker in the port of Jeddah, sources in Tehran said yesterday. The tanker docked in Jeddah for emergency repairs following “engine failure and the loss of control” two months ago.

Now the Saudi authorities are demanding that Iran should pay $200,000 for every day that the vessel has been in dock, Russia Today has reported.

5 July 2019; MEMO: A number of Israeli rabbis have signed a letter criticising the possibility of appointing former Israeli Justice Minister, Ayelet Shaked, as head of the Union of Right-Wing Parties because “women should not be involved in politics”.

TASS, July 5: A Russian Su-27 fighter jet of the Air Force in the Southern Military District was scrambled to intercept a US Boeing P-8 Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft approaching Russia’s border, the Defense Ministry said on Friday.

"A Su-27 fighter jet of the Air Force on duty in the Southern Military District was scrambled to intercept a target," the ministry said.

CAIRO (AP) — A boat from Libya carrying 86 migrants sank in the Mediterranean and left only three survivors, authorities said Thursday, after an airstrike on a detention center near the Libyan capital killed dozens of others.

The twin tragedies illustrate the almost unthinkable choice facing those who have reached the North Africa coast while seeking a better life in Europe: Risk a hazardous sea voyage in a flimsy, rubber-sided boat, or face being crammed into a detention center, where some of the migrants say they have been forced to assemble weapons for someone else’s war.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — When it comes to saving Iran’s nuclear deal, Europe finds itself in the impossible situation of trying to salvage an accord unraveling because of the maximalist U.S. sanctions campaign.

Since President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the accord over a year ago, a slow fuse has burned through Iran. At first, it appeared Iranian officials thought they might be able to wait out Trump. They spoke about “strategic patience” as the U.S. 2020 presidential election loomed.

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — Sudan’s ruling military council and the country’s pro-democracy movement have reached a power-sharing agreement, including a timetable for a transition to civilian rule, an African Union envoy said early Friday.

Mohammed el-Hassan Labat said both sides agreed to form a joint sovereign council that will rule the country for “three years or a little more.” The sides agreed to five seats for the military and five for civilians with an additional seat going to a civilian with military background.