Middle East & North Africa

4 July 2019; MEMO: British royal marines and officials in Gibraltar have detained a supertanker suspected of carrying crude oil to Syria, in breach of European Union sanctions, the government of Gibraltar said, Reuters reports.

In a statement the government said it had reasonable grounds to believe that the Grace 1 vessel was carrying its shipment of crude oil to the Banyas Refinery in Syria.

4 July 2019; MEMO: The Palestinian Authority (PA) has called for UNESCO to send permanent observer to occupied Jerusalem, Safa news agency reported yesterday.

In a statement issued by the PA’s Foreign Minister Riyadh Al-Maliki, he stressed on the importance of this step, citing the “Israeli violations, judaisation measures and destruction in Jerusalem which aim to erase historic, civil and religious sites, as well as to change the status quo.”

4 July 2019; MEMO: Israel’s Supreme Court has refused to hear a petition filed by a human rights organisation which requested that Palestinian child prisoners be allowed to call their parents while in detention.

4 July 2019; DW: Bones unearthed in Israel and analyzed in Germany may have revealed the origins of the ancient Philistine people.

The Philistines were believed to have arrived in modern-day Israel in the 12th century BC, though there was little evidence to suggest where the people had come from.

4 July 2019; DW: UN chief Antonio Guterres denounced the "horrendous" attack on a detention center in Tripoli and demanded an independent investigation. A divided Security Council failed to condemn the strike.

The council president said a statement was due: "We will have a press statement, but we are still discussing it," Peruvian Ambassador Gustavo Meza-Cuadra said.

BAGHDAD, July 3 (Xinhua) -- A total of 18 Islamic State (IS) militants were killed on Wednesday in operations by Iraqi security forces and airstrikes by international U.S.-led coalition aircraft, the Iraqi military said.

In Iraq's western province of Anbar, four IS militants were killed and their vehicle destroyed when paramilitary tribal fighters raided their hideout in Akashat area in the desert near the border with Syria, the media office of the Joint Operations Command (JOC) said in a statement.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s president warned that Tehran will increase its enrichment of uranium to “any amount that we want” beginning on Sunday, putting further pressure on European nations to save its faltering nuclear deal and offer a way around intense U.S. sanctions.

President Hassan Rouhani’s threat, combined with Iran surpassing the stockpile limits of the 2015 atomic accord, could narrow the estimated one-year window it would need to produce enough material for a nuclear weapon, something Iran denies it wants but the deal sought to prevent.

TEHRAN, Iran, July 3 (NNN-TASNIM) – Iran, Syria and Iraq have agreed to build a multi-modal transport corridor, to boost trade relations among the three nations.

“The three countries have agreed to establish a multi-modal transport corridor from Iran through Iraq to Syria,” Iranian Deputy Minister of Roads and Urban Development, Shahram Adamnejad, said.

“The three friendly and brotherly countries have good and growing business relations,” Adamnejad said.

BINGOL, 3 July 2019; AA: A construction truck working for building a road in the eastern Turkish province of Bingol was taken off service after a bird set up a nest in the engine of the vehicle.

Officials of the construction company decided that the truck would not be used in the ongoing construction of the road on the Bingol-Erzurum highway after they were informed that a bird built a nest inside the truck.

3 July 2019; MEMO: Deputy Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad warned yesterday that the response to Israeli attacks on Syria might change in the future, Sputnik reported.

Mekdad’s remarks came one day after Israel struck alleged Iranian targets in Syria.