Middle East & North Africa

03 June 2023; MEMO: The former head of Israel's National Security Council, retired Major General Yaacov Amidror, called for Israel to prepare for war with Hezbollah.

Speaking to Israeli Channel 14, Amidror called for the Israeli army to raise readiness to the highest level for a war against Lebanon.

"We have to be ready for moving on all fronts with the same abilities," Amidror, former National Security Advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, urged.

04 June 2023; MEMO: Turkiye is set to send a commando battalion to northern Kosovo in response to a request by NATO for troop reinforcements to help curb violent unrest, after Serb militants wounded 30 international soldiers.

04 June 2023; MEMO: Egypt and Israel are to hold emergency security meetings after yesterday's cross-border shootout which left three Israeli soldiers and an Egyptian policeman officer dead, Egypt Independent reported.

04 June 2023; MEMO: Foreign ministers extended congratulations to Hakan Fidan on his appointment as Türkiye's foreign minister after the swearing-in ceremony of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Anadolu reports.

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov conveyed his congratulations to Fidan and wished him "great success in this honorable position." Bayramov expressed confidence that the bonds of brotherhood and alliance between Azerbaijan and Türkiye would be further strengthened.

04 June 2023; MEMO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the International Atomic Energy Agency on Sunday of ineffectually policing Iran's nuclear activities and suggested the UN watchdog risked becoming politicised and irrelevant, Reuters reports.

The unusual criticism followed an IAEA report last week that Iran had provided a satisfactory answer on one case of suspect uranium particles and re-installed some monitoring equipment originally put in place under a now-defunct 2015 nuclear deal.

04 June 2023; MEMO: Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday unveiled Türkiye's new Cabinet at the Cankaya Palace in the capital Ankara after he was sworn in as president in parliament, Anadolu reports.

Here are the members of the new Cabinet:

Justice Minister: Yilmaz Tunc

Family and Social Services Minister: Mahinur Ozdemir Goktas

Labor and Social Security Minister: Vedat Isikhan

Environment, Urbanization, and Climate Change Minister: Mehmet Ozhaseki

04 June 2023; MEMO: Animal rights activists in Morocco staged a protest in the capital Rabat yesterday calling for an end to the culling of stray cats and dogs by the authorities.

The demonstration came a day after the interior ministry informed local media that it had already taken measures to encourage municipalities to avoid using firearms and poisons to kill stray dogs.

05 June 2023; MEMO: Qatari Defence Minister, Khalid Al-Attiyah, yesterday discussed strengthening military relations with Saudi Arabia with the kingdom's Assistant Defence Minister, Talal Al-Otaibi.

The discussion came during a meeting that brought both officials together in Singapore.

The Saudi Defence Ministry said in a statement that the two officials had discussed "topics of common interest, as well as ways to enhance relations between both countries."

05 June 2023; MEMO: A court in Algeria has confirmed the sentence of a former director of Internal Security to 16 years in prison, Al-Quds Al-Arabi has reported. Wassini Bouazza was charged with attempting to fix the result of the 2019 presidential election in favour of the then Minister of Culture, Azzedine Mihoubi.

05 June 2023; MEMO: Israel has killed more than 1,000 children over five separate wars on the besieged Gaza Strip, a study by human rights groups said yesterday.

The study said that most of the children were murdered by "Israeli warplanes and US products."