Middle East & North Africa

18 Apr 2023; MEMO: Turkish citizens will now be able to obtain a visa for Egypt on arrival, according to an announcement on Saturday by Turkiye's charge d'affaires in Cairo.

"Our citizens will be able to enter Egypt without obtaining a visa in advance," Salih Mutlu Sen said on Twitter, adding the following day that it will be "the first time in the last ten years."

18 Apr 2023; MEMO: Turkiye's child population, which was determined as 22,578,378 at the end of last year, constituted 26.5 per cent of the country's population, a local Turkish news outlet reports.

According to the report, it is estimated that the child population ratio will be 25.6 per cent in 2030, 23.3 per cent in 2040, 20.4 per cent in 2060 and 19 per cent in 2080.

18 Apr 2023; MEMO: Sudan's rival Commanders agreed on a 24-hour ceasefire from Tuesday evening, after pressure from US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, over deadly fighting that has engulfed the capital, Khartoum, and saw shots fired at a US diplomatic convoy, Reuters reports.

18 Apr 2023; MEMO: Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister has arrived in Syria's capital today, in the first such official visit to the country since the outbreak of the ongoing conflict in 2011.

Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, arrived in the Syrian capital, Damascus, this afternoon, where he was welcomed at the airport by Syria's Minister of Presidency Affairs, Mansour Azzam. He then reportedly met with Syrian President, Bashar Al-Assad, but no details of their meeting have yet been revealed.

18 Apr 2023; MEMO: In a show of strength, Iran's military put an array of weapons systems, including indigenously developed drones, on display Tuesday at a parade in Tehran to mark the National Army Day, Anadolu News Agency reports.

The parade, attended by top political and military leaders, included units from the Army's ground force, navy and air force and the presentation of fighter jets, helicopters, missiles and drones.

18 Apr 2023; MEMO: Turkiye is considering petitioning a federal court in the United States to enforce an arbitration award amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars that it won against Iraq, amid a dispute over crude oil exports Ankara received from Iraq's autonomous northern Kurdish region.

18 Apr 2023; MEMO: An entire Israeli army battalion from the Golani Brigade laid down their arms and walked out of training on Tuesday in protest against leadership reshuffle, Israeli media reported.

The Commander of the battalion was removed from his position, Jerusalem Post reported, because he was deemed unfit for it.

The Israeli media reported that the soldiers entered the training building on their base, left their arms and left.

SANAA, April 18 (NNN-XINHUA) — The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced in a statement that 104 Yemeni detainees unilaterally released by Saudi Arabia had boarded ICRC planes and arrived in Yemen on Monday.

The move followed a large-scale three-day prisoner swap between the Yemeni government, the Saudi-led coalition, and the Houthi rebels that ended on Sunday.

The ICRC facilitated the release of 104 detainees from Saudi Arabia to Yemen at the request of the Saudi-led coalition, the statement said.

JERUSALEM, April 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A suspected shooting attack by a Palestinian gunman in Jerusalem on Tuesday left two Israeli men wounded, police said.  

It was the latest in a year-long cycle of violence that shows no sign of abating after weeks of heightened tensions around Jerusalem during the overlap of the Jewish holiday of Passover and the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

RAMALLAH, April 18 (Xinhua) -- At least eight Palestinians were shot and injured on Tuesday during clashes with Israeli soldiers in a refugee camp of Jenin in the northern West Bank, Palestinian Health Ministry said in a statement.

The injured Palestinians were taken to nearby hospitals for medical treatment after the clashes, according to the statement.

Israeli soldiers, backed by an armored vehicle and a bulldozer, stormed the Palestinian refugee camp and surrounded several buildings while reconnaissance drones hovered overhead, Palestinian eyewitnesses said.