Middle East & North Africa

28 Dec 2022; MEMO: Qatar announced yesterday that it had recycled about 80 per cent of the waste from the stadiums that hosted the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, Anadolu reported.

In a statement, the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy (SC), which is responsible for the delivery of the required infrastructure to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, revealed that more than 2,000 tonnes of waste was generated during the tournament, which were recycled or converted into organic fertiliser.

28 Dec 2022; MEMO: The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem has strongly condemned the storming of its land by an Israeli radical group in Wadi Hilweh in Silwan, south of the Old City of Jerusalem.

28 Dec 2022; MEMO: The Israeli Army Chief of Staff, Aviv Kochavi, said yesterday that his forces had improved their readiness to strike Iranian nuclear targets.

Speaking at Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies, Kochavi said: "The level of preparedness for an operation in Iran has dramatically improved."

"If the army is ordered to act against the Iranian nuclear program, it will accomplish the mission assigned to it," he added.

28 Dec 2022; MEMO: Israeli settlers today fenced off a plot of land in the village of Khirbet As-Samra, based in the northern Jordan Valley, reported Wafa news agency.

Local residents told Wafa that the settlers barged into the village, where they installed barbed wire around a plot of land in preparation for seizing it and set up an illegal settlement outpost.

28 Dec 2022; MEMO: The former head of Saudi Arabia's Public Security agency has reportedly been sentenced to 25 years' imprisonment, in one of the latest anti-corruption cases ruled on in the kingdom.

According to Prisoners of Conscience, a Twitter account which tracks and observes the situation of Saudi detainees, Lieutenant General Khaled Bin Qarar Al-Harbi was handed a sentence of 25 years in prison on charges of corruption and abuse of power.

29 Dec 2022; MEMO: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday received the credentials of new ambassadors from four countries, including Israel.

At the presidential complex in the capital Ankara, Erdogan welcomed Israeli Ambassador Irit Lillian, marking the first appointment by Tel Aviv since 2018.

Senior diplomat Lillian, whose appointment was announced on Sept. 19, had served as Israel's charge d'affaires in Ankara for the past two years.

28 Dec 2022; MEMO: Germany said on Wednesday that it sees no reason to revive the stalled talks on the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

"From our point of view, there are currently no indications or reasons for a resumption of the Iran nuclear negotiations," Foreign Ministry spokesman Christofer Burger told media representatives in Berlin.

Germany has repeatedly made it clear that "these negotiations are not taking place at the moment," he added.

28 Dec 2022; MEMO: The Knesset (Israel's parliament) on Wednesday passed into law a bill that expands the authority of incoming National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir over the police force.

Sixty-one lawmakers voted in favor of the law against 55 in its third and final reading.

The bill stipulates that the police will be subject to the authority of the government and subordinated to the public security minister.

29 Dec 2022; MEMO: The daughter of an executed Israeli spy has requested help from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to return his body from Syria.

In an interview with the i24NEWS Arabic outlet, Sophie Ben-Dor, the daughter of Israeli Mossad agent Eli Cohen, called on the UAE and its ambassador in Israel to help in the return of Cohen's body, almost six decades after his execution at the hands of Syrian authorities in May 1965 on espionage charges.

ANKARA, December 28. /TASS/: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts for the sake of resolving the Ukrainian crisis, the Turkish parliamentary speaker, Mustafa Sentop, told the media on Wednesday.

"I have nominated President Erdogan for the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in the name of peace between Russia and Ukraine. This is my own appeal. There will also be appeals from other countries," he said.