Middle East & North Africa

19 October 2022; MEMO: A Hamas delegation will visit Syria on Wednesday, a spokesman for the Palestinian group told Anadolu Agency.

Hazem Qassem said the delegation will hold talks with Syrian regime officials, without providing any further details.

"The trip is part of a visit by a number of delegations from Palestinian factions to Damascus," he added.

Last month, Hamas said it will pursue efforts to normalise relations with the Syrian regime.

19 October 2022; MEMO: Some 22 countries have submitted official requests to purchase Iranian-made military drones, former Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and top military aide to Iran's Supreme Leader, Major General Yahia Rahim Safavi, said.

"The current candidate countries to buy Iranian drones are Armenia, Tajikistan, Serbia, Algeria, Venezuela and other countries," Safavi said yesterday.

19 October 2022; MEMO: Saudi Arabia has sentenced a Quran reciter to 12 years in prison for leading prayers at Istanbul's Hagia Sophia eight years ago, as the Kingdom's crackdown on religious figures continues to intensify.

19 October 2022; MEMO: Sweden and Finland must fulfil the terms of the NATO-accession agreement concluded with Turkiye, the Swedish ministers of foreign affairs and defence said yesterday.

ADEN, Oct 18 (NNN-YPA) – The Yemeni internationally-recognised government, yesterday, ordered its armed forces to raise combat readiness, for major changes in the war-torn Arab country, in the upcoming days.

The government also ordered “all the pro-government military and security units,” to “prepare for fully restoring state institutions from the grip of the Houthi militia,” said a government statement, released by the state-run Saba news agency, following a government meeting held in the southern port city of Aden.

DAMASCUS, Oct 18 (NNN-SANA) – The U.S. forces smuggled 92 tankers and trucks of stolen Syrian oil and wheat, from north-eastern Syria to U.S. bases in neighbouring Iraq, yesterday.

The oil tankers and wheat trucks were sent to Iraq through illegal border crossings, set up by the U.S.-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

After entering Syria in 2014, the U.S. forces, under the pretext of fighting terrorist groups, have established military bases in oil-rich areas, in north-eastern and eastern Syria, and started the systematic stealing of Syrian oil.

ANKARA, Oct 18 (NNN-Xinhua) — Two Spanish tourists were killed and three others injured on Tuesday in a hot air balloon accident in Türkiye’s popular tourist destination Cappadocia, local authorities said.

The balloon belonging to a private company took off from the Zelve Ruins of Avanos district in Nevsehir province and made a hard landing in the Killik region due to unexpected wind, the office of the provincial governor said in a statement.

Oct 18 (Reuters) - Iran has promised to provide Russia with surface to surface missiles, in addition to more drones, two senior Iranian officials and two Iranian diplomats told Reuters, a move that is likely to infuriate the United States and other Western powers.

A deal was agreed on Oct. 6 when Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber, two senior officials from Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards and an official from the Supreme National Security Council visited Moscow for talks with Russia about the delivery of the weapons.

BEIRUT, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Before Lebanon's government approved a U.S.-brokered deal settling a decades-long maritime boundary dispute with Israel, the powerful Hezbollah had scrutinized the final draft line by line and given a crucial nod of acceptance.

Branded a terrorist group by Washington and a sworn enemy of Israel, the Iran-backed Hezbollah was certainly nowhere near the negotiating room during U.S. shuttle diplomacy which clinched the landmark deal last week.

BEIRUT, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Tuesday launched the National Strategy for Digital Transformation in Lebanon 2020-2030 in partnership with the UN Development Programme (UNDP), said a statement by the Council of Ministers.

"The digital transformation initiative has been our government's priority as it is linked to the reform and recovery plan, and converges with the anti-corruption strategy being implemented systematically and gradually," Mikati said.