Middle East & North Africa

19 Sep 2022; MEMO: The armed Houthi group in Yemen on Sunday claimed that it had rejected the Saudi proposal to exchange its prisoners with Saudi prisoners, Head of the National Committee for Houthi Prisoners Abdul Qader Al-Murtada confirmed.

"Aggression forces [Saudi-led Arab alliance] seek the release of Saudi prisoners along with mercenary leaders in return for a group of our prisoners, and to postpone other issues to a future stage," Murtada told Saba News Agency.

19 Sep 2022; MEMO: The Yisrael Beiteinu party, led by Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman, filed a petition on Sunday with the Central Elections Committee seeking the disqualification of the chief of the Arab Balad party in Israel from running in upcoming Knesset elections.

18 Sep 2022; MEMO: The UAE has introduced a "Bread for All" initiative in Dubai aimed at providing underprivileged families and workers with free bread through smart vending machines located across the Emirate.

The Mohammed bin Rashid Global Centre for Endowment Consultancy (MBRGCEC), under the Awqaf and Minors Affairs Foundation (AMAF) launched the project yesterday.

18 Sep 2022; MEMO: Jordan's foreign minister said a recent agreement with the US will contribute to his country's economic reform program, media reports said Saturday, Anadolu reports.

Ayman Safadi said the fourth US-Jordan Memorandum of Understanding on Strategic Partnership (MoU) signed Friday in Washington "will contribute to supporting the economic reform program," according to Jordan's official news agency Petra, which quoted Safadi.

19 Sep 2022; MEMO: Iran does not rule out the possibility of a meeting on the sidelines of the annual UN General Assembly in New York on reviving its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said on Monday.

18 Sep 2022; MEMO: Egypt's Suez Canal Authority plans to raise the transit fees for ships passing the waterway by 15% at the start of 2023, Anadolu reports.

In a statement, the Canal Authority's chairman, Osama Rabie, said the transit fees for bulk and tourist ships will also be raised by 10% and will also be applied as of January 2023.

Rabie cited the increase in fees to current global inflation, which increased the operational costs and the costs of navigation services provided in the canal.

19 Sep 2022; MEMO: A rocket attack targeting the US military's Green Village base in northeast Syria failed to hit US or coalition forces, or any equipment, the US Central Command said, reports Reuters.

Three 107 mm rockets targeted the base on Sunday and a fourth rocket along with rocket tubes was found at the launch point, about 5 kilometers (3 miles) away, the command said in a statement.

19 Sep 2022; MEMO: Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Nasser Kanaani said Sunday, that Tehran is ready to conduct a prisoner exchange deal with the United States, whether the nuclear agreement is revived or not.

In an interview with the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA), Kanaani said his country had conducted negotiations "in different ways" with the United States regarding the exchange of prisoners, explaining that "now it is the decision of America whether this deal is implemented or not."

19 Sep 2022; MEMO: Israel has raised the state of alert and ordered its troops to prepare for any scenario following Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah's threats to target the offshore Karish gas drilling rig, Hebrew Walla news site said.

On Saturday, Nasrallah said Israel's extraction of gas from the Karish gas field before Lebanon obtained its rights is a "red line."

19 Sep 2022; MEMO: China and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have signed a memorandum of understanding, through which China will help the UAE land its first rover on the moon.

The agreement, signed on Friday, between the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) and the China National Space Administration (CNSA) for a future moon exploration mission.