Middle East & North Africa

25 August 2022; MEMO: A US Air Force drone was downed in Libya this week, in an incident which has prompted an investigation by the US Africa Command (AFRICOM).

According to the Military Times, a statement provided to it by AFRICOM spokesperson, Lieutenant Commander Timothy Pietrack, revealed that the "aircraft was operating in support of US Ambassador and Special Envoy to Libya, Richard Norland's diplomatic engagements".

26 August 2022; MEMO: President Emmanuel Macron indicated yesterday that France and Algeria should move beyond their "painful" shared history and look to the future at the start of a three-day visit to the North African country, Reuters reports.

The trauma of French colonial rule in Algeria and the bitter independence war that ended it in 1962 has haunted relations between the two countries for decades and played into a diplomatic dispute that erupted last year.

26 August 2022; MEMO: US evangelical group HaYovel has recently sent letters to its supporters raising funds to plant 3,000 trees by the end of this year as part of the "Make Israel Green" project which aims to plant trees on land seized from Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

The organisation has already planted a forest in the illegal Har Brakha settlement, south of Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank.

26 August 2022; MEMO: Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita said that the view adopted by a group of European countries and others that the autonomy initiative is the basis for a solution to the issue of the Sahara region does not contradict international efforts.

26 August 2022; MEMO: Officials from Turkiye, Finland and Sweden are expected to meet at an undisclosed location in Finland today to discuss security concerns which Ankara raised as a precondition for allowing the two Nordic countries to join the NATO military alliance, Reuters reported.

KHARTOUM, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Sudan's military leader, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, on Thursday announced a major reshuffling of the country's military leadership on Thursday, amid political and economic turmoil.

The change includes the military's land forces, operations, and supply heads as well as it's general inspector. A change to the air force leadership had been announced previously, while the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Mohamed Osman Alhussein, was kept in his position.

ANKARA, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) -- At least 13 foreign Islamic State (IS) suspects were detained in police raids in the Turkish capital of Ankara on Thursday, the state-run TRT TV reported.

Ankara police launched an operation against 15 foreign suspects, some of whom were allegedly in contact with IS members in the conflict zones, the report said.

Thirteen suspects were detained in the operation, while the police continue to search for the remaining two, it added.

25 August 2022; MEMO: Egyptians working around the world transferred $31.9 billion to Egypt in the fiscal year 2021/22, up from $31.5 billion in 2020/21, a 1.6 per cent increase, the Central Bank of Egypt said in a statement yesterday.

The statement indicated that the period from April to June 2022 witnessed an increase in remittances by three per cent, recording $8.3 billion, compared to $8.1 billion in the corresponding period of the previous year.

The fiscal year in Egypt begins on 1 July each year.

25 August 2022; MEMO: An Iraqi court yesterday issued an arrest warrant against a leader in the Sadrist Movement on charges relating to threatening the judiciary.

The Supreme Judicial Council of Iraq said in a statement today that the Karkh First Inquiry Court in Baghdad issued an arrest warrant against Sabah Al-Saedi for the crime of threatening the judiciary.

25 August 2022; MEMO: The UAE is collaborating with Israel to sabotage Gulf reconciliation efforts, disturb relations between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and deepen the rift with Bahrain, Al-Quds Al-Arabi has reported. Citing information gleaned from leaked documents and reports, the newspaper exposed the UAE-Israel efforts being coordinated to undermine the reconciliation witnessed at the summit hosted by Saudi Arabia at Al-Ula early last year.