Middle East & North Africa

11 April 2022; MEMO: Kuwait has raised the official selling prices (OSPs) for two crude grades it sells to Asia in May to record levels, a price document reviewed by Reuters showed today.

The producer has set May Kuwait Export Crude (KEC) price at $9.30 a barrel above the average of Oman/Dubai quotes, up $4.50 from the previous month.

It also raised the May Kuwait Super Light Crude (KSLC) OSP to $9.65 a barrel above Oman/Dubai quotes, up $3.70.

12 April 2022; MEMO: Iran yesterday questioned the United States' will to reaching an agreement to restore the 2015 nuclear agreement, citing unresolved differences; after a year of talks.

"We really don't know if we'll get a deal or not, because the United States hasn't shown the necessary will to reach an agreement," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said.

"What remains are the decisions of Washington," he added.

"If we reach a good agreement, we will of course go to Vienna tomorrow," he said.

12 April 2022; MEMO: Israeli occupation authorities yesterday transferred Jerusalemite legislator, Ahmed Atoun, to administrative detention for a period of four months, Quds Press reported.

12 April 2022; MEMO: The Palestinian government and local authorities concerned with prisoners' affairs have rejected the Israeli High Court's ruling that the Palestinian Authority can be held liable for attacks on Israeli targets as it pays stipends to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and the families of those killed during attacks on Israelis.

11 April 2022; MEMO: The Palestinian government, on Monday, rejected an Israeli judicial decision to allow a deduction from Palestinian taxes in compensation to Israelis affected by attacks, Anadolu News Agency reports.

Speaking at a weekly Cabinet meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Palestinian Prime Minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh, termed the Israeli decision as "illegal" and "illegitimate".

12 April 2022; MEMO: The Palestinian Authority has called for the international community "to impose sanctions" on the apartheid state of Israel in a bid to stop its crimes against the people of occupied Palestine, Al-Watan Voice has reported.

12 April 2022; MEMO: Egyptian economic expert Ayman Hadhoud, who worked with the Reform and Development Party, has passed away after having been forcibly disappeared in February, Middle East Observer reported.

11 April 2022; MEMO: A leading Egyptian pro-democracy activist who has been imprisoned for more than 3 1/2 years has obtained a British passport, his family announced Monday. The move is likely meant to pressure Egyptian authorities to release him, reports AP.

12 April 2022; MEMO: The Follow-up Committee of National and Islamic Factions in Gaza warned Israel on Monday about its "ongoing crimes" in the occupied West Bank, especially in the city of Jenin.

12 April 2022; MEMO: Israel is seeking to increase the number of Israelis who carry arms in the streets across the country, Arab48 reported yesterday.

Reporting Israeli officials, the Arabic news website said that the number of Israelis applying for arms licenses has risen sharply.

According to the Israeli Public Broadcaster, Kan, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett had ordered Internal Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev to study the possibility of increasing the number of Israelis who are licensed to carry arms in Israel.