Middle East & North Africa

25 March 2022; MEMO: Israeli settlers, yesterday, attempted to storm a mosque in the Zeita Jammain village located in the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

Israel's Kan quoted a Palestinian source as saying that a group of settlers had thrown a "highly flammable substance at the entrance of the local mosque."

"The extremist settlers have scrawled anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab hate graffiti on the wall of a house nearby the mosque," the sources pointed out.

25 March 2022; MEMO: Israel will host a two-day meeting with the top diplomats of the US, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Morocco from Sunday, its Foreign Ministry said on Friday, and Anadolu News Agency reports.

In a statement, the Ministry said the "historic" diplomatic summit is being held at invitation from Israeli Foreign Minister, Yair Lapid.

The readout did not give further details about the visit, but said the ministers will engage in diplomatic meetings.

25 March 2022; MEMO: The British Embassy in Beirut said on Friday it was "deeply concerned" by Lebanese banks closing accounts belonging to people who are nationals or residents of the United Kingdom, Reuters reports.

In a statement, the Embassy said "this unilateral action" by banks had singled out account holders on the basis of their British residency or nationality, in "what appears to be a targeted and discriminatory manner".

25 March 2022; MEMO: A church leader in Jerusalem has expressed concern over the steep decline of the holy city's Christian population over the years, Anadolu News Agency reports.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Wadih Abu Nassar, the spokesman for the Council of Heads of Catholic Churches in Jerusalem, said Christians constituted about 25 per cent of the population of Jerusalem in 1922. But the number has since fallen drastically to less than 1 per cent, he noted.

25 March 2022; MEMO: Europe can learn lessons from Turkiye on how to humanely handle the refugee crisis triggered by the Ukraine-Russia war, Turkiye's Communications Director, Fahrettin Altun, said on Friday, Anadolu News Agency reports.

25 March 2022; MEMO: The Palestinian Authority will lose the municipal elections, a member of the Fatah Revolutionary Council, Fakhri Al-Barghouti, announced yesterday, warning that the movement was heading "towards  the abyss."

"In light of its current reality, Fatah is in an unimaginable situation, and if we delay reform, we will pay the price more and more," Al-Barghouti told Al-Resalah.

SANAA, March 25 (Reuters) - Khaled Rmeishi, 16, has spent half his life watching Yemen, and his hopes for the future, collapse under a war that has pushed millions in the long-impoverished Arabian peninsula country deeper into poverty and hunger.

Rmeishi, who is in the ninth grade, helps his family by working at his father's car repair garage in the capital Sanaa and hopes later to have a trade job as a mechanic, plumber or electrician.

BAGHDAD, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Iraq's northern city of Mosul, once a battleground for fierce battles to dislodge militants of the extremist Islamic State (IS) group, held a four-day festival for traditional music in a bid to breathe life into the worst destroyed areas of the city.

"The Mosul Festival of Traditional Music is the first festival held in the city. It aims to revive traditional music in Mosul and introduce new talents," said Farah Qadour, a senior official of a local nongovernmental organization (NGO) participating in the festival, told Xinhua on Friday.

ANKARA, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Turkey, France and Italy have decided to resume defense cooperation talks over Eurosam's SAMP/T missile system, the state TRT broadcaster reported Friday, quoting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"There were some steps we have taken between Turkey and France. We have decided to continue our efforts in the Turkey-France relations, and even to revive the steps we have taken as Turkey-France-Italy," Erdogan told journalists on his flight from Belgium to Turkey, referring to the trilateral cooperation negotiations over Eurosam's defense systems.

TEHRAN, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian has reaffirmed Iran's red lines, such as lifting sanctions "to the maximum," for reaching an agreement in the nuclear talks in Vienna, the Iranian Students' News Agency reported Friday.

Abdollahian made the statement during his meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Beirut on Thursday, highlighting Iran's determination to defend the red lines set for the nuclear talks to safeguard its interests.