Middle East & North Africa

27 October 2023; MEMO: Sweden will deport Iraqi national Salwan Momika, who burned copies of the Quran in recent months.

Migration Office spokesperson Jesper Tengroth told broadcaster TV4 that Momika’s residence and working permits will expire on 16 April. His permits will not be renewed and he will be deported, he said.

26 October 2023; MEMO: A former Israeli army chief said on Thursday that he supports the idea of dismissing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the war and appointing another premier, Anadolu Agency reports.

Former Israeli Army Chief of Staff, Dan Halutz, told Army Radio that he supports having another figure to “lead the war”.

CAIRO, October 26. /TASS/: Nine Arab countries have called on the UN Security Council to oblige the parties to the Middle East conflict to immediately cease fire.

TEHRAN, Oct 26 (NNN-IRNA) – Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, said yesterday, the United States is a “definite accomplice” of Israel’s “crimes” in the Gaza Strip, according to a statement posted on the leader’s website.

At a meeting in the Iranian capital Tehran, Khamenei condemned those responsible for the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, and the killing of civilians.

KHARTOUM, Oct 26 (NNN-XINHUA) — The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) announced that their delegations had arrived in Saudi Arabia’s port city of Jeddah to resume a new round of negotiations.

BEIRUT, Oct 26 (Reuters) - With an economy in ruins and a crumbling state, Lebanon can ill afford another war between Hezbollah and Israel.

Iran-backed Hezbollah knows this and is keeping Lebanon's crises in mind as it plots the next steps in the conflict with Israel, sources say.

As the war between Israel and Hezbollah's Palestinian ally Hamas reverberates across the Middle East, the risk of war between Hezbollah and Israel remains higher than at any point since their last big conflict in 2006.

TEHRAN, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Iran announced Thursday a court ruling demanding the U.S. government pay 420 million dollars in reparations for inflicting material and moral damages on Iranian people during a 1980 military operation.

JERUSALEM, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Israeli tanks and infantry raided the northern Gaza Strip in a predawn attack Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement.

The military said that forces conducted "a targeted raid" using tanks in the northern Gaza Strip. According to the statement, the raid was "part of preparations for the next stages of combat," in which Israel plans a ground offensive in Gaza.

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli troops and tanks briefly raided northern Gaza overnight, the military said Thursday, engaging with Hamas fighters and targeting anti-tank weapons in order to “prepare the battlefield” before an expected ground invasion.

The raid came after after more than two weeks of devastating airstrikes in the small, densely-populated territory — with more than 250 in the past 24 hours — and as the U.N. and other world leaders warn of a dire humanitarian crisis getting worse.

TEHRAN, October 25. /TASS/: The supreme leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, said the US is complicit in Israeli crimes against the Gaza Strip, Iran's Press TV reported.

"The US is no doubt an accomplice in the crimes of the Zionist regime (Israel - TASS) against the people of the Gaza Strip," the television channel quoted Khamenei as saying.