Middle East & North Africa

RAMALLAH, Jun 27 (NNN-WAFA) – Palestine yesterday called for imposing international sanctions against Israel, to stop its policies against the Palestinian people in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a press statement that, it supports an Amnesty International report issued on Thursday saying, Israeli security forces committed violations against the Palestinians.

JERUSALEM, June 27 (Reuters) - A former president of Israel's Supreme Court was appointed on Sunday to head its state commission of inquiry into a stampede at a Jewish pilgrimage site in April that killed 45 people, among them U.S. and Canadian citizens.

Retired Chief Justice Miriam Naor will be joined on the panel by Rabbi Mordechai Karelitz, a former mayor of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish city of Bnai Brak, and retired Israeli army general Shlomo Yanai, a courts spokesman said in a statement.

DUBAI, June 27 (Reuters) - Iran has drones with a range of 7,000 km (4,375 miles), Iranian state media cited the top commander of the Revolutionary Guards as saying on Sunday, a development which may be seen by Washington as a threat to regional stability.

Tehran's assertion comes as Iran and six major powers are in talks to revive a 2015 nuclear deal that former U.S. President Donald Trump exited three years ago and reimposed sanctions.

JERUSALEM, June 27 (Reuters) - Israel summoned Poland's ambassador on Sunday to express its "deep disappointment" over a Polish bill that critics say will make it harder for Jews to recover property seized by the country's Nazi occupiers during World War Two and then kept by post-war communist rulers, the foreign ministry said.

Poland's lower house of parliament on Thursday passed a draft bill introducing a statute of limitations on claims for the restitution of property, drawing a furious response from Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, who labelled it a "disgrace". 

DUBAI, June 27 (Reuters) - The speaker of Iran's parliament said on Sunday Tehran will never hand over images from inside of some Iranian nuclear sites to the U.N. nuclear watchdog as a monitoring agreement with the agency had expired, Iranian state media reported.

"The agreement has expired ... any of the information recorded will never be given to the International Atomic Energy Agency and the data and images will remain in the possession of Iran," said Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.

KUWAIT CITY, June 27 (Xinhua) -- Kuwait started on Sunday to implement a government's decision to allow only vaccinated citizens and residents to visit shopping malls, salons, gyms, and restaurants in the country.

Malls in the Arab country witnessed on Sunday morning armed forces at their entrances who will help the implementation of the decision to prevent unvaccinated people from entering, except for pregnant women, those under 16 years, and those with a medical excuse.

ADDIS ABABA, June 27 (Xinhua) -- The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Africa reached 5,389,915 as of Sunday afternoon, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.

The Africa CDC, the specialized healthcare agency of the 55-member African Union, said the death toll from the pandemic stands at 140,836 while 4,732,109 patients across the continent have recovered from the disease.

South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, Ethiopia and Egypt are the countries with the most cases in the continent, according to the Africa CDC.

RAMALLAH, June 27 (Xinhua) -- Palestine on Sunday confirmed the first two cases of Delta variant of COVID-19 in the West Bank.

In a press statement, Palestinian Minister of Health Mai al-Kaila said that the two cases are of two Palestinian girls from the West Bank cities of Qalqilya and Salfit.

"The two infected girls came from the United Arab Emirates through Jordan," al-Kaila said, adding that they have been put under medical quarantine and tests have been taken from others who had contact with them.

27 June 2021; MEMO: Iran said on Saturday it believes a reinstatement of its 2015 nuclear deal with major world powers is possible but warned that Tehran "will not negotiate forever", reports Reuters.

"Out of a steadfast commitment to salvage a deal that the US tried to torpedo, Iran has been the most active party in Vienna, proposing most drafts," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Twitter, referring to talks aimed at reviving the nuclear deal.

27 June 2021; MEMO: The Palestinian Authority (PA) on Saturday deployed security forces to confront protesters who took to the streets of Ramallah in the West Bank after one of President Mahmoud Abbas's biggest critics died in custody, reports Reuters.