Middle East & North Africa

BEIRUT, Jun 22 (NNN-NNA) – The World Bank released yesterday, a report calling on the Lebanese authorities to quickly reform the education sector, and increase investment for better children’s education.

Dubbed Foundations for Building Forward Better: An Education Reform Path for Lebanon, the report said, “change can be brought only through a comprehensive reform agenda, that rests on political will and stakeholder commitment.”

22 June 2021; MEMO: Yemeni Nobel Peace Laureate and human rights advocate Tawakkol Karman is mourning Emirati human rights activist Alaa Al-Siddiq, 33, who was killed in a car accident in London on Saturday.

22 June 2021; MEMO: President-elect Ebrahim Raisi said on Monday that his support for the nuclear talks taking place between Iran and world powers in Vienna is "conditional", and depends on the achievement of his country's demands.

22 June 2021; MEMO: Iraq's prominent Shia cleric and leader of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada Al-Sadr, said he hopes the new Iranian President, Ebrahim Raisi, would resort to reason to end sectarianism and not encourage "extremism and escalation of conflicts" in the region.

22 June 2021; MEMO: Mauritania's President Mohamed Ould El-Ghazaouani received the head of the Hamas Political Bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, in the capital Nouakchott on Monday, Anadolu news agency has reported. A delegation from the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement flew to Mauretania from Morocco, where it had what was described by one commentator as a "state visit".

22 June 2021; MEMO: The six countries forming the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) will remain heavily dependent on hydrocarbon production for at least the next ten years, despite efforts to diversify their economies, Moody's said yesterday.

22 June 2021; MEMO: A yoga class was held on the beach in Gaza to help paramedics deal with some of the trauma they suffered during Israel's latest bombing campaign which came to an end on 21 May.

22 June 2021; MEMO: Spain's announcement that it is willing to consider any solution proposed by Morocco regarding the Western Sahara issue is a victory for Moroccan diplomacy and may contribute to easing tension, an expert in international relations believes.

22 June 2021; MEMO: Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz pledged on Monday that the besieged Gaza Strip, the tiny enclave that is home to more than 2 million Palestinians, will not be "economically rehabilitated" without the return of the Israelis held captive "and without security stability", AP has reported.

22 June 2021; MEMO: Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) is calling on members of Congress to interrogate Egypt's intelligence chief about reports that Cairo was involved in the death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.