Middle East & North Africa

GAZA/TEL AVIV, June 21 (Reuters) - Israel allowed a limited resumption of commercial exports from the Gaza Strip on Monday in what it called a "conditional" measure one month after a truce halted 11 days of fighting with the Palestinian enclave's Hamas rulers.

Gaza border officials said the easing of Israeli restrictions would last two to three days and would apply to agricultural goods and some textiles.

TEL AVIV, June 21 (Reuters) - Israel's top diplomat will travel to the United Arab Emirates next week in the first official visit by an Israeli minister to the Gulf state since the two countries established diplomatic relations last year.

Yair Lapid, who was sworn in last week under a new government, will be hosted by UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan from June 29-30, the Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement.

"Minister Lapid will inaugurate the Israeli Embassy in Abu Dhabi and the Consulate General of Israel in Dubai."

DUBAI, June 21 (Reuters) - The election of a hardline Iranian president has so far been met with silence from Saudi Arabia, but commentators in state-controlled Saudi newspapers forecast little change in Iran's foreign policy as security hawks tighten their grip on power.

Most Gulf states, including the United Arab Emirates which is also at odds with Iran, offered congratulations after judge Ebrahim Raisi, an ally of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who wields ultimate power, emerged the winner in Friday's presidential election.

TRIPOLI, June 21 (Xinhua) -- Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah on Sunday announced reopening the coastal road that links western and eastern Libya after two years of closure.

Since April 2019, when a war between the eastern-based army and the former UN-backed government of national accord erupted in and around the capital Tripoli, the road has been closed.

JERUSALEM, June 20 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett warned Gaza's Hamas rulers on Sunday that Israel will not tolerate "any more violence" from the besieged Palestinian enclave.

Speaking at a memorial ceremony to commemorate the fallen soldiers during Israel's 2014 military campaign in Gaza, Bennett said that Israel "has lost its patience."

He said that Hamas will "have to get used to a different Israeli approach, one of initiative, decisiveness, and suspicion."

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — Ethiopia was voting Monday in the greatest electoral test yet for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed as war and logistical issues meant ballots wouldn’t be cast in more than 100 constituencies of the 547 across the country.

The election, delayed from last year, is the centerpiece of a reform drive by Abiy, whose rise to power in 2018 seemed to signal a break with decades of authoritarian rule and led to his Nobel Peace Prize the following year. He has described the poll as “the nation’s first attempt at free and fair elections.”

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s sole nuclear power plant has undergone an unexplained temporary emergency shutdown, the country’s state TV reported.

An official from the state electric company Tavanir, Gholamali Rakhshanimehr, said on a talk show that aired on Sunday that the Bushehr plant shutdown began on Saturday and would last “for three to four days.” Without elaborating, he said that power outages could result.

20 June 2021; MEMO: Saudi Arabian air defences late on Saturday destroyed six armed drones launched by Yemen's Houthi movement towards the kingdom, bringing the total it intercepted during the day to 17, state TV cited the Saudi-led coalition as saying, reports Reuters.

The Houthi military spokesman had said earlier in the day on Twitter that one drone was launched at a military base in Khamis Mushait.

20 June 2021; MEMO: The United Arab Emirates will suspend travellers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Namibia from entering the country on national and foreign flights, effective 23:59 pm on Monday, June 21, state news agency WAM reported on Saturday, citing a statement by the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), reports Reuters.

19 June 2021; MEMO: Israeli Foreign Minister and Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Friday discussed with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry efforts to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Israeli and Egyptian media reported.

This came as Lapid made a telephone call to Shoukry in an attempt to thaw the years-long political stalemate between Israel and Palestine.

Lapid said that Shoukry emphasised the importance of returning to peace negotiations.