Middle East & North Africa

(Reuters) --- A Turkish air strike killed at least three people and injured others on Saturday at a camp for displaced people in northern Iraq, said Rashad Kelani, a Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party official.

The strike on the camp housing thousands of Kurdish refugees from Turkey took place three days after Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan warned Iraq that Turkey would "clean up" a refugee camp which it says provides a haven for Kurdish militants.

05 June 2021; MEMO: Iran described on Friday the United Nations (UN) decision to suspend Tehran's voting rights in the UN General Assembly due to its failure to pay dues as "shameful and unacceptable".

Recently, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for the application of Article 19 of the UN Charter, which provides for the suspension of the voting rights of any country that fails to pay its dues for the past two years.

04 June 2021; MEMO: Lebanon's central bank today said depositors with accounts active as of October 2019 would be able to withdraw up to $400 a month plus the equivalent amount in local currency, Reuters reported.

Lebanese banks had locked depositors out of their dollar accounts and blocked transfers abroad since the country was gripped by a financial crisis in late 2019.

05 June 2021; MEMO: The Egyptian Army announced on Friday the conclusion of the Sky Guardians 1 air manoeuvre, held in cooperation with Pakistan for the first time in the country.

On 26 May, Egypt announced launching a joint military exercise with Pakistan to: "Work on securing airspace and defending vital targets."

05 June 2021; MEMO: Iraq's Parliamentary Committee for Agriculture, Water and Marshlands reported on Friday that the country loses 100,000 dunams of farmland out of a total of 32 million dunams every year, due to desertification.

A member of the committee, MP Ali Al-Budairi, told the Iraqi News Agency: "Iraq is losing 100,000 dunams of agricultural land every year due to desertification, and there are no real solutions to this problem so far."

04 June 2021; MEMO: The support of the United Arab List party headed by Mansour Abbas in the Israeli coalition seeking to topple the government of Benjamin Netanyahu is not surprising, Anadolu Agency reports.

05 June 2021; MEMO: The US administration has pledged to replenish Israel's Iron Dome defence system after it was depleted during the 11-day Israeli offensive on Gaza in May, Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported on Friday.

Quds Press reported Kan stating that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made this pledge to Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz in the presence of US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.

05 June 2021; MEMO: Palestinian resistance opened fire at tens of Israeli spy and attack drones after they invaded Gaza's skies, downing two of them, Quds Press reported on Friday.

Sources told Quds Press that the Israeli drones entered the skies of Gaza and hovered over the neighbourhoods of Al-Shejaia, Al-Zaytoun and Al-Sabra.

03 June 2021; MEMO: Naftali Bennett, the 49-year-old future prime minister of Israel known for adopting a religious and nationalist stance, is known for his anti-Palestine views, Anadolu Agency reports.

04 June 2021; MEMO: The issuance of an arrest warrant against Tunisian blogger Salim Al-Jabali by the military prosecution after he criticised President Kais Saied has triggered a wave of condemnation among political parties and civil society activists, who categorically reject the referral of civilians to military courts.