Middle East & North Africa

American President Joe Biden has asked Egypt to limit Hamas' role in the Gaza Strip and to replace it with the Palestinian Authority, diplomatic sources revealed yesterday.

Samaa TV reported that the diplomatic sources told the London-based Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the Egyptian media received official directives to stop hailing the Palestinian resistance and to concentrate on Cairo's efforts to rebuild Gaza, as well as international rebuilding initiatives.

27 May 2021; MEMO: The Turkish Second Criminal Court will on 17 June start the trial of a Jordanian citizen accused of spying for the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Anadolu Agency reported.

27 May 2021; MEMO: Kenya and Egypt have signed a technical agreement on defence cooperation as tensions run high in the Renaissance Dam (GERD) negotiations which have been ongoing for years with no resolution.

Egypt has worked hard to mobilise African support for its position on the dam and has signed similar agreements with Burundi and Uganda.

27 May 2021; MEMO: The United State will never be part of any solution aimed at bringing an end to the Israel-Palestine crisis, senior Hamas official Dr Mousa Abu Marzouq said yesterday.

"The U.S. is part of the crisis," Abu Marzouq wrote on Twitter. "They provide Isr. [Israel] with killing tools. They will not be part of the solution. Their policies & bias have hurt us."

27 May 2021; MEMO: The High Follow up Committee for Arabs in Israel called on Wednesday for an end to the government's detention campaign which, it is claimed, is intended to silence them. The committee also demanded the cancellation of indictments against all activists who took part in legitimate political actions, Rai Al-Youm has reported.

(Reuters) --- Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei supported a hardline watchdog body's disqualification of leading moderate and conservative candidates seeking to run in the June presidential election, state TV reported on Thursday.

The Guardian Council, which vets candidates, has approved seven out of 592 hopefuls including hardline judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi, while excluding his high-profile rivals from the race.

(Reuters) --- Israel will release next week its findings on heart inflammation cases in COVID-19 vaccine recipients and then decide whether to approve inoculations of youngsters aged 12-15, a senior health official said on Thursday.

Israel's Health Ministry said in April it was examining a small number of such cases among people who received Pfizer/BioNtech's PFE.N COVID-19 vaccine. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) made a similar statement earlier this month.

27 May 2021; MEMO: A delegation from the Syrian regime arrived in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on Tuesday, in the first public official visit to the kingdom since the outbreak of the Syrian revolution in early 2011, the SANA news agency reported.

BAGHDAD, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi on Wednesday denounced some armed militia for approaching the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad, saying their move violates the country's constitution, according to a statement issued by the Iraqi Joint Operation Command (JOC).

The appearance of a group of paramilitary soldiers near the Green Zone sparked a state of emergency as security forces deployed surrounding the zone and blocked all its entrances, a police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

CAIRO, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel held a video meeting on Wednesday and discussed Middle East issues including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Libyan crisis.

The Egyptian president emphasized the need to work immediately on resuming direct talks between Palestinians and Israelis to resolve their decades-long conflict, said the Egyptian presidency in a statement.