Middle East & North Africa

02 May 2021; MEMO: A top aide of Iran's President Hassan Rouhani has resigned amid growing backlash over a recent controversial audio leak of the country's foreign minister, Anadolu Agency reported.

In a statement, Rouhani's office said on Thursday that Hesamuddin Ashena, who headed the Center for Strategic Studies, an influential policy group at the presidential office, had been replaced with government spokesman Ali Rabaie.

01 May 2021; MEMO: Iran's Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri said Saturday that Saudi Arabia and Israel are believed to be behind the recent leak of an audio recording for Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Anadolu Agency reports.

Jahangiri said in statements cited by local media that the recording was released in a "sensitive time" amid talks taking place in Vienna over reviving the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.

02 May 2021; MEMO: Israel on Saturday prevented some Orthodox Christians from attending the Holy Fire ceremony at Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, Anadolu Agency reported.

Orthodox Christians, including priests, seeking to attend the ceremony flocked to the church — one of the most sacred Christian sites in the world — in East Jerusalem, but were blocked by police in the narrow streets leading to the church.

02 May 2021; MEMO: Iran's chief nuclear negotiator said on Saturday Tehran expects US sanctions on oil, banks and most individuals and institutions to be lifted based on agreements so far in Vienna talks, Iranian media reported, while Washington again played down the prospect of an imminent breakthrough, Reuters reported.

02 May 2021; MEMO: Israeli soldiers shot and injured a Palestinian woman in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Sunday, according to the Israeli army and a Palestinian security source, Anadolu Agency reported.

The official news agency Wafa, citing a security source, said the woman was injured at a junction near the Israeli settlement bloc of Gush Etzion.

In a statement, the Israeli military claimed that the Palestinian woman attempted to stab Israeli soldiers at the junction.

01 May 2021; MEMO: The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has announced that Libyan authorities have rescued 125 children destined for Europe via boat off the Libyan coast, confirming that most were placed in detention centres.

CAIRO, May 2 (NNN-MENA) – Egyptian Minister of Health, Hala Zayed, announced yesterday that, 30 tonnes of medical supplies will be sent to India, to help contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a statement, the minister said, a shipment of 300 oxygen cylinders, 20 ventilators, 100 medical beds, 20 electrocardiography machines, 30 defibrillators and 50 electric syringe pumps will be sent to India.

The supplies will be delivered to India in cooperation with the Egyptian armed forces, the statement added.

Jerusalem, May 2 (PTI) Israel barred its citizens from travelling to India and six other countries, citing high COVID infection rates there.

In a joint press release issued by the Israel Prime Minister's Office and the Health Ministry on Friday, it was said that Israelis will not be allowed to travel to Ukraine, Brazil, Ethiopia, South Africa, India, Mexico and Turkey.

This regulation will come into force on May 3 and will remain in place until May 16.

ISTANBUL, May 2 (Xinhua) -- Turkish police on Sunday detained a suspected senior member of the Islamic State (IS) in Istanbul, local media reported.

The suspect, an Afghan national with a code name "Basim," was believed to be the right-hand man of IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi who was killed in 2019 in Syria, the NTV broadcaster said.

ADEN, Yemen, May 1 (Xinhua) -- Forces loyal to Yemen's government and the Houthi rebels conducted a prisoner exchange in the country's northern province of Marib on Saturday, a government official told Xinhua.

According to the local official who asked to remain anonymous, 18 detainees were released as part of a prisoner exchange between the two warring sides fighting over the control of the strategic oil-rich province of Marib.

The source said that the government forces and the Houthi rebels exchanged prisoners through efforts exerted by local tribal mediators.