Middle East & North Africa

TEHRAN, April 28 (Xinhua) -- The presence of U.S. and other foreign military forces in the Middle East is a source of insecurity, Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said on Wednesday, state TV reported.

"The presence of these foreign military forces, led by the United States, has eroded economic opportunities in the region and beyond," Qalibaf said in a virtual seminar organized by Iran's Supreme National Defense University.

28 Apr 2021; MEMO: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has ordered an investigation into how an audio recording of Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, in which he can be heard saying the army was too influential in diplomacy, was leaked to the media, a government official said yesterday.

28 Apr 2021; MEMO: After an online meeting to discuss the probability that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is going to cancel this year's elections, candidates on fifteen electoral lists have announced their rejection of such a move. Holding the elections, they insist, is a "national necessity".

28 Apr 2021; MEMO: The Israeli authorities have drawn a new map for its maritime border with Lebanon based on the latter's expansion of the area disputed between the two countries, RT reported on Tuesday.

28 Apr 2021; MEMO: A roadside bomb in Iraq's southern Al-Diwaniya province yesterday targeted a convoy carrying logistical equipment for the US-led anti-Daesh coalition forces in the country, Anadolu reported.

The agency quoted an unnarmed police captain as saying that the explosion caused "minor material damages" to one of the vehicles, without causing any human casualties.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An American warship fired warning shots when vessels of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard came too close to a patrol in the Persian Gulf, the U.S. Navy said Wednesday.

The Navy released black-and-white footage of the encounter Monday night in international waters of the northern reaches of the Persian Gulf. In it, lights can be seen in the distance and what appears to be a single gunshot can be heard, with a tracer round racing across the top of the water.

Iran did not immediately acknowledge the incident.

ANKARA, Apr 27 (NNN-ANADOLU) – Turkey announced yesterday that, it will impose a full lockdown, in a bid to curb the rise in COVID-19 cases.

The lockdown will last from Apr 29 to May 17, with an aim to lower the daily cases below 5,000, Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said.

Intercity travels will be restricted to permission only, intercity public transport will operate at 50 percent capacity, while schools in all levels will suspend face-to-face education, he said.

(Reuters) --- The parties negotiating a revival of the Iran nuclear deal agreed on Tuesday to speed up efforts to bring the United States and Iran back into compliance, diplomats said.

Iran, Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia began a third round of meetings in Vienna on Tuesday to agree steps that would be needed if the 2015 agreement, which was abandoned by former U.S. President Donald Trump in 2018, is to be revived.

27 Apr 2021; MEMO: Palestinians in Jerusalem are happy at the success of their campaign to have the barriers installed by Israel at one of the main entrances of the Old City providing access to Al-Aqsa Mosque removed. The Israeli police used the steel barriers at the Damascus Gate to create an obstacle for Palestinian worshippers seeking entry to the Noble Sanctuary.

27 Apr 2021; MEMO: British Petroleum (BP) yesterday announced that it had started gas production from Raven field, the third stage of its major West Nile Delta (WND) development off the Mediterranean coast in Egypt, a press release posted on the company's website said.