Middle East & North Africa

14 Apr 2021; MEMO: Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that sanctions and sabotage attempts will not create opportunities for negotiations with the United States over the nuclear deal, but rather make the matter more complicated.

This came in a meeting between Zarif and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in the capital, Tehran, yesterday, in response to the attack on the Natanz nuclear facility, according to state television.

14 Apr 2021; MEMO: A third Israeli ship was attacked near the United Arab Emirates (UAE) yesterday raising suspicion that tensions between Iran and the Zionist state are being exploited for personal political ambitions.

Israeli defence sources confirmed the attack and pointed the finger at Iran. They claimed that the attack took place in international waters and was likely carried out using an unmanned drone or a missile strike.

14 Apr 2021; MEMO: A former soldier who took part in Israel's brutal 2014 military offensive against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip set himself on fire on Monday evening in front of the Ministry of Defence rehabilitation offices, local media have reported.

14 Apr 2021; MEMO: Japanese lunar exploration firm iSpace will collaborate with the UAE in taking a rover to the moon next year.

According to Reuters, the Rashid lunar rover will be built entirely by the Emirates, who had originally intended to launch it into space by 2024. The launch next year will be the company's first mission of its kind and will involve the use of a Falcon 9 rocket from Elon Musk's SpaceX, to be launched from Florida.

15 Apr 2021; MEMO: Yemen's Houthi group used drones and missiles to attack targets in the southern Saudi city of Jazan, it said today, including one belonging to state oil giant Aramco which caused a fire, Reuters reported.

15 Apr 2021; MEMO: Egypt announced on Thursday that it has taken delivery of a second Bergamini class FREMM frigate from Italy, Anadolu has reported. The vessel has joined the Egyptian navy in Alexandria, and follows the Galala which arrived in Egypt in December.

15 Apr 2021; MEMO: An explosive-laden drone targeted a central command for the US-led International Coalition Erbil International Airport in northern Iraq yesterday causing material damages, the Interior Ministry of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) said, Reuters reports.

IKRG President Nechirvan Barzani condemned the attack in a press release.

15 Apr 2021; MEMO: The Libyan army has accused Egypt of arming renegade Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar. The army announced yesterday that, "Two Egyptian planes landed at Sabha Airport carrying a shipment of weapons and ammunition hidden under a cargo of medicines." The consignment, it said, was intended for Haftar's militia.

15 Apr 2021; MEMO: Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM), the technical managers of the containership the Ever Given that blocked the Suez Canal for nearly a week, disagrees with the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) decision to seize the vessel until its owners pay $900 million (€754 million) in damages.

15 Apr 2021; MEMO: A draft bill has been proposed in the Israeli parliament which, if passed into law, would see citizenship stripped from any Arab-Israeli prisoner who accepts a stipend from the Palestinian Authority. The PA pays such stipends to help prisoners' families.