Middle East & North Africa

JERUSALEM, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Israel will never allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons.

"We both agree that Iran must never possess nuclear weapons. My policy as prime minister of Israel is clear: I will never allow Iran to obtain the nuclear capability," Netanyahu said in joint statements with visiting U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

Iran has repeatedly denied its attempts to obtain nuclear weapons and says its nuclear facilities are meant for civil purposes only.

12 Apr 2021; MEMO: Turkey has frozen a lucrative deal to buy €70 million ($83 million) of helicopters from Italy after the Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a "dictator" last Thursday, according to reports by Italian newspapers yesterday.

12 Apr 2021; MEMO: Tunisian Minister of Finance and Investment Ali Al-Kali announced that public debt has reached its highest level, amounting to 16 billion Tunisian dinars ($5.7 billion).

In a statement to Watania 1, Al-Kali said: "Tunisia's budget deficit is mainly related to paying back old loans, which prompted the government to borrow more funds to bridge the debts."

BEIRUT (AP) — A 10-day curfew in areas controlled by U.S.-backed fighters in northeast Syria went into effect Tuesday in an attempt to try limit the spread of coronavirus in the region that borders Turkey and Iraq.

Northeast Syria witnessed a sharp increase of coronavirus cases in recent weeks overwhelming hospitals and clinics leading to the lockdown.

Residents in northeast Syria contacted by telephone said most people were abiding by the lockdown with few people on the streets amid patrols and checkpoints enforcing the curfew.

12 Apr 2021; MEMO: Saudi oil company Aramco signed a $12.4 billion deal for the sale of a 49 per cent stake in a newly formed oil pipeline venture to a consortium led by Washington-based EIG Global Energy Partners, the UK-based energy agency Argus Media reports.

The agreement is Aramco's largest since its 2019 listing on the Tadawul (Saudi Stock Exchange) when it raised more than $29 billion.

12 Apr 2021; MEMO: Ever Given, the ship that blocked the vital Suez Canal waterway for almost a week, will remain in the hands of Egyptian authorities until compensation is paid to the country's officials, the Chairman of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA), Osama Rabie, announced yesterday.

"We hope for a speedy agreement," Rabie told local media, adding that the "minute they agree to compensation, the vessel will be allowed to move."

13 Apr 2021; MEMO:Turkey has successfully tested its first hybrid engine that will be used in its planned lunar mission, the country's Minister of Technology and Industry said on Sunday. According to Anadolu, the country is planning to send the unmanned spacecraft to land on the moon in 2023 as part of the country's National Space Programme.

12 Apr 2021; MEMO: The European Union on Monday imposed sanctions on eight high-ranking Iranian officials for a November 2019 crackdown on protests, including the chief commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Anadolu Agency reported.

The European foreign ministers decided to add eight people and three entities to the bloc's blacklist for human rights violations in Iran.

13 Apr 2021; MEMO: Iraq's National Security Adviser, Qassem Al-Araji, arrived in Iran to discuss the US' withdrawal from his country, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed news site reported.

A senior Iraqi official told the site that Al- Araji met in Tehran with the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, Ali Shamkhani, and discussed the results of the third round of talks between Baghdad and Washington which were concluded last week.

13 Apr 2021; MEMO: More than 24 Sudanese political parties announced their rejection of normalising relations with the occupation and the abolition of Israel boycott law.

This came after the Sudanese cabinet approved a bill to cancel the 1958 Israel boycott law, which was approved by Arab countries at the time, in an expected step after the rapprochement between Khartoum and Tel Aviv in recent months.