Middle East & North Africa

TEHRAN, March 2 (Xinhua) -- Talking about diplomacy to settle problems is "hypocritical" as long as the United States has not lifted the sanctions on Iran, Iranian government's spokesman Ali Rabiee said on Tuesday.

The U.S. government's claim that it believes in diplomacy is mere "hypocritical rhetoric and unacceptable" without the practical removal of the sanctions on Iran, Rabiee was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency.

02 Mar 2021; MEMO: Lawyer and human rights defender Ezzat Ghoneim has just completed three years in pretrial detention in Egypt.

Yesterday, the Egyptian Network for Human Rights (ENHR) said that Ezzat had been transferred between police stations and various other places of detention with no legal justification or judicial ruling for his detention.

02 Mar 2021; MEMO: Kuwait's General Reserve Fund, managed by the state-run Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA), has insufficient deposits to pay the salaries of public employees next month, a ministerial source told the media.

This comes as the Kuwaiti government has proposed new amendments to the country's public debt law, including capping borrowing to maximum 60 per cent of gross domestic product, the head of a parliamentary finance committee told Reuters.

02 Mar 2021; MEMO: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman should be punished "without delay", the fiancée of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi said yesterday.

01 Mar 2021; MEMO: The Ministry of Justice in Algeria announced on Saturday that 59 prisoners of conscience have been released following a presidential pardon, the Algerian News Agency has reported. The pardon was issued to commemorate Martyrs' Day and the second anniversary of public protests organised by the popular Hirak Movement.

26 Feb 2021; MEMO: A captured Russian-built missile defence system which was reported last month to have been taken by the US military is now said to have been shared between the US and Turkey, according to Libyan officials.

02 Mar 2021; MEMO: Israeli occupation forces demolished the house of disabled Palestinian Hatim Hussein Abu Rayala in the Issawiya neighbourhood in the northeast of occupied Jerusalem, Quds Press reported yesterday.

Occupation forces raided the Palestinian neighbourhood along with the staff of the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem, surrounded the house and demolished it under the pretext that it was built without the nearly impossible to obtain building licenses.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran said on Monday the United States should lift sanctions first if it wants to hold talks with Tehran to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers that former President Donald Trump abandoned.

President Joe Biden has said Washington is ready for talks about both nations resuming compliance with the pact, under which Tehran secured an easing of sanctions by limiting its nuclear work. But each side wants the other to move first.

The West fears Iran wants to build nuclear weapons, while Tehran says that has never been its goal.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed Iran on Monday for an explosion aboard an Israeli-owned ship in the Gulf of Oman last week, an accusation rejected by Tehran.

The vehicle-carrier MV Helios Ray was hit between Thursday night and Friday morning by a blast above the water line that a U.S official said ripped holes in both sides of its hull. An Israeli official said limpet mines were used.

“This was indeed an operation by Iran. That is clear,” Netanyahu told Kan radio.

DUBAI (Reuters) - State-owned Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) plans to order 70 airliners from Airbus and Boeing, Saudi news outlet Maaal reported on Monday, citing unidentified sources.

Saudia is in talks with local banks to raise 11.5 billion riyals ($3.07 billion) to partly finance an order for Airbus A321 narrow-bodied jets and Boeing 777 and 787 Dreamliner wide-bodies, Maaal said.

The report did not breakdown how many aircraft of each type Saudia was planning to purchase.