Middle East & North Africa

08 August 2019; DW: A young Israeli soldier reported missing overnight has been found dead in the West Bank. Security forces said the body had several stab wounds.

An Israeli soldier was found dead near a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank on Thursday. His body had multiple stab wounds, the army said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the killing as a terrorist attack.

The soldier was identified as 19-year-old Dvir Sorek from the West Bank settlement of Ofra.

DAMASCUS, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Syrian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that the Syrian government rejects the U.S.-Turkish agreement to establish a safe zone in northern Syria, state news agency SANA reported.

A ministry statement branded the United States and Turkey as forces of occupation, saying the agreement, which was reached on Wednesday, constitutes a flagrant violation of the international law and the UN Charter.

DAMASCUS, Syria, Aug 7 (NNN-SANA) – Omar Ossi, a Syrian Kurdish lawmaker, urged the Kurdish militia, to embark on a dialogue with the Syrian government, to avert a Turkish military operation in eastern Syria.

Ossi said that, the recent Turkish threats of starting a military operation in Kurdish-controlled areas, in north-eastern Syria are “dangerous and serious.”

“The situation is so dangerous and would be more dangerous, in case of a Turkish incursion into north-eastern Syria,” he said.

7 Aug 2019; MEMO: Head of Iranian Shura Council Ali Larijani yesterday warned that US military bases in the region could be targets for the Iranian army in response to any aggression against Tehran, the Anadolu Agency reported.

During a celebration to honour journalists, he said: “We should analyse the possible American measures, which could only be air strikes.”

He also said: “There are missions that might be carried out by the Israeli occupation in this issue.”

7 Aug 2019; MEMO: Visa-free travel between Russia and Turkey goes into effect starting today, said Turkish Foreign Ministry in a statement on Wednesday, Anadolu reports.

The measure is valid on a reciprocal basis for official and service passport holders as well as for international transport drivers, the statement said.

It also includes Turkish special passport holders.

7 Aug 2019; MEMO: Temple Mount Groups, a body of extremist Jewish organisations, have called for massive raids of Al-Aqsa Mosque during the upcoming Muslim festival of Eid Al-Adha, Arab48 reported yesterday.

Asthe calls were being made, Israeli occupation police started to tighten restrictions on the entry of Palestinians to the holy site.

The raids, reports said, are to mark the anniversary of the destruction of an alleged Jewish Temple.

TEHRAN, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has urged for implementation of the 2015 landmark nuclear deal which, he said, stipulated Iranian rights of oil exports and free banking ties with the world, official IRNA news agency reported on Wednesday.

"Restoration of Iran's banking ties with the world and regular flow of its oil trade with the global countries are the basic demands of Iran under the nuclear agreement," Rouhani said in a telephone conversation with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday night.

ANKARA, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Turkey and Iraq have agreed to establish a water resources center in the Iraqi capital of Bagdad to study and address water issues in the region, a move aiming to overcome the longstanding dispute between the two neighboring countries.

Veysel Eroglu, Turkish special representative to Iraq, announced on July 25 that both countries have drafted an action plan to address water issues amid scorching heat waves in the world affected by climate change.

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Walid al-Aqqad’s Gaza home would be the envy of many an antiquities collector.

Pieces of Corinthian columns greet visitors in the backyard. Inside, hundreds of ancient pots and other artifacts hang on the walls or are arranged helter-skelter on shelves.

They are remnants of five millennia of Gaza’s history, from the Bronze Age to the Islamic caliphates and on down to the years of Ottoman and British rule in the 20th century.

6 Aug 2019; MEMO: African migrants have sent a distress call after Tunisian authorities left them behind on Libyan borders suffering harsh weather conditions.

The Tunisian authorities expelled these Ivorian migrants and sent to the Libyan-Tunisian border

The Tunisian authorities deported 36 Ivorian migrants after being arrested in Sfax. They were taken to the Tunisian-Libyan border and then left behind in the middle of the desert because they entered the country using illegal ways.