Middle East & North Africa

TEHRAN, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Monday that the United States is responsible for tension in the Gulf region.

Iran is responsible to provide security of the Gulf, said Zarif at a press conference here on Monday, rejecting foreign intervention in the region's security.

Iran will not allow any violation of regulations in the Gulf, he said.

He decried what he called the British cooperation with the United States in marine "piracy."

BAGHDAD, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Foreign ministers of Iraq, Egypt and Jordan held a meeting on Sunday in Baghdad aimed at boosting Arab relations and seeking to ease tension in the Middle East region.

The meeting discussed "the tension between neighboring Iran and the United States, and Iraq's position toward this crisis is clear as it is based on calm and reduce the escalation by adopting efforts to resolve this crisis by peaceful means," Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed al-Hakim told a joint press conference with his Egyptian and Jordanian counterparts.

CAIRO (AP) — The United Nations investigators assembled in the departure hall of Sanaa’s airport were preparing to leave with precious evidence: laptops and external drives collected from the staff of the World Health Organization.

These computers, they believed, contained proof of corruption and fraud within the U.N. agency’s office in Yemen.

But before they could board their flight out, armed militiamen from the Houthi rebels ruling northern Yemen marched into the hall and confiscated the computers, according to six former and current aid officials.

04 August 2019; DW: More than 30 Syrian government fighters have died in a blast at a military airport in central Syria, according to a monitoring group. The airfield was the alleged origin of a chemical attack on a rebel-held town in 2017.

A massive explosion at Shayrat air base in Syria's central Homs province on Saturday killed at least 31 regime soldiers and allied paramilitaries, a monitoring group reported.

04 August 2019; DW: Sudan's pro-democracy movement has inked a landmark power-sharing deal with the country's ruling military council. The move paves the way to civilian rule following April's overthrow of President Omar al-Bashir.

BEIRUT, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Bilal al-Arqoub, a wanted Islamist militant, was killed on Sunday during a gunfight with a Sunni militant group in a Palestinian refugee camp in the southern Lebanese district of Sidon, the National News Agency (NNA) reported.

Two of Arqoub's sons were arrested and handed over to the Army Intelligence while the third one escaped, NNA said.

Arqoub was accused of being responsible for the death of the brother of a member of the Sunni militant group Osbat al-Ansar.

3 Aug 2019; AA: Air-to-surface missiles developed for the F-35 fighter jet could be used with Turkey’s locally-developed national combat aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the country's industry and technology minister said on Saturday. 

Two countries developed the SOM-J cruise missile, said Mustafa Varank during a press briefing at the 22nd National Sky Observation Festival in Antalya.

Abadan, Aug 4, IRNA – Director General of Khorramshahr port and Maritime Organization Nourollah Assadi said on Sunday that non-oil exports from Khorramshahr port grew up by 59% since the beginning of the current Iranian year (beginning from March 21) compared to the preceding period.

Since the beginning of this year, some 738,483 tons of goods have been loaded in Khorramshahr port, which is 59 percent higher than the same period last year, Asadi said.

3 Aug 2019; MEMO: Due to difficulties collecting donations that led to its bankruptcy, The Israel Project (TIP) on Wednesday closed its office in Israel, Haaretz reported yesterday .

The US NGO has faced a severe budget crisis and, according to the Israeli daily, is on its way to being completely shut down.

3 Aug 2019; MEMO: European diplomats revealed to Israeli newspaper Haaretz that Israeli officials have been holding secret meetings with Iraqi government officials.

In a long report published by the newspaper yesterday, Zvi Bar’el – Haaretz’s Middle Eastern affairs analyst – said that some of the meetings were even held in Israel.