Middle East & North Africa

LHEIBAN, Iraq (AP) — As a backhoe dug up the ground to build trenches, Iraqi soldiers scanned the vast farming tracts for militants; not far away, their Kurdish counterparts did the same.

The scene earlier this month in the small northern Iraqi farming village of Lheiban was a rare instance of coordination between the federal government and the semi-autonomous Kurdish region. The two sides were fortifying a joint position aimed at defending the village against attacks by the Islamic State group.

TUNIS, Dec 16 (NNN-Xinhua) — In the presence of Tunisian President Kais Saied and his Algerian counterpart Abdelmadjid Tebboune, 27 bilateral agreements were signed during a ceremony held on Wednesday at the palace of Carthage in Tunis.

TEHRAN, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- The spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) said Thursday only after meticulous technical, security and judicial inspections, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)'s surveillance cameras will be installed at TESA Karaj Complex, a centrifuge component manufacturing workshop in north-central part of the country, according to AEOI's official website.

ISTANBUL, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Turkish security forces detained Thursday 14 suspected members of the Islamic State (IS) in Turkey's financial and cultural hub Istanbul.

The Ihlas news agency said police units carried out simultaneous operations in nine districts and captured 14 suspects, including 13 foreigners whose identities were not immediately clear.

The suspects have been allegedly active in Istanbul, recruiting members for the group in Istanbul, spreading propaganda through social media, and providing financial and logistical support.

Iraq and Iran, on Wednesday, swapped the remains of 61 soldiers killed during the war between the two neighbours in the 1980s, Anadolu News Agency reports.

Iraq "received the remains of four unidentified martyrs found in the Iranian territories," the Iraqi Defence Ministry said in a statement.

The Ministry said the remains of 57 Iranian soldiers were handed over to the Iranian side.

The remains were found during a joint search operation in the provinces of Basra and Maysan in southern Iraq, the Ministry said.

15 Dec 2021; MEMO: Questions persist over which air defence system is more capable of fulfilling a country's national security objectives, with the Russian S-400, US Patriot, and Israeli Iron Dome systems the focus of the ongoing debates.

Although several countries trust these systems, especially those located in conflict zones, some conditions bring their reliability up for discussion, Anadolu News Agency reports.

15 Dec 2021; MEMO: A German engineering company has won a deal for the world's largest green hydrogen project at Saudi Arabia's future city, Neom, Trade Arabia reports.

According to the report, German company, Thyssenkrupp Uhde Chlorine Engineers, has signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia to supply and install a 2GW-plus electrolysis plant for one of the world's largest green hydrogen projects.

16 Dec 2021; MEMO: Turkey rescued 115 asylum seekers, Wednesday, from the Aegean Sea off the coast of the Izmir, Aydin and Mugla provinces, according to the Turkish Coast Guard Command, Anadolu News Agency reports.

The asylum seekers included 77 irregular migrants who were illegally pushed back by Greece into Turkish waters, and 38 others in two separate boats which were detected by mobile radar, said statements.

All of the asylum seekers were taken to provincial migration offices.

15 Dec 2021; MEMO: Tunisia's government has proposed a ten per cent cut in the civil servants' wage bill, Secretary General of the Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT), Noureddine Taboubi, announced yesterday.

"The Tunisian government, which says in public that it would be able to fulfill all its obligations to the people, has told us in closed-door meetings that it cannot pay public salaries," Taboubi said in a statement, stressing the UGTT was "strongly rejecting the government proposal."

15 Dec 2021; MEMO: Lebanon's Parliament Speaker, Nabih Berri, said, Wednesday, his country is under siege, amid a diplomatic crisis with Gulf countries Anadolu News Agency reports.

Speaking during a meeting with the head of Lebanon's Editors-in-Chief Syndicate, Joseph Qossaifi, Berri questioned how Arab countries could open their doors for Israel, while they "close their gates in front of Lebanon, who paid a heavy price to preserve its Arab identity."