Middle East & North Africa

JERUSALEM, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid will travel to Europe next week to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to discuss mainly the resumption of nuclear talks in Vienna, Lapid's office said Wednesday.

Lapid will meet Johnson in London and Macron in Paris, and the talks will focus on "the resumption of nuclear talks in Vienna as well as the deepening of bilateral relations between Israel, Britain, and France," according to a statement by Lapid's office.

DOHUK, Iraq (AP) — The smuggler had said the car would come in 10 minutes, but Zaid Ramadan had been waiting in the dense forest straddling the Poland-Belarus border for three hours, desperate for signs of headlights in the mist — and a new life in Europe.

His pregnant wife Delin shivered under a blanket. She had been against leaving their life in Dohuk, a mountainous province in the northern Kurdish-run region of Iraq. The journey was perilous, expensive and the change too drastic, she told him.

24 Nov 2021; MEMO: The Chairman of Libya's High National Elections Commission, Imad Al-Sayeh, announced on Tuesday that a total of 98 candidates, including two women, have applied to stand in the country's first direct presidential election next month. The closing date for applications was Monday.

US forces will remain in Iraq after the scheduled end of combat operations on 31 December, Newsweek has reported. A spokesperson for the US Department of Defence, Navy Commander Jessica McNulty, said that Washington's position on this remains unchanged.

According to Newsweek, McNulty made her remarks in response to a letter to the magazine last week from an alliance of Iraqi paramilitary factions known as the "Iraqi Resistance Coordination Commission". They expressed their disappointment at the lack of a US military drawdown.

24 Nov 2021; MEMO: United Nations special envoy for Libya, Jan Kubis, has quit his post, a UN spokesman said yesterday.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres accepted Kubis's resignation "with regret," spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

"The secretary-general is working on an appropriate replacement. We are fully aware of the electoral calendar and are working as quickly as possible to ensure continuity of leadership," Dujarric added.

24 Nov 2021; MEMO: Egypt will receive a new loan of $360 million from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the Egyptian international cooperation minister announced yesterday.

Rania Al-Mashat said in a statement that the funding was aimed at "supporting the state's efforts as it recovers from the coronavirus repercussions, as well as strengthening the government's economic and structural reform programme."

24 Nov 2021; MEMO: The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates has called on the UN to send an international investigation team to Israeli settlements in the occupied territories to inspect their laboratories, Wafa reported on Tuesday.

24 Nov 2021; MEMO: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday reiterated Washington's support for Morocco's "credible and serious autonomy plan" as a "durable and realistic political solution" to solve the Western Sahara conflict.

24 Nov 2021; MEMO: Tel Aviv should refrain from attacking Iran's nuclear facilities unless it has the capacity to completely destroy them, the former head of Israel's Military Intelligence, Tamir Pardo, said yesterday.

Speaking at a panel at Reichman University's Institute for Policy and Strategy conference in Herzliya, Pardo warned that a military strike on Iran's nuclear programme would be far more complicated than the Israeli Air Force's successful attacks on Iraq and Syria reactors.

24 Nov 2021; MEMO: Sheikh Ekrema Sabri, Imam of Al-Aqsa Mosque and head of High Islamic Commission in Jerusalem, yesterday called for defending the holy site against increasing Israeli raids, Quds Press reported.

In a statement, Sheikh Sabri said: "The Israeli occupation has turned the city of Jerusalem into a military base since Sunday and has escalated its provocative measures against worshippers."