Middle East & North Africa

ANKARA, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Turkey cannot be blamed for Ukraine's deployment of Turkish-made drones, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was cited as saying on Sunday.

On Wednesday, the Kremlin said the drones risked having a destabilising impact in eastern Ukraine, after Kyiv deployed a Bayraktar TB2 drone to hit a position controlled by Russian-backed separatists there. 

"If a state is buying these from us, that is no longer a Turkish product," Cavusoglu told reporters after meeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the G20 summit in Rome late on Saturday.

DUBAI, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Iran's foreign minister said on Sunday that if the United States was serious about rejoining Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, President Joe Biden could just issue an "executive order", the state-owned Iran newspaper reported.

The accord, under which Iran curtailed nuclear work seen as a risk of developing nuclear weapons in exchange for a lifting of global sanctions, unravelled in 2018 after then-President Donald Trump withdrew the United States, prompting Tehran to breach limits on uranium enrichment set by the pact.

CAIRO (AP) — The U.N. secretary general urged Sudan’s generals on Sunday to reverse their takeover of the country, a day after tens of thousands of people took to the streets in the largest pro-democracy protest since last week’s coup.

Antonio Guterres said the generals should “take heed” of Saturday’s protests. “Time to go back to the legitimate constitutional arrangements,” he said in a tweet.

BEIRUT (AP) — Pressure is mounting on Lebanese leaders to remove a Cabinet minister whose comments on the war in Yemen sparked a diplomatic row with Saudi Arabia. The head of the country’s Maronite Catholic Church called for “decisive action” in his Sunday sermon, suggesting he wanted the minister to resign.

Cardinal Bechara Rai said the crisis with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations threatens to undermine the interests of thousands of Lebanese living there, as well as businesses in Lebanon that depend on the region.

29 Oct 2021; MEMO: The statuary heads of two Greek gods have been unearthed in an ancient city in western Turkey, according to an archaeologist working at the site.

The heads of both Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and Dionysus, the god of wine, were discovered, excavation coordinator Gokhan Coskun told Anadolu Agency.

30 Oct 2021; AA: Turkey on Saturday condemned the US extradition of Hampig Sassounian, an Armenian origin who assassinated a Turkish diplomat in Los Angeles in 1982.

Turkey learned that Sassounian was “deported to a third country,” said a statement by the Turkish Foreign Ministry.

30 Oct 2021; AA: Palestinians are ready to engage with the Chinese government and people to “tell them our story,” speakers and experts told an Istanbul conference on Saturday.

However, a formal engagement with Beijing also requires platforms and vibrant activism, they added.

“We are ready and willing to engage with Chinese lawmakers to explain our story,” said Sheikh Hamid Al-Ahmar, addressing the first international conference on China and the Palestinian cause.

30 Oct 2021; MEMO: Saudi Arabia and Bahrain have instructed Lebanese ambassadors to leave their capitals within 48 hours amid criticism about Saudi Arabia regarding the Yemeni war, Anadolu Agency reported on Saturday.

Bahrain's Foreign Ministry confirmed that Lebanese Ambassador Milad Hanna Nemmour was asked to leave because of unacceptable and negative attitudes and statements made.

30 Oct 2021; MEMO: Turkey did not invite the ten Western ambassadors who called on the release of a detainee to the Republic Day ceremony, revealing Ankara's ongoing displeasure with the envoys.

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanese politicians scrambled to resolve a diplomatic spat with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations on Saturday, after comments by a Cabinet minister about the war in Yemen stoked their ire.

Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates followed the Saudis with measures against Lebanon, increasing pressure on a crisis-hit country badly in need of foreign assistance amid a crippling economic and financial crisis.