Middle East & North Africa

TEHRAN, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian has denounced Israeli foreign minister's recent visit to Bahrain, Tasnim news agency reported on Saturday.

The Bahraini government's welcoming of Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid is "a blatant betrayal of the oppressed and resilient Palestinian people's cause," Amir Abdollahian said on Friday.

The presence of Israel in the region would result in "insecurity for Bahrain and the entire region," he was quoted as saying.

ANKARA, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- Turkey on Friday condemned a recent defense deal reached between Greece and France, and claimed that the deal threatens the NATO alliance.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — Members of Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, the Oromo, protested Saturday against the government and called for the release of jailed opposition figures as they gathered in the capital for their annual Thanksgiving festival of Irreecha.

Scores of people in the center of Addis Ababa chanted slogans such as “Down, down Abiy!” a reference to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, after performing ritual ceremonies to mark the end of the rainy season and the beginning of the harvest in Oromia state.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Dubai’s Expo 2020 on Saturday acknowledged that five workers had been killed on site during construction of the massive world’s fair, revealing for the first time overall statistics for worker fatalities.

Expo previously said that its 200,000 laborers who built the site worked some 240 million hours in its construction. It had not offered any overall statistics previously on worker fatalities, injuries or coronavirus infections despite repeated requests from The Associated Press and other journalists.

02 Oct 2021; MEMO: Speaker of Tunisian Parliament Rached Ghannouchi has declared the resumption of parliamentary sessions, urging lawmakers to resume work, news agencies reported on Friday.

Ghannouchi defied President Kais Saied's suspension of Parliament and called in a statement for the resumption of Parliament's work on 1 October.

02 Oct 2021; MEMO: Egypt's Foreign Ministry yesterday announced that it welcomed the assignment of Najla Bouden Romdhane to form a new government in Tunisia.

"The Egyptian ambassador to Tunisia, Ahmed Hafez, highly values the step – taken by the Tunisian President Kais Saied – of appointing Bouden as a new Prime Minister-designate," the ministry said on Facebook.

02 Oct 2021; MEMO: Iran on Friday announced launching military exercises on its borders with Azerbaijan and Armenia, in the northwestern part of the country, Anadolu reports.

In a statement, the commander of Iranian ground forces, Kioumars Heydari, said the maneuvers were launched with the participation of armored and artillery units, drones and electronic warfare units, and army helicopters.

02 Oct 2021; MEMO: The Algerian National Navy detected an Israeli Dolphin submarine last week on the edge of Algerian international waters, chased it and forced it to rise to the surface before leaving the area, MENADEFENSE reported on Friday.

01 Oct 2021; MEMO: Palestine Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas has today reinstated the state of emergency in the occupied West Bank for 30 days following an increase in the number of coronavirus infections, Wafa reported.

Health Minister Mai Al-Kaila said that 1,340 new cases have been confirmed in the occupied Palestinian territories today, along with 22 deaths. She also reported that 1,989 people have recovered from the virus.

01 Oct 2021; MEMO: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced his decision to work with Russia in the field of space exploration and the production of warships, submarines and jet engines.