Middle East & North Africa

07 May 2023; MEMO: Washington once proposed that Turkiye send to Ukraine the S-400 missile defense system it bought from Russia but which the US objected to, but Ankara refused this proposal, said the Turkish foreign minister.

As it claimed the S-400 system had to exclude Türkiye from the F-35 fighter jet program, the US proposed to Turkiye that it give control of the system to the US or another country, including Ukraine, as it tries to fight off Russian forces, said Mevlut Cavusoglu.

07 May 2023; MEMO: Israeli army forces on Sunday demolished a Palestinian school in the occupied West Bank for lack of a building permit, according to a local official, reports Anadolu Agency.

Hassan Brijieh, the head of the so-called Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission in Bethlehem, said Israeli forces and bulldozers moved into the town of Jibb Al-Deeb, east of Bethlehem city, and demolished the donor-funded school.

07 May 2023; MEMO: Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Sunday boycotted a weekly Cabinet meeting in protest of government policies.

Ben-Gvir, along with two ministers of his hardline Jewish Strength Party, said he will not attend Cabinet meetings to protest a decision by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to return the bodies of three Palestinians accused of carrying out attacks against Israeli forces, according to Yedioth Ahronoth daily.

ANKARA, May 7 (NNN-XINHUA) – At least 12 people were killed, and 31 others were injured, in the southern Hatay province of Türkiye yesterday, at a multiple-vehicle collision, Turkish Health Minister, Fahrettin Koca, said.

“A fire broke out in a truck and a bus; 12 of our citizens lost their lives and 31 of our citizens were injured, three of them seriously, at a multiple-vehicle collision, in the Topbogazli region of the Antakya district,” the Turkish minister tweeted.

CAIRO, May 7 (NNN-MENA) – At least 38 passengers, including two Egyptians and 36 Sudanese, were wounded yesterday, as a bus they were travelling in, overturned on a desert road, in Egypt’s Beni Suef governorate, south of the capital, Cairo.

The bus, carrying Sudanese citizens fleeing the war-torn country, overturned on its way to Cairo, according to a statement by Beni Suef governorate.

Beni Suef Governor, Mohamad Hany Ghoneim, visited the hospital and called for all necessary healthcare to treat the wounded, said the statement.

JERUSALEM, May 7 (Reuters) - Israeli authorities demolished a Palestinian school in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, drawing harsh condemnation from the European Union.

COGAT, a branch of the Israeli military, said in a statement that the building, located about 2 km from Bethlehem, had been constructed illegally and "was found to be dangerous to the safety of anyone studying or otherwise visiting there," and thus an Israeli court "had ordered it demolished."

ANKARA, May 7 (Reuters) - With his two-decade rule in the balance, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has pulled out all the stops on the campaign trail as he battles to survive his toughest political test yet and shield his legacy from an emboldened opposition.

Erdogan, the son of a sea captain, has faced stiff political headwinds ahead of a May 14 election: he was already facing blame over an economic crisis when a devastating earthquake in February left saw his government accused of a slow response and lax enforcement of building rules that may have saved lives.

PORT SUDAN, May 7 (Xinhua) -- Representatives of the Sudanese Army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been in the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah for talks since Saturday as fighting continues in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum.

"We welcome the presence of representatives of the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF in the city of Jeddah, to engage in dialogue that we hope will lead to the end of the conflict and the return of security and stability to the Republic of Sudan," Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said Saturday on Twitter.

TEHRAN, May 7 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said on Sunday his administration has managed to export products worth more than 50 billion U.S. dollars since he took office in August 2021.

Raisi made the remarks in a speech at the opening ceremony of the 5th Export Potential Exhibition of the Islamic Republic of Iran (Iran Expo 2023), Iran's official news agency IRNA reported.

CAIRO (AP) — The Arab League agreed Sunday to reinstate Syria, ending a 12-year suspension and taking another step toward bringing Syrian President Bashar Assad, a long-time regional pariah, back into the fold.

Some influential league members remain opposed to reinstating Syria, chief among them Qatar, which did not send its foreign minister to Sunday’s gathering. Thirteen out of the league’s 22 member states sent their foreign ministers to the meeting in Cairo.