Middle East & North Africa

Saudi Arabia reportedly offers Messi £320m football contract, amid suspension from PSG

04 May 2023; MEMO: Argentinian football player, Lionel Messi, is reportedly in talks to joi the Saudi Pro League for an annual contract worth $400 million.

According to the Telegraph, Saudi Arabia is preparing the offer as Messi is set to leave France's Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) club and become a free agent this summer.

DIARY: Waiting to leave Sudan, a hotel became a sanctuary

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — We were a diverse group of more than a dozen people, hunkered down in a small hotel in central Khartoum — a Sudanese family and the Sudanese hotel staff, a few British and French citizens, a Syrian family and a Lebanese man.

In better times, the Lisamin Safari Hotel catered to small tour groups that came to see Sudan’s little-known attractions — the ancient pyramids of Merowe and the coral reefs of the Red Sea.

Now, it was simply a five-story place of refuge.

Forces kill 3 Palestinians behind deaths of British-Israelis

NABLUS, West Bank (AP) — Israeli troops on Thursday killed three Palestinian militants wanted in connection with a shooting attack that killed a British-Israeli woman and two of her daughters, the Israeli military said, the latest bloodshed in a relentless wave of violence.

In a rare daytime incursion launched as residents were starting their day, the military said forces entered the heart of the flashpoint city of Nablus and raided an apartment where the men were located. Troops and the suspects exchanged fire and the three men were killed.

Iran's IRGC tells US Marines to 'speak Farsi' in tense Gulf waters exchange

Tehran; 03 May 2023 (UMMN): Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the US Marine Corps were involved in a tense verbal exchange after a coalition vessel came close to crossing into Iran's territorial waters. During the exchange, the IRCJ officer told the US Marines to speak to them in Farsi, before directing the US vessel to take a different course, reported MEMO.

Syria touts for Gulf tourists amid emerging Arab rapprochement

03 May 2023; MEMO: Overlooked by a portrait of President Bashar Al-Assad and offering sticky sweets, a Syrian tourism booth in Dubai is trying to seize on an emerging rapprochement with Arab States to win back Gulf tourists it lost during more than a decade of war, Reuters reports.

OIC plans to send delegation to Sudan amid clashes

03 May 2023; MEMO: The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) plans to send a high-level delegation to Sudan for talks on the situation in the conflict-torn country, Anadolu News Agency reports.

At least 550 people have been killed and more than 4,900 injured in fighting between the Sudanese Army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since 15 April, according to Sudan's Health Ministry.

Syrian president begins talks with Iranian president

DAMASCUS, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad began talks with visiting Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who arrived in Syria Wednesday on the first visit by an Iranian president since the beginning of the Syrian war in 2011, according to the state news agency SANA.

An official reception ceremony was held upon Raisi's arrival at the Al-Sha'ab presidential palace in Damascus, where Assad was waiting for him.

Both leaders reviewed the honor guard before heading into the palace and starting their talks, SANA said.

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