Middle East & North Africa

DAMASCUS, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi arrived in Syria on Wednesday with top ministers, marking the first visit by an Iranian president since the beginning of the Syrian war in 2011, according to the state news agency SANA.

Raisi was received by Syrian foreign ministry officials and representatives from the Syrian presidency at Damascus International Airport.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard seized a Panamanian-flagged oil tanker in the strategic Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, the second such capture by Tehran in under a week amid heightened tensions over its nuclear program.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip killed a 58-year-old man and wounded five others on Wednesday, Palestinian health officials said, even as the latest spasm of violence between Israel and Palestinian militants in the enclave appeared to ebb.

Israeli fighter jets struck targets in Gaza in response to salvos of rockets launched by Palestinian militants at Israeli territory on Tuesday. But after sunrise, the violence seemed to subside as both sides signaled they wanted to avoid a wider conflict.

QAB ELIAS, Lebanon (AP) — Lebanese officials are cracking down on Syrian refugees against the backdrop of a worsening economic crisis and political stalemate, an escalation that has caused a panic among Syrians in the country.

In recent weeks, the army has raided refugee camps and set up checkpoints to review the documentation of non-Lebanese citizens, arresting and in many cases deporting Syrians found not to have legal residency, according to refugees and humanitarian organizations.

02 May 2023; MEMO: Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin has accused the US of cooperating with Israeli protesters against his government's judicial overhaul plan, Anadolu news agency reported.

The Hebrew Walla website yesterday released a video of Levin saying that "the Americans are working in cooperation with them [protesters] against [judicial reform]."

02 May 2023; MEMO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that he does not intend at this time to introduce a bill that would grant ultra-Orthodox Jews exemption from service in the Israeli army, the Hebrew news website Walla has reported.

02 May 2023; MEMO: The Algerian Parliament announced on Sunday the resignation of its deputy speaker, Mondher Boudin MP, from the presidency of the Advisory Group for Combating Terrorism in the Inter-Parliamentary Union in protest at Israel's membership of the group. The move was said to be in support of the Palestinian cause.

02 May 2023; MEMO: A Syrian regime soldier was killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting Aleppo Airport in northern Syria, according to the state news agency, SANA, on Tuesday, Anadolu News Agency reports.

SANA, citing a military source, said two civilians and five soldiers were injured in the attack that put Aleppo Airport out of service.

There was no comment from Israel on the report.

02 May 2023; MEMO: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), on Tuesday, called on the Israeli authorities to release the body of Palestinian hunger striker, Khader Adnan, Anadolu News Agency reports.

Adnan, a senior Islamic Jihad group member, died in prison on Tuesday, after 86 days of hunger strike in protest of his detention.

02 May 2023; MEMO: Turkiye officially opened Europe's biggest solar power plant in Konya, built on a single site and one of the five largest in the world, local Turkish media reports.

According to the report, the solar power plant, bulit in Konya, Karapinar, is the size of 2,800 football fields and supplies the electricity needs of 2 million people.

It will increase Turkiye's share of installed solar energy by 20 per cent on its own, the report added.