Middle East & North Africa

JERUSALEM, Oct 8 (NNN-PNA) – Israeli Defence Minister, Benny Gantz, instructed the regime’s army, to prepare for any possible escalation with Lebanon, hours after Israel rejected Lebanon’s amendments to the U.S.-brokered proposal for demarcating a maritime border.

“In light of the developments in the maritime border negotiations with Lebanon, Gantz instructed the defence ministry, to prepare for any scenario, in which tensions increase in the northern arena, including defensive and offensive readiness,” his office said in a statement.

DAMASCUS, Oct 8 (NNN-SANA) – The U.S. forces, yesterday, sent 50 tankers of stolen oil from Syria’s north-eastern province of Hasakah, towards U.S. bases in neighbouring Iraq.

The oil tankers were sent to Iraq in batches, through the illegal al-Mahmoudiyeh crossing.

The state news agency said, the U.S. forces have intensified its theft of Syrian oil over the past few weeks, with the help of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

DUBAI, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Female students in Tehran chanted "get lost" as Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi visited their university campus on Saturday and condemned protesters enraged by the death of a young woman in custody, activists said.

Raisi addressed professors and students at Alzahra University in Tehran, reciting a poem that equated "rioters" with flies, as nationwide demonstrations entered a fourth week.

ADDIS ABABA, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- Authorities in Ethiopia's northern Amhara region disclosed they have intercepted 97 Ethiopians in a suspected case of human trafficking.

In a press statement released Friday, the Bati district communication office of the Amhara region said 52 males and 45 females were recently intercepted by security forces while allegedly being smuggled to an undisclosed location.

SULIMANIYAH, Iraq (AP) — Anti-government demonstrations erupted Saturday in several locations across Iran as the most sustained protests in years against a deeply entrenched theocracy entered their fourth week. At least two people were killed.

Marchers chanted anti-government slogans and twirled headscarves in repudiation of coercive religious dress codes. In some areas, merchants shuttered shops in response to a call by activists for a commercial strike or to protect their wares from damage.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli soldiers shot and killed two Palestinians on Saturday in an exchange of fire that erupted during a military raid in the West Bank, according to Israeli and Palestinian accounts, in the latest confrontation that has made 2022 the deadliest year of violence in the occupied territory since 2015.

The raid occurred in the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, the site of repeated clashes between Israeli forces and local gunmen and residents. The camp is known as a stronghold of Palestinian militants and the army often operates there.

7 October 2022; MEMO: French energy giant, Total, will enter QatarEnergy's North Field South (NFS) liquefied natural gas scheme — the second phase of the Emirate's massive LNG expansion programme, local Qatari media reports.

According to the report, QatarEnergy Chief Executive, Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, told the Energy Intelligence Forum in London that three new partners will be joining the NFS project, in addition to Total.

7 October 2022; MEMO: Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said that many countries are willing to meet his country's needs, if the US does not meet Ankara's need for F-16 fighters.

In response to journalists' questions, he said, "If the United States does not meet our need for F-16 fighters, many countries are willing to do so," according to Anadolu news agency.

7 October 2022; MEMO: The General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU) in Iraq raised the unemployment issue in the country, with the number of those unemployed growing annually, without any solutions. They stressed that the numbers reached 6 million unemployed individuals, amid calls for the government and the concerned authorities to take responsibility for the issue.

8 October 2022; MEMO: Iran has censured Danish police after a knife-yielding attacker allegedly barged into the Iranian Embassy in Copenhagen and threatened the ambassador and other staff, Anadolu News Agency reports.

Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, spoke to the Iranian Ambassador in Denmark, Afsaneh Nadipoor, following the incident on Friday, said a statement by the Foreign Ministry.