Middle East & North Africa

SANAA, Oct 3 (NNN-YPA) – UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, announced yesterday no agreement has been reached to renew the expired truce between the Yemeni warring parties.

“The UN Special Envoy regrets that an agreement has not been reached today (yesterday), as an extended and expanded truce would provide additional critical benefits to the population,” his office said in a statement.

RAMALLAH, Oct 3 (NNN-WAFA) – Palestine yesterday urged the European countries, to tie their relations with Israel, to its adherence to international law, UN resolutions, and human rights principles.

The international community “is required to hold Israel directly responsible for the escalation in the West Bank, against the Palestinians, and to put real pressure on it to stop it immediately,” the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

ISTANBUL, Oct 3 (Reuters) - Turkish annual inflation climbed to a new 24-year high of 83.45% in September, data showed on Monday, still lower than forecast, after the central bank surprised markets by cutting rates twice in the last two months.

Despite soaring prices, the central bank was seen cutting its policy rate again this month, after President Tayyip Erdogan called for single-digit interest rates by the end of the year.

BEIRUT, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon's Ministry of Economy and Trade launched Monday a UN-supported plan to reboot the country's ailing economy.

The plan, with support from the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), identified short-term actions in three key sectors, namely agribusiness, tourism, and the digital economy, to "initiate recovery by rapidly generating employment opportunities and additional income," said an ESCWA statement.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei responded publicly on Monday to the biggest protests in Iran in years, breaking weeks of silence to condemn what he called “rioting” and accuse the United States and Israel of planning the protests.

The unrest, ignited by the death of a young woman in the custody of Iran’s morality police, is flaring up across the country for a third week despite government efforts to crack down.

3 October 2022; MEMO: Yemen's Houthis on Saturday warned foreign oil companies working in areas controlled by the internationally recognised government to cease operating or risk coming under attack.

The Houthi-affiliated Al-Masirah TV reported that the head of the group's Supreme Council, Mahdi Al-Mashat, issued instructions to prepare official communications to all foreign companies and entities involved in "looting Yemen's sovereign wealth" to immediately cease their activities.

3 October 2022; MEMO: The Presidential Pardon Committee in Egypt yesterday announced the release of a new batch of political prisoners who are being held in "pretrial detention".

A statement by the committee, published by its member, lawyer Tariq Al-Awadi, on Facebook, revealed that "releases are carried out on Sunday and Monday in coordination with the relevant agencies." He did not provide details of how many people would be released.

2 October 2022; MEMO: An Iranian pilgrim arrested by Saudi authorities during the Hajj pilgrimage in July has been released by Riyadh following mediation by Iraq and Oman, Anadolu Agency reported.

The news was delivered to Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian by his Iraqi and Omani counterparts in separate calls on Saturday, according to a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry on Sunday.

3 October 2022; MEMO: Regional rivals Algeria and Morocco plan to host the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) after Guinea was stripped of the right to organise the football tournament.

Algerian Minister of Youth and Sports, Abderrazak Sebgag, said the North African country will apply to host the prestigious continental competition, which only Algeria hosted once in 1990.

3 October 2022; MEMO: The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) announced yesterday that it has agreed to invest €2.43 billion ($2.43 billion) in the German multinational energy company RWE AG (RWE) to support the company's accelerated "Growing Green" strategy, according to Qatar News Agency (QNA).

QIA CEO, Mansour Bin Ibrahim Al Mahmoud, affirmed his support for RWE's vision to be a leader in the global renewable energy market.