Middle East & North Africa

BEIRUT, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon must send back Syrian refugees inside the country despite the reported lack of support from donor countries in facilitating the plan, the country's minister of the displaced said Friday.

Hosting a significant number of refugees has so far cost almost 33 billion U.S. dollars, "which constitutes a huge burden on the Lebanese economy," Issam Charafeddine told Radio Liban Libre.

"The direct cost incurred by Lebanon covers wheat, electricity, water, educational policy, infrastructure and environmental pollution," Charafeddine explained.

DAMASCUS, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- At least 20 people, including children, have been killed and over 50 others injured in a fresh round of fighting between Syria and the Turkish-backed militia in northern Syria, a war monitor said Friday.

A total of 14 civilians, including five children, were killed and 38 others injured in a Syrian shelling on al-Bab, a city controlled by Turkish-backed rebels in the northern province of Aleppo on Friday, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

ANKARA, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that Türkiye and Russia have been in constant dialogue over the presence of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia in Syria.

On his flight back home from Ukraine, Erdogan told reporters that a possible Turkish military operation against YPG was an important topic of his talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia's Black Sea resort city of Sochi on Aug. 5, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — A 58-year-old Palestinian man was shot and killed outside a bakery during an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank early on Friday.

His family and the Palestinian Health Ministry said he was shot by Israeli troops. The military said he may have been struck by gunfire from Palestinian militants during clashes that broke out during the raid. Neither side provided evidence to support its assertion.

ANKARA, August 18. /TASS/: Turkey will go ahead with diplomatic efforts in a bid to resolve the Ukrainian crisis, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday following trilateral talks in Lvov with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

"Turkey will go ahead with diplomatic efforts for a peaceful ending of the war in Ukraine. I believe that sooner or later it will come to an end at the negotiating table. Both Zelensky and Guterres are unanimous in this respect," Erdogan said.

Aug 18 (Reuters) - The death toll from wildfires in Algeria has risen to 37, the local Ennahar TV reported on Thursday, citing the Algerian Civil Protection Directorate.

The number of injured also increased to 183 people, the report added.

The wildfires are burning in mountainous areas and the victims were from the provinces of Al Taref, and Setif, in the eastern part of the arid and semi-arid country, Africa's largest.

JERUSALEM, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid spoke to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday, pressing Israel's position that efforts to revive a nuclear deal with Iran should end, a senior Israeli diplomatic official said.

As well as speaking with Scholz, Lapid spoke to Ted Deutch, chairman of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee's Middle East Subcommittee, and with the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Tom Nides, the official said.

TEHRAN, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- One of the Iranian nationals detained by the United States is "held under dire humanitarian conditions" as his access to emergency medical care is denied, a top Iranian official said on Thursday.

Kazem Gharibabadi, the Iranian Judiciary chief's deputy for international affairs and secretary of the country's High Council for Human Rights, made the remarks in a tweet.

17 August 2022; MEMO: Syria has denied that it is holding the missing American journalist, Austin Tice, and other Americans, days after the United States said that it is "certain" Damascus has detained him.

17 August 2022; MEMO: South Korea and Qatar announced, on Wednesday, that their citizens will no longer require visas to visit each other's country, local media said, Anadolu News Agency reports.

The announcement was made during a meeting between South Korean Foreign Minister, Park Jin, and his Qatari counterpart, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Seoul, where both top diplomats signed the visa waiver agreement, Yonhap News Agency reported.