Middle East & North Africa

04 August 2022; MEMO: The Board of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) in Israel is scheduled to vote on the approval of the $18 million allocated for the purchase of Palestinian-owned land, based in the Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank.

It comes after the Israeli Defence Ministry and the JNF attempted to buy the portion of land last year, which was halted after receiving international criticism due to the Palestinian who owns it, demanding legal rights to the balance of the land.

04 August 2022; MEMO: More than 22,000 Moroccans have signed an online petition against the hosting of the famous German beer festival, Oktoberfest, in Casablanca in October.

On 19 July, the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce had announced the plans to hold the festival. It said on its Facebook page that the festival would take place in a large tent that could accommodate 300 persons, who would pay between 800 and 1400 dirhams (between $78 and $133) to attend.

BAGHDAD, Aug 4 (NNN-NINA) – Iraqi prominent Shiite cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, called for dissolving parliament and holding early elections, urging his followers to continue their open sit-in, in the parliament building until their demands are met.

“Most of the Iraqi people are tired of the ruling class, including some faces of the Sadrist Movement,” al-Sadr said in a televised speech.

“The revolution (protests for comprehensive reform) began by the Sadrist, and it will not exclude the corrupters from the Sadrist Movement,” al-Sadr said.

TEHRAN, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Iran's top nuclear official said on Thursday the Iran will reactivate the surveillance cameras of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at its nuclear sites only if the IAEA withdraws its accusations against Tehran.

Mohammad Eslami, president of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, was also quoted by the official news agency IRNA as saying that Iran seeks to achieve a "good agreement" at the Vienna talks that would safeguard its people's interests.

04 August 2022; MEMO: Israel's main ultra-right parties, Otzma Yehudit and Religious Zionism, reportedly reached an agreement to form a new list in the November elections.

04 August 2022; MEMO: Independent UN experts and human rights groups have called on the UN Human Rights Council to launch an international investigation into the 2020 Beirut Port explosion. The call has been made on the second anniversary of the massive blast that killed more than 200 people and wounded thousands more.

The explosion on 4 August 2020 was apparently caused by a stockpile of ammonium nitrate in a port warehouse. A large area of the Lebanese capital was damaged by the blast.

04 August 2022; MEMO: Israel's national airline, El Al, has been given official approval from the Saudi Arabian authorities to operate flights in the kingdom's airspace, Israeli broadcaster Kan has confirmed.

"This approval will go into effect today, which is good news for Israeli tourists heading to Israel from countries in the Far East, as flying over Saudi reduces the length of flights," explained Kan. "The trip to and from Thailand will take about eight and a half hours, with Bombay at about five and a quarter hours."

04 August 2022; MEMO: Saudi Arabia's envoy to the United Nations, Ambassador Dr. Abdulaziz bin Mohamed Al-Wasel, has warned of the repercussions of "Iran's nuclear practices" and Israel's non-accession to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

"The danger of nuclear weapons spread threatens the Middle East and the world," he said, stressing on the need to "confront nuclear proliferation in the Middle East".

04 August 2022; MEMO: The leader of the Sadrist movement in Iraq, Muqtada Al-Sadr, called yesterday for parliament to be dissolved and an early election to be held. Al-Sadr made his call in a televised speech, in which he also told his supporters to maintain their sit-in at the parliament building for the fifth consecutive day until their demands are met.

04 August 2022; MEMO: The International Support Group for Lebanon expressed its "concern" on Wednesday at the lack of progress in the judicial process related to the Beirut port explosion that killed more than 200 people and injured 6,500 others in August, 2020. The explosion damaged 50,000 homes, with financial losses estimated at $15 billion.