Middle East & North Africa

31 July 2022; MEMO: Russia is transferring $20 billion to Turkiye for the building of a major nuclear power plant, as the two countries continue to expand energy cooperation and advance Turkiye's growing energy needs.

According to a Bloomberg report on Friday, senior Turkish officials with knowledge of the matter said that the Russian state-owned company Rosatom sent around $5 billion last week to the Turkish company Akkuyu Nuclear JSC, which is building the plant in the city of Mersin in southern Turkiye.

CAIRO, Jul 30 (NNN-MENA) – Egypt sent a letter yesterday, to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), to object to Ethiopia’s continued filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).

“Egypt completely rejects Ethiopia’s continuation of filling the GERD unilaterally, without reaching an agreement with Egypt and Sudan,” said Egypt’s Foreign Minister, Sameh Shoukry, in a letter addressed to the UNSC.

RAMALLAH, Jul 30 (NNN-WAFA) – Palestine, yesterday, condemned the killing of a Palestinian teenager, and accused Israel of ignoring the pledges made by U.S. President Joe Biden.

The Palestinian presidency condemns “the crime committed by the Israeli soldiers” in the village of Al-Mughayyir, north-east of the West Bank city of Ramallah, the Palestinian Presidential Spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh said, in a press statement.

“The Israeli regime bears the consequences of violating all resolutions of international legitimacy and international law,” Abu Rudeineh said.

ABU DHABI, Jul 30 (NNN-WAM) – The United Arab Emirates (UAE), announced yesterday, the second natural gas discovery in Abu Dhabi’s Offshore Block 2 Exploration Concession.

The new discovery “indicates 1-1.5 trillion standard cubic feet (TSCF) of raw gas in place,” in a deeper area, in the first exploration well of Offshore Block 2, bringing the total amount of gas in this single well to 2.5-3.5 TSCF, the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), said in a statement.

DUBAI, Jul 29 (NNN-WAM) – Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), reported yesterday, a record-breaking core operating profit of 296 million U.S. dollars, for the first half of 2022.

This result was achieved despite a year-on-year increase of almost 60 percent in fuel costs, said a company press release.

Etihad Airways carried a total of 4.02 million passengers from Jan to Jun this year, significantly up from 980,000 in the same period last year, with an average seat load factor of 75 percent, according to the press release.

July 29 (Reuters) - Rescuers searched for the missing in Iran on Friday after landslides and floods triggered by heavy rains killed at least 53 people, officials said.

Mehdi Valipour, head of emergency operations at the Red Crescent Society, told state TV that 16 people were still missing after two days of floods that have affected 400 towns and villages in 18 of Iran’s 31 provinces. Many highways were closed.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Thousands of followers of an influential Shiite cleric breached Iraq’s parliament on Saturday, for the second time this week, protesting government formation efforts lead by his rivals, an alliance of Iran-backed groups. The alliance called for counter-protests, raising the specter of civil strife.

Iraqi security forces initially used tear gas and sound bombs to try to repel the demonstrators and caused several injuries. Once inside, the protesters declared an open-ended sit-in and claimed they would not disperse until their demands are answered.

29 July 2022; MEMO: Israeli forces killed a Palestinian boy in a village near Ramallah, central occupied West Bank, on Friday, Anadolu News Agency reports.

In a statement, the Palestinian Health Ministry said the 16-year-old teen succumbed to wounds he sustained from Israeli forces in the village of Al-Mughayir.

Eyewitnesses told Anadolu Agency that Israeli settlers living in a settlement built on the village's land assaulted Palestinians staging an anti-settlement rally.

29 July 2022; MEMO: Algerian authorities announced, on Thursday, the signing of a new Memorandum of Understanding with Niger and Nigeria to start implementing the trans-Saharan gas pipeline project, according to the official Algerian television, after a tripartite meeting in Algiers.

29 July 2022; MEMO: Algeria resumed commercial operations with Spain after Algerian Banks Association announced the suspension of a decision that had frozen trade exchanges with Spain, Anadolu News Agency reports.

Banking institutions operating in Algeria received, late Thursday, a new directive stating that the decision to "stop any commercial operations with Madrid" has ended.