Middle East & North Africa

RIYADH, July 26 (Reuters) - Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman left Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for Greece and France, state news agency SPA reported, his first visits to a member state of the European Union since the 2018 killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Prince Mohammed, whose last official visit outside the Middle East had been to Japan in 2019 for a G20 summit, will discuss bilateral ties and matters of mutual interest, SPA said.

DAMASCUS, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Algerian Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra on Monday voiced support for Syria's return to the Arab League (AL), saying its absence has been "detrimental to the joint Arab work."

Speaking at a joint press conference with his Syrian counterpart Faisal Mekdad in Damascus on the second day of his visit, Lamamra said that Algeria has been discussing with other Arab states on finding ways to fix this situation.

26 July 2022; MEMO: A lawyer representing Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar has filed a petition to the Federal Court of Eastern Virginia in the US asking to suspend his trial on war crimes charges so that he can run in the Libyan presidential election. The petition has been submitted, he explained, "To prevent the issue from being used as a tool to impede Haftar from running for the presidency."

26 July 2022; MEMO: Israeli NGO Planners for Planning Rights (BIMKOM) has revealed that the occupation authorities have registered properties owned by Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem for illegal Jewish settlers, Anadolu reported on Monday. BIMKOM promotes democracy and human rights related to planning issues.

26 July 2022; MEMO: Iran yesterday announced the discovery of a new gas field north of the South Pars gas field, which it shares with Qatar, with a capacity of about one trillion cubic metres.

A spokesman for the Iranian Parliament's Energy Committee, Malik Shariati said work in two of the four exploration phases in the field has been completed, noting that another oil field is expected to be found in the area and exploration operations are continuing.

25 July 2022; MEMO: At a time when Kenya is reporting one of the highest costs of food prices in history, Turkiye has stepped in to aid farmers and local communities in easily accessing their staple food – which is called Ugali and made from maize flour, reports Anadolu Agency.

Over 200 people are direct beneficiaries of Turkiye-donated milling machines. They will in return impact thousands of others in Muranga County of Kenya.

Saudi Arabia is set to build a 75-mile-long skyscraper across the desert as part of its planned NEOM megacity. According to the Wall Street Journal, the "Mirror Line" will have mirrored or reflective walls, and will end in the Red Sea.

Costing a staggering $1 trillion (£833 billion), the 1,600 feet high desert skyscraper will have two parallel structures and associated buildings which together will house five million people. It will have facilities for vertical farming, a yacht marina and a sports stadium, as well as a high speed railway running underneath.

26 July 2022; MEMO: The rights of the Turkish minority have recently been deliberately eroded by Greece, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said.

Speaking on the 99th anniversary of the Lausanne Peace Treaty,  Erdogan said: "The rights of the Turkish minority remaining in Greece were secured, and the non-military status of the Greek islands close to our coasts was confirmed via this treaty."

CAIRO, Jul 25 (NNN-MENA) – Egyptian President, Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, held talks yesterday, with visiting Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov in Cairo, where they discussed bilateral relations and regional and global issues of mutual concern.

Lavrov handed to Sisi a letter from Russian President, Vladimir Putin, expressing importance Russia attaches to consolidating bilateral ties with Egypt, within the framework of the “strategic partnership and cooperation agreement between the two countries,” the Egyptian presidency said in a statement.

KUWAIT CITY, Jul 25 (NNN-KUNA) – The Kuwaiti Emir, yesterday appointed Ahmad Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah as the prime minister and tasking him with forming a new cabinet.

As required by the constitution, the prime minister-designate will then inform the National Assembly of his nomination before assuming office, according to the Centre for Government Communication of Kuwait.

In May, the Kuwaiti Emir approved the resignation of then Prime Minister, Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah and his cabinet, in which Ahmad served as first deputy prime minister and minister of interior.