Middle East & North Africa

TEHRAN, Jul 24 (NNN-IRNA) – An Iranian lawmaker, yesterday, described U.S. President Joe Biden’s Middle East tour as a failed project, that did not achieve anything for the United States.

Fada-Hossein Maleki, a member of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said, Biden sought to pursue the failed policies of his predecessor, Donald Trump, in the Middle East during the trip, however, the Saudis reacted with greater cognisance towards Washington’s regional strategies, in view of their experience.

DUBAI, July 23 (Reuters) - Iran said on Saturday its security forces had arrested a network of agents working for Israel before they were able to carry out sabotage and "terrorist operations", state media reported.

The announcement by Iran's Intelligence Ministry came amid heightening tensions with arch-enemy Israel over Tehran's nuclear programme.

ADDIS ABABA, July 24 (Xinhua) -- Authorities in Ethiopia's Somali region announced that they have killed more than 100 Al-Shabab fighters during a failed incursion from neighboring Somalia by the militant group.

In a press statement released on Saturday evening, the Somali Region Communication Bureau said the Al-Shabab fighters were killed earlier this week during a security operation led by the region's special police forces that lasted for three days.

ANKARA, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Russian officials had told Ankara that Russia had "nothing to do" with the attacks on Ukraine's key Black Sea port of Odessa, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Saturday.

"In our contact with Russia, the Russians told us that they had absolutely nothing to do with these attacks and that they were examining the issue very closely and in detail," Akar told Türkiye's state-run Anadolu Agency.

"The fact that such an incident happened right after the agreement we made yesterday regarding the grain shipment worried us," he said.

TEHRAN, July 24 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said Saturday that U.S. sanctions on Tehran are detrimental to the global economy, particularly Europe.

Raisi made the remarks in a 120-minute phone conversation with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, according to the Iranian presidency's website.

NABLUS, West Bank (AP) — Israeli troops and special forces on an arrest mission exchanged fire with Palestinians barricaded in a house in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, Israeli police said. The local rescue service said two Palestinians were killed.

Israeli police said a number of armed Palestinians were killed during the hours-long battle deep inside the city of Nablus, without specifying. Police said no Israeli forces were wounded.

CAIRO (AP) — Russia’s top diplomat was in Cairo for talks Sunday with Egyptian officials as his country seeks to break the diplomatic isolation and sanctions by the West over its invasion of Ukraine.

Sergey Lavrov landed in Cairo late on Saturday, the first leg of his Africa trip that will also include stops in Ethiopia, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to Russia’s state-run RT television network.

22 July 2022; MEMO: Israeli citizens are at the top of the list of applicants requesting entry visas to visit Morocco, a Moroccan government spokesman, Mustapha Baitas, said Thursday.

Baitas told reporters that the Moroccan Government has recently launched an electronic platform for obtaining entry visas with the aim of reviving tourism in the country, adding that a majority of the visa applications received by Moroccan authorities come from Israel, which has reached 4,241 requests, so far.

23 July 2022; MEMO: Iran announced on Friday its refusal to choose between reviving the nuclear agreement or establishing relations with Russia, stressing that this bilateral relationship is "false".

The widow of Muammar Gaddafi, the deposed leader of Libya, has appealed a decision by a Maltese court which ordered a bank to return to the Libyan state 95 million euros ($100 million) of the family's former funds.