Middle East & North Africa

24 July 2022; MEMO: Israel lobbied the US administration of President Joe Biden to prevent Turkiye from launching a new military operation in northern Syria, Israeli officials have reportedly revealed.

According to the news site Axios, two anonymous Israeli officials informed it that Israel's national security adviser Eyal Hulata told his American counterpart Jake Sullivan in recent weeks that a renewed Turkish offensive against Kurdish militias in northern Syria would assist Iran's regional interests.

23 July 2022; MEMO: At least 20 people were killed and three others went missing in flash floods caused by heavy rains in Iran's southern Fars province, state media said on Saturday, Anadolu Agency reports.

Khalil Abdollahi, head of the province's crisis management department, said heavy rains near Soltan Shahbaz village in the city of Estahban led to the flooding from the Rodbal Dam, according to IRNA news agency.

DAMASCUS, Jul 23 (NNN-SANA) – The presence of the U.S. forces in north-eastern Syria, and its plundering of the Syrian oil, aim to obstruct the political solution and the return of stability and security to Syria, the Syrian Foreign Ministry said in a statement yesterday.

The U.S. practices and the unlimited support to the terrorist groups, show the “hypocrisy of the U.S. in the region,” which is “no longer acceptable neither morally nor politically,” the ministry said.

BEIRUT, Jul 23 (NNN-NNA) – Lebanon’s Health Ministry, yesterday announced that, it has so far detected four cases of monkeypox in the country.

The ministry confirmed that the cases are males with travel history.

It added that, cases had home isolation, with follow-up for contacts with no reported hospital admissions.

The ministry urged the public to remain at a safe distance from infected people, not share their personal items, avoid animals from countries where the disease is endemic, and refrain from eating bushmeat.

DAMASCUS, Jul 23 (NNN-SANA) – The Syrian Foreign Ministry, yesterday, urged the UN Security Council, to condemn the repeated Israeli missile strikes on Syria, particularly the latest one that killed three soldiers, after midnight yesterday.

In a statement, the ministry said, the UN should shoulder its responsibility in condemning the attacks and exert pressure on the Israeli regime to abide by The Agreement on Disengagement, reached in Geneva in 1947, which stipulates in its first paragraph, a cease-fire on land, sea, and air between Syria and the Israeli regime.

ANKARA, July 23 (Reuters) - Turkish foreign ministry summoned the Swedish charges d'affaires in Ankara to convey its "strong reaction" to what it called "terrorist propaganda" during a Kurdish group's protest in Stockholm, diplomatic sources said.

Finland and Sweden have applied for NATO membership in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but were faced with opposition from Turkey, which accused them of supporting groups it deems terrorists.

ANKARA, July 23 (Reuters) - Turkey's defence minister said on Saturday Russian officials had told Ankara that Moscow had "nothing to do" with strikes on Ukraine's Odesa port.

"In our contact with Russia, the Russians told us that they had absolutely nothing to do with this attack, and that they were examining the issue very closely and in detail," Defence Minister Hulusai Akar said in a statement.

"The fact that such an incident took place right after the agreement we made yesterday really worried us," he added.

ISTANBUL, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Turkish law enforcement agents in Istanbul have detained 10 individuals suspected of being active members of the Islamic State (IS), the local Demiroren News Agency (DHA) reported on Friday.

Special Operations forces raided 10 different locations in the city in the early morning, capturing the suspects, operational files and digital material that could give clues about other IS cells within the region.

Suspects were active operatives and could have been in preparation for an attack inside Türkiye, reported DHA.

BAGHDAD, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Iraq on Saturday requested an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council after the deadly bombardment on a resort in Iraq's northern province of Duhok.

"The ministry submitted a complaint to the Security Council and requested an urgent meeting to discuss the Turkish attack, which resulted in the killing and wounding of many civilians, in Duhok Province," said Iraqi Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ahmed al-Sahaf said in a statement.

TEHRAN, July 23 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from Friday's flash floods in the southern Iranian province of Fars has risen to 21, and three others are still missing, rescue sources told state media on Saturday.

Mehdi Valipour, head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society, said initially 89 people were stuck in the flood waters, and that the rescue operation will continue until the rest of the missing people are found.

Speaking to the semi-official Mehr News Agency earlier in the day, Estahban Governor Yousef Kargar said 13 of the recovered bodies have been identified.