Middle East & North Africa

TRIPOLI, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The Presidency Council of Libya on Friday ordered that the armed groups should immediately stop the clashes in the capital Tripoli and return to their camps.

"All the parties to the clashes are requested to immediately cease fire and return to their camps. The Attorney General and the Military Public Prosecutor must start an investigation immediately into the reasons for the clashes," the council said.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Police in Mecca say they have arrested a Saudi man who helped an Israeli-Jewish reporter sneak into Islam’s holiest city, defying a rule that only Muslims can enter the area.

While Muslims of any nationality and background can enter Mecca, non-Muslims are not permitted because a very specific code of conduct and behavior is required of all people within its boundaries, including certain forms of modesty, ritual cleansing and prayers.

22 July 2022; MEMO: Scientists in Turkiye have started to observe data on particulates in the atmosphere above Antarctica, collected via satellite and ground-based systems, one expert said on Friday, Anadolu News Agency reports.

22 July 2022; MEMO: Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, will visit Greece on 26 July to meet Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Greek Foreign Ministry said on Friday, in his first visit to an EU country since the 2018 killing of Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, Reuters reports.

The Ministry said the pair was due to sign bilateral deals, without giving details. A Greek diplomatic source said the deals were in the fields of energy, military cooperation and an undersea data cable, among others.

23 July 2022; MEMO: Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian has announced that Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) intend to raise their diplomatic representation in Tehran to the level of ambassador, adding: "We were informed of Saudi Arabia's agreement to raise the dialogue from the security to the political level."

23 July 2022; MEMO: One of the central goals of the Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi's visit this week to Morocco is to advance arms deals. Morocco has purchased military equipment from Israel worth $1.2 billion over the past two years, and Israel intends to double this amount, according to a report on Friday in Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth by military analyst Alex Fishman.

22 July 2022; MEMO: Saudi police announced the arrest of a citizen and his transfer to the Public Prosecution after he is alleged to have facilitated the arrival of an Israeli-American journalist to Makkah, Islam's holiest site and into which only Muslims are allowed to enter.

22 July 2022; MEMO: Palestinians can be stripped of their citizenship and made stateless; the Israeli Supreme Court ruled yesterday in a judgement that further reinforces the apartheid status of the occupation state.

Israeli citizens that are found to be in "breach of loyalty" can have their citizenship revoked, but rights groups insist that the policy will only be applied to non-Jews even if it makes them stateless.

22 July 2022; MEMO: An Israeli reporter sneaked around the holy city of Makkah yesterday during a trip to Saudi Arabia, despite rules forbidding entry to non-Muslims.

According to Bloomberg, in his report, journalist Gil Tamari noted that "Mecca is a holy city for Islam and non-Muslims aren't allowed to enter".

"I am the first Israeli journalist to broadcast from here, even in Hebrew", said Tamari.

ANKARA, July 22. /TASS/: An agreement on creating a grain corridor to export agricultural produce from Ukraine via the Black Sea was signed by representatives of Turkey, Ukraine, Russia and the UN in Istanbul on Friday.

Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu signed the agreement on behalf of Russia, and his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar inked the deal on Turkey’s behalf.