Middle East & North Africa

ISTANBUL, July 21 (Reuters) - Russia, Ukraine and Turkey will gather on Friday to sign a deal proposed by the United Nations to free up grain exports from Ukraine's besieged Black Sea ports, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's office said on Thursday.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who earlier announced that he was heading to Istanbul on Thursday, will attend the event along with Erdogan at the Dolmabahce Palace offices at 1330 GMT, the statement said.

TEHRAN, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Iran's chief banker said the U.S. dollar will be gradually eliminated from Iranian-Russian economic transactions, the official news agency IRNA reported on Thursday.

The trade volume between Iran and Russia stood at 4 billion U.S. dollars, which can be conducted through the Iranian currency rial and the Russian ruble, said Governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Ali Salehabadi in a televised interview.

The two countries have exchanged a memorandum of understanding to use their national currencies in small-scale trade transactions, he added.

JERUSALEM, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Israel's Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the government may revoke the citizenship of people convicted of terrorism and actions that constitute a breach of trust against the country.

A panel of seven judges led by Supreme Court President Esther Hayut said that a person convicted of "breach of trusts against the State of Israel, such as an act of terror, an act of treason or serious espionage, or acquisition of citizenship in a hostile state" could face a cancelation of their citizenship.

ANKARA, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Türkiye, Finland and Sweden will hold a meeting in August to evaluate the Nordic countries' anti-terror pledges required by Ankara for lifting its veto on their NATO membership bid, the Turkish foreign minister said on Thursday.

The meeting in August will evaluate the Nordic countries' progress made in fulfilling Ankara's counter-terrorism demands in order to ratify their NATO membership bid, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in an interview with the state-run TRT broadcaster.

21 July 2022; MEMO: Jordan's King Abdullah II reiterated on Wednesday that the Hashemite Kingdom will maintain its links with Russia and Syria regarding border threats, Anadolu has reported. He did not give any further details.

The Jordanian monarch made his comment during a meeting with tribal leaders and representatives of local communities in the north of the country, explained the Royal Court.

21 July 2022; MEMO: A US State Department report has found that Israel does not make enough efforts to fight human trafficking and does not meet the minimum standards to eliminate this phenomenon, Haaretz reported on Wednesday.

20 July 2022; MEMO: Turkiye, on Wednesday, refuted claims by Iraqi state media that it had carried out a strike on a mountain resort in Iraq's northern Dohuk province that killed eight tourists and wounded another 23 people, saying the attack was a terror act, Reuters reports.

The "fierce artillery bombing" hit a resort in Zakho, a city on the border between Iraq's Kurdistan region and Turkiye, Iraq state TV said.

21 July 2022; MEMO: Secretary-General of the Lebanese Hezbollah group, Hassan Nasrallah, said yesterday that his movement will not allow Israel to extract gas from the disputed maritime area unless Lebanon gets its share, Israel's Kan channel reported.

"War is not inevitable, but Hezbollah will respond to any attack by Israel," Nasrallah is reported to have said, adding that confrontation with Israel is "possible" but it is not the best option.

21 July 2022; MEMO: Former Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki yesterday denounced what he considered an Arab country "resorting" to Israel to "bully" another Arab country, in reference to Morocco.

Marzouki's remarks came after the visit of the Chief of Staff of the Israeli Army, Aviv Kochavi, to Morocco.

21 July 2022; MEMO: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said US forces should withdraw from areas of Syria east of the Euphrates River as part of the Astana peace process, the Anadolu news agency reported.

"America has to leave east of the Euphrates now. This is an outcome that came out of the Astana process," Erdogan said a day after an Astana process summit with his Russian and Iranian counterparts, stressing that his Astana partners agree with this judgement.