Middle East & North Africa

Colombo, Jul 17 (PTI) Sri Lankan protesters have vowed to continue their struggle for a complete change of the system by abolishing the presidency, as the popular uprising that ousted Gotabaya Rajapaksa as president marked the 100th day on Sunday.

The anti-government protest began on April 9 near the presidential office and has been continuing without a break.

16 July 2022; MEMO: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged on Friday that Türkiye would keep alive the spirit that defeated the coup attempt of 15 July, 2016, marking the sixth anniversary of the attempted coup, Anadolu Agency reported.

16 July 2022; MEMO: Rached Ghannouchi, head of the Ennahda Movement, asserted on Friday that Saied is taking advantage of the referendum on a new constitution to re-establish a dictatorship, warning that the scenario in Sri Lanka is not far from reaching Tunisia.

Ghannouchi, who was the speaker of the parliament until President Saied overthrew it, described the atmosphere prevalent in the period before the 25 July referendum as "undemocratic, static and funeral."

17 July 2022; MEMO: The head of the Kurdish-led militant group Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has called on Russia and Iran to help prevent Turkiye from launching a military offensive against its positions in northern Syria, as the threat of a new Turkish operation continues to loom.

16 July 2022; MEMO: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has detained a US citizen and civil rights attorney who served as the lawyer for the assassinated journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a human rights group has revealed.

CAIRO, July 16. /TASS/: President of the United States Joe Biden is set to announce a new package of $1 billion in food aid to the Middle East, AFP news agency reported on Saturday citing its source in the White House administration.

"The president will announce today that the United States has committed $1 billion in new near-to long-term food security assistance for the Middle East and North Africa regions," the agency quoted the source as saying.

RAMALLAH, Jul 16 (NNN-WAFA) – U.S. President Joe Biden, voiced support for the two-state solution to the entrenched Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and vowed to provide a 300-million-U.S. dollar-aid to the Palestinians, during a short stay in the West Bank city of Ramallah yesterday, as part of his first diplomatic tour of the Middle East.

“As President of the United States, my commitment to the goal of a two-state solution has not changed,” Biden told the joint news conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem.

July 16 (Reuters) - United Arab Emirates authorities have detained Asim Ghafoor, a U.S. citizen and civil rights attorney who previously served as a lawyer for slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi, said U.S.-based rights group DAWN of whose board Ghafoor is a member.

A senior U.S. administration official, when asked on Saturday by reporters about the detention, said the United States was aware, but could not say whether President Joe Biden would raise the issue in planned bilateral talks with the UAE president on the sidelines of an Arab summit in Saudi Arabia.

DUBAI, July 16 (Reuters) - Iran said on Saturday it had imposed sanctions on 61 more Americans, including former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, for backing an Iranian dissident group, as months of talks to revive a 2015 nuclear deal are at an impasse.

Others blacklisted by Iran's Foreign Ministry for voicing support for the exiled dissident group Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK) included former President Donald Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani and former White House national security adviser John Bolton, Iranian state media reported.

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, July 16 (Reuters) - Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told President Joe Biden that Saudi Arabia had acted to prevent a repeat of mistakes like the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and that the United States had also made mistakes, including in Iraq, a Saudi minister said.

Biden said on Friday he told Prince Mohammed he held him responsible for the 2018 murder of Washington Post journalist Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, shortly after exchanging a fist bump with the kingdom's de facto ruler.