Middle East & North Africa

CAIRO, June 19 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday held a meeting with visiting Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and Jordanian King Abdullah II in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh on cooperation in various fields as well as regional and international issues.

The three leaders discussed "mutual coordination towards various issues of common concern in addition to the latest developments on the regional and international arenas and the challenges facing the region," said the Egyptian presidency in a statement.

ISTANBUL, June 19 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Israeli counterpart Isaac Herzog on Sunday pledged to boost cooperation between the two countries.

During a phone call, Erdogan and Herzog discussed Turkish-Israeli relations and regional issues, and agreed that dialogue and cooperation would continue on the matters of mutual defense and the fight against terrorism, the Turkish Directorate of Communications said in a statement.

Herzog thanked the Turkish leader for Turkey's efforts to fight terrorism in the region, it added.

RAMALLAH, June 19 (Xinhua) -- A Palestinian was killed on Sunday by Israeli soldiers when he tried to cross the security fence between the northern West Bank city of Qaliqlya and Israel, according to Palestinian health authorities.

The Palestinian liaison office reported that Nabil Ghanim was killed after Israeli soldiers shot him near the security fence close to the city, according to a press statement from the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

20 June 2022; MEMO: The Higher Steering Committee of the Arabs of the Negev has denounced the Israeli-controlled Beersheba Municipality's decision to hold a concert in the city's Great Mosque built more than 100 years ago by the Ottomans as a place of worship and a resting station for merchants.

20 June 2022; MEMO: The International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS) has called for enacting a law to ban insults against religions and sanctities, Anadolu Agency reported.

In a statement, the Doha-based grouping said it will dispatch a delegation of Muslim scholars to Islamic countries for talks on the increasing insults against the Islamic religion.

IUMS said it will ask the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the United Nations to push for drafting legislation to ban any insults against religious sanctities.

20 June 2022; MEMO: Iran possesses three per cent of the world's nuclear capabilities, the head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI) announced yesterday.

AEOI Chief Mohammad Eslami was quoted by Tasnim News Agency as saying that Iran was subjected to "more than 25 per cent of the International Atomic Energy Agency inspections," urging the international organisations "to avoid abusing their authority."

20 June 2022; MEMO: Tunisian judges have extended their ongoing strike for a third week in protest of the sacking of their colleagues by President Kais Saied, Anadolu Agency reported.

"The strike has yet to achieve results as the president ignored our protest," Murad al-Masoudi, the head of the Association of Young Judges, told Anadolu Agency.

"We have decided to extend the strike for a third week," he added, vowing further escalations if their demands were not heeded.

20 June 2022; MEMO: Iraq will implement a federal court decision which ruled that all revenues from oil and gas extracted from the area governed by the Kurdish Regional Government must be delivered to Baghdad, the oil minister announced yesterday.

20 June 2022; MEMO: The Israeli authorities have excluded Arab communities in the country from a pilot solar energy project that will serve as a model for its solar energy industry, Haaretz revealed on Sunday. This could have the effect of excluding Arab Israelis from having access to solar energy "for years," said the newspaper, due to a change in the conditions imposed by Israel's Land Authority on the project that makes it accessible only in Jewish communities.

BEIRUT, Jun 19 (NNN-NNA) – Crop harvesters are busy reaping the sprawling wheat fields in eastern and southern Lebanon, marking the start of this year’s harvest season, amid a food crisis in Lebanon, compounded by global supply shortages.

However, a bumper harvest cannot exempt Lebanese farmers from the concerns about heavy financial losses, as the domestic wheat purchase price is 980,000 Lebanese pounds (about 35 U.S. dollars) per tonne, whereas the international prices can be up to 500 dollars, according to the monthly Food and Agriculture Organisation Food Price Index.