Middle East & North Africa

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A gunman opened fire Sunday night at a prominent shrine in southern Iran, killing one person and wounding eight others in an attack that followed another assault there months earlier, authorities said.

Officials offered no immediate motive for the attack in the city of Shiraz at Shah Cheragh, which draws Shiite pilgrims to its domed mosque and the tomb of a prominent member of the faith from its earliest days.

Chabahar, IRNA – The project to desalinate water from the Sea of Oman and transfer it to Sistan and Baluchestan province and other eastern provinces is 12% complete, Iran’s Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade, Abbas Aliabadi has announced.

The government has allocated over $3.2 billion for the project, which will provide fresh water to people in the eastern provinces, Aliabadi.

Aliabadi plans to visit the strategic project that transfers desalinated water from the Sea of Oman to cities and villages in the eastern provinces, especially Sistan and Baluchestan.

Tehran, IRNA – Mohammad Jamshidi, the Iranian president's deputy chief of staff for political affairs, has said that the US prisoners will remain in Iran until the full transfer of Iranian assets in South Korea which are said to be unfrozen following a prisoner swap deal with the US.

Jamshidi said on Friday that the process of releasing Iran’s total assets in South Korea has begun after the release of the country’s assets in Iraq.

Tehran, IRNA - Iran’s Oil Minister Javad Owji says that the Islamic Republic is producing about 3.2 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil.

Owji made the remarks on Sunday in a meeting in Tehran, adding that Iran’s production of crude oil will surpass 3.3 million bpd by late August.

Referring to the Ministry's plans for investment in oil and gas industry projects, up to the end of the current Iranian calendar year, semi-finished civil projects valued at $15 billion will be operational.

13 August 2023; MEMO: Turkiye has assured that it will not accept irregular migrants to its territory from third countries, after a new deal with the United Kingdom to tackle people smuggling raised speculation that it would do so.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Western-backed maritime forces in the Middle East on Saturday warned shippers traveling through the strategic Strait of Hormuz to stay as far away from Iranian territorial waters as possible to avoid being seized, a stark advisory amid heightened tensions between Iran and the U.S.

A similar warning went out to shippers earlier this year ahead of Iran seizing two tankers traveling near the strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of the world’s oil passes.

12 August 2023; MEMO: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has blocked the entry of nearly 170 passengers aboard a Wizz Air flight from Israel, Anadolu Agency reported on Friday.

11 August 2023; MEMO: India's Armed Forces have been accused of being involved in the March 2018 abduction of Princess Latifa, the daughter of Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, according to a complaint lodged with the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague in the Netherlands.

11 August 2023; MEMO: Iran may free five detained US citizens as part of a deal, under which $6 billion in Iranian funds in South Korea would be unfrozen, and has moved four of them from jail to house arrest, Reuters reports.

The following are the prisoners in Iran who will be moved to house arrest:

11 August 2023; MEMO: Israeli police downgraded a homicide charge, on Friday, against an illegal Jewish settler suspected of killing a Palestinian in what the United States has described as a "terror attack", Reuters reports.