Middle East & North Africa

09 Feb 2023; MEMO: Former Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has warned that the judicial reforms proposed by the far-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are an effort to end the ongoing criminal trial against him.

During an interview with Channel 12, Mandelblit noted the timing of the proposals and Netanyahu's previous position on the judiciary, which he says indicate that the corruption trial was a key motivating factor for the prime minister.

09 Feb 2023; MEMO: The recent earthquakes that rocked southern Turkiye earlier this week were not just the largest in the country, but also among the largest in the world, an expert said, Anadolu News Agency reports.

09 Feb 2023; MEMO: The Moroccan government has begun reviewing a major reform plan to the country's pension systems, including raising the retirement age to 65.

A study conducted at the end of 2022 at the Moroccan government's request, recommended raising the retirement age to 65 years in the public and private sectors.  It currently stands at 63 years in the public sector and 60 years in the private sector.

09 Feb 2023; MEMO: Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, was due to meet officials in Sudan on Thursday, part of an African tour seeking to expand influence at a time when Western nations have sought to isolate Moscow with sanctions over the war in Ukraine, Reuters reports.

09 Feb 2023; MEMO: Cold, hunger and despair gripped hundreds of thousands of people left homeless by earthquakes in Turkiye and Syria on Thursday, while hopes faded of many more people being found alive amid the ruins of cities.

The death toll from the quakes, which struck early on Monday morning, passed 19,000 on Thursday across both countries.

That surpasses the more than 17,000 people killed in 1999, when a similarly powerful quake hit Turkiye's more densely populated north-west.

09 Feb 2023; MEMO: An appeals court in Saudi Arabia has increased the prison sentence of US citizen Saad Al-Madi over a series of political tweets from 16 years to 19 years, his son Ibrahim has revealed.

09 Feb 2023; MEMO: The Iraqi crude pipeline to Turkiye's oil export hub, Ceyhan, resumed since powerful earthquakes hit the region on Monday, local Turkish media reports.

According to the report, two massive quakes that struck south-eastern Turkiye and severely impacted neighbouring Syria, had halted operations at the 1 million barrel per day (bpd) oil export terminal in Ceyhan, and stopped key crude oil flow from Iraq and Azerbaijan.

09 Feb 2023; MEMO: The State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic's (SOCAR) Turkiye branch, SOCAR Turkiye, is offering free fuel to emergency vehicles in five cities affected by the massive earthquakes in Turkiye's south-east, local Turkish media reports.

09 Feb 2023; MEMO: An agreement to establish a naval base by Russia on the Sudanese Red Sea Coast is moving forward, Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov,​​ said Thursday, Anadolu News Agency reports.

"You know this agreement has been signed earlier between the two countries and it's only waiting to be legislated," he said at a news conference in Khartoum after meeting Sudanese military chief, Abdul Fattah Alburhan.

KHARTOUM, February 9. /TASS/: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said Western countries don’t believe in democracy, otherwise they would leave developing countries alone.

He made the statement at a joint news conference with the Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali al-Sadiq.