Middle East & North Africa

Russia yesterday warned Israel against delivering weapons to Ukraine after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was "considering" military aid to Kyiv.

"With regard to the delivery of weapons to Ukraine, we do not classify countries according to geography. However, we say that all countries that deliver weapons must understand that we will consider these weapons as legitimate targets for the Russian armed forces," said Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry.

02 Feb 2023; MEMO: Turkiye, on Saturday, issued a travel warning to its citizens in Europe, citing "possible Islamophobic, xenophobic and racist attacks".

According to the report, the Turkish Foreign Ministry called on citizens in Europe to avoid areas where demonstrations are taking place.

Turkiye said recent anti-Muslim and anti-Turkish acts show the "dangerous level of religious intolerance and hatred" on the continent.

02 Feb 2023; MEMO: The Israeli occupation authorities "must dismantle the system of apartheid which is causing so much suffering and bloodshed" in the occupied Palestinian territories, Amnesty International said on Wednesday.

01 Feb 2023; MEMO: Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said his priority is to normalise Israel's relations with Arab countries before peace with the Palestinians, Anadolu News Agency report.

"I think that the way we're going to succeed is not let the Palestinian tail wag the body of the Arab world," Netanyahu told CNN in an interview published on Wednesday.

02 Feb 2023; MEMO: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that there is no legal obstacle to his candidacy for the presidency this summer.

In an interview aired on national TV channel TRT yesterday, Erdogan added that his bid for another presidential term is in line with the law and the constitution.

"The people chose me as the first president in the presidential system," he said.

RAMALLAH/GAZA, Feb 1 (NNN-WAFA) – U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken’s visit to the West Bank, prompted outrage among many Palestinians, who demonstrated yesterday, to express their opposition to the U.S. top diplomat’s presence in the Palestinian territory.

The protesters, in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, raised the Palestinian flags and chanted anti-U.S. slogans, accusing it of being biased towards Israel and all its violations of Palestinian rights.

ANKARA, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Turkey looks positively on Finland's application for NATO membership, but does not support Sweden's bid, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday.

"Our position on Finland is positive, but it is not positive on Sweden," Erdogan said of their NATO applications in a speech to his AK Party deputies in parliament.

Sweden and Finland applied last year to join the trans-Atlantic defence pact after Russia invaded Ukraine, but faced unexpected objections from Turkey and have since sought to win its support.

ADDIS ABABA, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Close to 1 million people are at high risk of cholera disease in the 10 affected districts of southeastern Ethiopia, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).

The UNOCHA, in its latest situation update issued late Monday, warned over the ongoing cholera outbreak as the death toll climbed to 28 in the country.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reaffirmed Wednesday that Turkey won’t allow Sweden to join the NATO military alliance as long as it permits protests desecrating Islam’s holy book to take place.

BEIRUT (AP) — Three years into a crippling financial crisis, Lebanon’s Central Bank on Wednesday set a new exchange rate that effectively devalued the country’s currency by 90% but did little to bridge the gap with the soaring black market rate.

The dramatic measure is meant to stabilize the free-falling Lebanese pound and eliminate the multiple exchange rates that currently exist, a key demand of the International Monetary Fund for a bailout package for Lebanon.