Middle East & North Africa

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, July 16 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman took a step to mending their troubled relationship with a fist bump, but the U.S. leader left the kingdom on Saturday with few big successes and doubts as to whether the visit was worth it.

Biden's four-day trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia, his first to the Middle East as president, aimed to reset ties with the Gulf Arab oil giant, demonstrate U.S. commitment to the region and counter the rising influence of Iran, Russia and China.

DUBAI, July 17 (Reuters) - Iran is technically capable of making a nuclear bomb but has not decided whether to build one, a senior adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Qatar's al Jazeera TV on Sunday.

Kamal Kharrazi spoke a day after U.S. President Joe Biden ended his four-day trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia, vowing to stop Iran from "acquiring a nuclear weapon." 

Kharrazi's comments were a rare suggestion that Iran might have an interest in nuclear weapons, which it has long denied seeking.

TEHRAN, July 17 (Xinhua) -- The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman on Sunday dismissed the U.S. president's recent claims over Iran's nuclear activity as a "failed policy of promoting Iranophobia," which seeks to cause tensions and crises in the region.

Joe Biden's anti-Iran remarks, which were made during his Middle East visit, are "part of Washington's policy of inciting sedition and fomenting tensions in the region," Nasser Kanaani said.

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.