Middle East & North Africa

July 16 (Reuters) - United Arab Emirates authorities have detained Asim Ghafoor, a U.S. citizen and civil rights attorney who previously served as a lawyer for slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi, said U.S.-based rights group DAWN of whose board Ghafoor is a member.

A senior U.S. administration official, when asked on Saturday by reporters about the detention, said the United States was aware, but could not say whether President Joe Biden would raise the issue in planned bilateral talks with the UAE president on the sidelines of an Arab summit in Saudi Arabia.

DUBAI, July 16 (Reuters) - Iran said on Saturday it had imposed sanctions on 61 more Americans, including former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, for backing an Iranian dissident group, as months of talks to revive a 2015 nuclear deal are at an impasse.

Others blacklisted by Iran's Foreign Ministry for voicing support for the exiled dissident group Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK) included former President Donald Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani and former White House national security adviser John Bolton, Iranian state media reported.

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, July 16 (Reuters) - Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told President Joe Biden that Saudi Arabia had acted to prevent a repeat of mistakes like the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and that the United States had also made mistakes, including in Iraq, a Saudi minister said.

Biden said on Friday he told Prince Mohammed he held him responsible for the 2018 murder of Washington Post journalist Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, shortly after exchanging a fist bump with the kingdom's de facto ruler.

TEHRAN, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Western and U.S. sanctions have become "a blunt sword" after excessive use, Abolfazl Amoui, spokesman for the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the Iranian parliament, said Saturday.

A number of countries are thinking about de-dollarizing their trade by using local currencies, Amoui told official IRNA news agency.

The Russian and Iranian banks have already adopted new financial mechanisms for trade transactions excluding the dollar, he noted.

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Russian officials visited an airfield in central Iran at least twice in recent weeks to view weapons-capable drones it is looking to acquire to use in its war against Ukraine, the White House said.

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military attacked what it said was a Hamas military site in the Gaza Strip early Saturday in response to a pair of rocket attacks overnight. The exchange that took place hours after U.S. President Joe Biden concluded a visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The army said its fighter jets struck an underground complex containing raw materials used in the production of rockets.

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Iraq’s caretaker prime minister, whose country is mired in political crisis, says it is in Iraq’s interest to keep pushing for a rapprochement between Iran and Saudi Arabia to ease regional tensions.

Speaking to The Associated Press Friday evening, Mustafa al-Kadhimi said Iraq intended to keep up its role hosting talks between the two Mideast neighbors whose rivalry has often played out in Iraq, leading to perpetual paralysis.

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — President Joe Biden, speaking at a summit of Arab leaders, said Saturday that the United States “will not walk away” from the Middle East as he tries to ensure stability in a volatile part of the world and boost the global flow of oil to reverse rising gas prices.

His remarks, delivered at the Gulf Cooperation Council on the final leg of a four-day Middle East tour, came amid concerns about Iran’s nuclear ambitions and support for militants in the region.

15 July 2022; MEMO: Negotiations to bring Iran back into compliance with a landmark 2015 nuclear accord are coming to an end, but it is not clear if they will result in an agreement between Tehran and world powers, a senior EU official said on Friday, Reuters reports.

In 2018, then-US President Donald Trump abandoned the deal, calling it too soft on Iran, and re-imposed harsh US sanctions, spurring Tehran to breach nuclear limits in the pact.

15 July 2022; MEMO: Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi cleric, Moqtada Al-Sadr's followers thronged the streets of Baghdad on Friday, answering the populist leader's call to a mass prayer in a show of strength to his political rivals, Reuters reports.

Sadr, a Shia Muslim, whose party came first in a general election in October, has vowed to disband powerful Iraqi militia groups loyal to Shia Iran and to hold corrupt Iraqi politicians to account.