Coronavirus infections continue to rise in Middle East

A women wearing facemasks walk near the Grand Bazaar in central Sultanahmet district of Istanbul, on March 13, 2020, during the COVID-19 outbreak. (File/AFP)
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Updated 15 March 2020
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Coronavirus infections continue to rise in Middle East

  • Saudi Arabia will suspend international flights for two weeks starting Sunday
  • Egypt recorded 13 new coronavirus cases, bringing total to 93

DUBAI: Governments in the Middle East and the rest of the world have taken more precautionary measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus, including travel restrictions, work and class suspensions and quarantines.

Saturday, March 14 (All times in GMT)

20:46 - Kuwait will close shopping malls and children's entertainment centres over coronavirus fears, Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) reported. 

19:30 - Moroccan authorities on Saturday suspended flights to and from 21 countries including Egypt, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Greece, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Senegal, among others, the state news agency reported.

19:24 - Dubai said on Saturday it was temporarily suspending operations at four major theme parks and tourist attractions until the end of March amid coronavirus concerns.
The emirate's government media office said in a statement that Motiongate Dubai, Legoland Dubai, Legoland Waterpark Dubai and Bollywood Parks Dubai would be closed to ensure the health and safety of guests and employees.

19:05 - Saudi Arabia has suspended all public social gatherings including weddings and announced the temporary closure of places designated for recreational and sports activities in and outside of shopping malls to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the Kingdom. 

18:50 - French prime minister says the country is to shut down cafes, shops, restaurants and cinemas to prevent spread of coronavirus. He also said government would be keeping public transport open, but asked the public to limit its use.

Death toll in France jumps to 91 from 79.

18:25 - Saudi Arabia's central bank said on Saturday it had prepared a SR50 billion ($13 billion) package to help small and medium-sized enterprises cope with the economic impacts of the coronavirus outbreak.
The funding from the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) is aimed at granting SMEs six-month deferrals on bank payments, concessional financing and exemptions from the costs of a loan guarantee programme.

16:45 - US Vice President Mike Pence said during a White House briefing on Saturday that the UK and Ireland would be included in the US travel restrictions on Europe effective from midnight on Monday (eastern time).

16:30 - Jordan said Saturday it would halt flights, close its land borders and shut down schools, places of worship and public gatherings to stop the spread of novel coronavirus.

Prime Minister Omar Al-Razzaz told official news agency Petra that "all flights into and out of the kingdom will be suspended from Tuesday until further notice."

He said exceptions would be made for cargo flights and those carrying diplomats and staff of international organisations, providing they follow health ministry guidelines -- including a two-week quarantine.

 

 

16:00 - Saudi Arabia's health ministry announced 17 new cases on Saturday.

15:10 - Egypt announced that schools and universities country-wide would be closed for two weeks starting from Sunday March 15.

14:50 - The UAE announced three new coronavirus recoveries, meaning the total number of people who have recovered in the emirates now stands at 23.

14:45 - A reminder of today's earlier news, Saudi Arabia has suspended international flights in and out of the Kingdom from Sunday (Mar. 15) to prevent the spread of coronavirus. FULL STORY HERE.

14:30 - The UK's National Health Service confirmed on Saturday that a further 10 people have died in England from the coronavirus, meaning Britain's total death toll is 21.

14:00 - The UAE's General Authority of Civil Aviation announced on Saturday the suspension of all incoming and outgoing flights to Lebanon, Turkey, Syria and Iraq from March 17 until further notice due to the virus.

Elsewhere in the emirates, the UAE's tourism body has asked all hospitality establishments to close nightclubs with immediate effect, while Abu Dhabi announced the closure of movie theaters, the Louvre Abu Dhabi, theme parks, and other tourist attractions.

13:45 - Spain's government has put the country under lockdown as part of state of emergency measures meant to combat coronavirus. 

According to a draft decree, Spaniards will be ordered to stay in their homes except to buy food or drugs, go to the hospital, go to work or in emergency situations.

13:00 - The UAE is to stop issuing visas from March 17 with the exception of diplomatic passport holders to prevent the spread of coronavirus. 

12:00 - Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Sports announced the suspension of all sporting activities and competitions in the Kingdom on Saturday.

A statement issued by the ministry said that private sport centres and gyms would also close as of Sunday.

10:40 – Iran said the confirmed cases of coronavirus in the country have reached 12,729 on Saturday, with 97 new deaths increasing the toll to 611.

10:30 – Kuwait has confirmed on Saturday four new cases of coronavirus, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 104.

10:25 – The Tunisian transport ministry said they have taken strict measures to monitor ships due to the new virus.

It said the country was limiting its flights to and from Paris to once daily, adding they were working to evacuate 160 Tunisians stuck in the hard-hit European country.

10:20 – Oman has suspended schools for one month starting March 15.

09:55 – Abu Dhabi has closed tourist areas, entertainment cities, and the Louvre museum due to the outbreak.

09:10 – Iran will halt work on the expansion of its Abadan oil refinery until mid-April due to coronavirus.

07:30 – Two coronavirus cases recovered in Kuwait, bringing the total number of recoveries to seven.

07:20 – Morocco has suspended travel to Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and Portugal, banned gatherings of more than 50 people and cancelled sports, cultural and arts events due to coronavirus.

06:30 – New Zealand has canceled a national remembrance service to mark Sunday’s first anniversary of the Christchurch mosque attacks because of coronavirus fears, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said.

04:25 – Colombia’s president has ordered his nation’s border with Venezuela closed as a coronavirus containment measure.

Iván Duque announced late Friday that all official border crossing with the neighboring Andean nation will be shuttered beginning at 5 a.m. Saturday.

03:05 – Saudi Arabia will suspend international flights for two weeks starting Sunday to slow down the spread of the coronavirus, the interior ministry announced on Saturday.

02:40 – Two Saudi citizens have recovered from coronavirus (COVID-19) and have left the medical isolation unit in Al-Salmaniya hospital, the Saudi Embassy in Manama reported.

Meanwhile, Saudi Airlines will operate flights to Riyadh and Jeddah starting Sunday, the Saudi embassy in the Philippines said.

Friday, March 13 (All times in GMT)

18:50 - The UAE government said it will activate remote work for a segment of federal government employees, starting March 15 to March 26, and subject to renewal.

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This video explaining how COVID-19 transmits person to person was produced by the World Health Organisation

18:40 – Oman’s Ministry of Health reported a new confirmed coronavirus case of a citizen linked to traveling to Iran. This brings the total number of infected cases to 20.

15:15 – In Kuwait, the Head of the Kuwait's Center for Government Communication (CGC) and its official spokesperson, Tareq Al-Mizrem, denied rumoured curfew imposed in Kuwait due to coronavirus.

13:55 – Sudan reported its first coronavirus death in the country. The patient was a 50-year-old man living in Khartoum.

09:00 – Morocco’s health ministry reported a new coronavirus case, bringing the total number of infected cases to eight.

09:00 – Egypt recorded 13 new coronavirus cases, bringing total to 93.


Israeli strike at Beirut southern entrance kills one: ministry

Lebanese soldiers cordon off the site after a reported Israeli strike on a vehicle in Khaldeh, south of the capital Beirut.
Updated 5 min 42 sec ago
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Israeli strike at Beirut southern entrance kills one: ministry

  • Israel has repeatedly bombed Lebanon since the ceasefire in November, usually claiming to be going after Hezbollah targets

BEIRUT: An Israeli strike on a vehicle at the southern entrance of Beirut killed one man and wounded three other people on Thursday, according to Lebanon’s health ministry, as the Israeli army said it hit a “terrorist” working for Iran.
The attack is the latest despite a November ceasefire that sought to end over a year of hostilities between Israel and Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah.
The Lebanese health ministry said in a statement that “the Israeli enemy’s attack on a car in Khalde resulted in a preliminary toll of one martyr and three people wounded.”
According to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency, “an enemy drone targeted a car on the Khalde highway” south of Beirut.
The Israeli army said it “eliminated a terrorist responsible for smuggling weapons and advancing terror attacks against Israeli civilians and (Israeli) troops, on behalf of the Iranian Quds Force,” the foreign operations arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
An AFP photographer saw a half-burnt car on the crowded highway as the Lebanese army sealed the area off.
Israel has repeatedly bombed Lebanon since the ceasefire in November, usually claiming to be going after Hezbollah targets.
Israel warned in June that it would keep striking Lebanon until the group has been disarmed.
Last week, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said in a televised speech that the “ongoing aggression” by Israel “must not be allowed to continue.”
Under the ceasefire deal, Hezbollah was to pull its fighters back north of the Litani river, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border, leaving the Lebanese army and United Nations peacekeepers as the only armed parties in the region.
Israel was required to fully withdraw its troops from the country, but has kept them in five locations in south Lebanon that it deems strategic.


Algeria jails historian who questioned Amazigh culture

Updated 03 July 2025
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Algeria jails historian who questioned Amazigh culture

  • He was arrested on May 3 for “the crime of undermining national unity“
  • Belghit’s lawyer Toufik Hichour said on Facebook that a court sentenced him to five years

ALGIERS: An Algerian court on Thursday sentenced historian Mohamed Amine Belghit to five years in prison for offending national symbols, his lawyer said, after remarks questioning the existence of the native Amazigh culture.

Belghit sparked outrage in the North African country when he said in a recent interview that “the Amazigh language is an ideological project of Franco-Zionist origin,” and that “there’s no such thing as Amazigh culture.”

He was arrested on May 3 for “the crime of undermining national unity” by targeting “symbols of the nation and the republic” as well as “disseminating hate speech,” the prosecution said at the time.

On Thursday, Belghit’s lawyer Toufik Hichour said on Facebook that a court outside the capital Algiers sentenced him to five years behind bars.

The prosecutor had requested seven years jailtime and a fine of 700,000 dinars ($5,400).

Algeria in 2016 granted official status to Tamazight, the language of the Amazigh people, who are also known as Berbers.

The Berber new year celebration, Yennayer, was added in 2017 to the list of national holidays.

Belghit, a university professor, is no stranger to controversies.

His remarks often cause uproar, with critics accusing him of historical revisionism and hostility toward the Amazigh people.


Iran committed to Non-Proliferation Treaty, foreign minister says

Updated 03 July 2025
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Iran committed to Non-Proliferation Treaty, foreign minister says

  • Abbas Araqchi made the comment a day after Tehran enacted a law suspending cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog
  • Iran has accused the IAEA of siding with Western countries and providing a justification for Israel’s airstrikes

Iran remains committed to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and its safeguards agreement, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Thursday, a day after Tehran enacted a law suspending cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog.
“Our cooperation with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) will be channeled through Iran’s Supreme National Security Council for obvious safety and security reasons,” Araqchi wrote in a post on X.
President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday enacted the legislation passed by parliament last week to suspend cooperation with the IAEA, a move the US called “unacceptable.”
Araqchi’s comment on X was in response to a call from Germany’s Foreign Ministry urging Tehran to reverse its decision to shelve cooperation with the IAEA.
Araqchi accused Germany of “explicit support for Israel’s unlawful attack on Iran, including safeguarded nuclear sites.”
Iran has accused the IAEA of siding with Western countries and providing a justification for Israel’sJune 13-24 airstrikes on Iranian nuclear installations, which began a day after the UN agency’s board of governors voted to declare Tehran in violation of its obligations under the NPT.
Western powers have long suspected that Iran has sought to develop the means to build atomic bombs through its declared civilian atomic energy program. Iran has repeatedly said it is enriching uranium only for peaceful nuclear ends.
IAEA inspectors are mandated to ensure compliance with the NPT by seeking to verify that nuclear programs in treaty countries are not diverted for military purposes.
The law that went into effect on Wednesday mandates that any future inspection of Iranian nuclear sites by the IAEA needs approval by Tehran’s Supreme National Security Council.
“We are aware of these reports. The IAEA is awaiting further official information from Iran,” the Vienna-based global nuclear watchdog said in a statement.
US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told a regular briefing on Wednesday that Iran needed to cooperate fully with the IAEA without further delay.


Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq to hand over weapons in first step toward disarmament

Updated 03 July 2025
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Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq to hand over weapons in first step toward disarmament

  • “A group of guerrilla fighters will come down from the mountains and will bid farewell to their arms in an effort to declare their good will for peace and democratic politics,” PKK said
  • A PKK spokesperson said the fighters will destroy their weapons “under the supervision of civil society institutions”

IRBIL, Iraq: A Kurdish militant group that has waged a long-running insurgency in Türkiye announced Thursday its fighters in northern Iraq will begin handing over their weapons, marking the first concrete step toward disarmament as part of a peace process.

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, announced in May it would disband and renounce armed conflict, ending four decades of hostilities. The move came after PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has been imprisoned on an island near Istanbul since 1999, urged his group in February to convene a congress and formally disband and disarm.

Ocalan, 76, continues to wield significant influence in the Kurdish movement despite his 25-year imprisonment. His call to end the fighting marked a pivotal step toward ending the decades-long conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives since the 1980s.

In the latest development, “a group of guerrilla fighters will come down from the mountains and will bid farewell to their arms in an effort to declare their good will for peace and democratic politics,” the PKK said in a statement Thursday.

The ceremony, which is expected to take place between July 10 and July 12 in the city of Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, will be the first concrete move toward disarmament.

Zagros Hiwa, a PKK spokesperson, said the fighters will destroy their weapons “under the supervision of civil society institutions and interested parties.” The number of fighters who will take part has not yet been determined but might be between 20 and 30, he said.

For the PKK to take further steps toward disarmament, he said “the regime of isolation” imposed on Öcalan in prison “has to be abolished” and “constitutional, legal and political” must be taken to “ensure that the guerrilla who have abandoned the strategy of armed struggle could be reintegrated into democratic politics in Turkiye.”

An Iraqi Kurdish official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said the PKK members are expected to hand over their light weapons to the regional government.

The regional government is dominated by two parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, with the KDP overseeing the regional capital, Irbil, and the city of Dohuk. The PUK governs Sulaymaniyah.

The KDP has good relations with Türkiye and has been at odds with the PKK, while the PUK is closer to the PKK.

In Türkiye on Monday, Omer Celik, a spokesperson for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, or AKP, said the PKK could begin handing over arms “within days,” but did not provide details. Celik added that Erdogan would meet with members of the pro-Kurdish party next week to discuss the peace effort.

There was no immediate statement from Türkiye’s government on Thursday’s announcement.

The PKK has long maintained bases in the mountains of northern Iraq. Turkish forces have launched offensives and airstrikes against the PKK in Iraq and have set up bases in the area. Scores of villages have emptied as a result.

The Iraqi government in Baghdad last year announced an official ban on the separatist group, which has long been prohibited in Türkiye.


Killings rise when Gaza Health Foundation distributes aid: Analysis

Palestinian children line up to receive a hot meal at a food distribution point in Nuseirat on June 30, 2025. (AFP)
Updated 03 July 2025
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Killings rise when Gaza Health Foundation distributes aid: Analysis

  • Sky News finds correlation between aid drops, increased fatalities
  • UN labels GHF sites ‘death traps,’ amid claims Israeli soldiers deliberately fire at civilians

LONDON: An investigation has found an increase in deaths in Gaza correlated with aid distribution overseen by the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Health Foundation.

The GHF took over humanitarian supply systems in the Palestinian enclave in May, replacing around 400 distribution sites run by other charities and NGOs with four designated facilities, called Secure Distribution Sites.

They were meant to ensure that aid did not fall into the hands of Hamas or other armed groups, which Israel alleges frequently happened under the previous UN-backed system.

However, Gaza’s health authorities say more than 600 Palestinians have been killed trying to access aid at the sites, which the UN has labeled “death traps.” Israeli soldiers have been accused of opening fire directly at civilians.

Analysis conducted by Sky News suggests that killings rise when aid is distributed by the GHF.

Sky’s Data & Forensics Unit found that an average of 48 deaths and 189 injuries are reported when the GHF operates two or fewer aid distributions. That number rises almost threefold when it runs five to six aid drops. 

Sky reported that between June 5 and July 1, 77 aid distributions were conducted by the GHF. Of those, 23 — or 30 percent of the total — resulted in reports of violence, and at SDS4 half of all drops saw bloodshed.

A recent report by Israeli newspaper Haaretz interviewed Israeli soldiers who said they were ordered to fire at crowds of unarmed Palestinians at the GHF sites.

The Israeli military denies the allegations, but said it is investigating incidents where civilians have been harmed.

The UN, in its most recent update on June 24, put the number of casualties at GHF sites at 410, citing data available from nearby hospitals.

The GHF has been severely criticized for the manner in which aid is distributed, with footage obtained by Sky on June 15 showing Palestinians at SDS1 crowding and rummaging among hundreds of scattered aid packages discarded on the floor.

Sky’s analysis found that aid is often delivered in significantly smaller quantities than required, with supplies running out on average after just nine minutes. At 23 percent of aid drops, supplies were exhausted before the official opening time. 

Sky reported that 86 percent of distributions were announced to people in the area less than 30 minutes in advance, and that maps and instructions distributed to locals to navigate and access the sites were inaccurate or dangerous, including telling civilians trying to reach SDS2, 3 and 4 to congregate inside areas labeled live combat zones by Israel.

In addition, the congregation areas are typically some distance from the sites, causing surges when they open as people attempt to cover the open ground to access the aid.

The shortest distance from a waiting point to an SDS is 689 meters, at SDS4, approximately 10 minutes away on foot — more than the average time before supplies run out.

Sam Rose, director of operations in Gaza for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, called the GHF’s system a “free-for-all.”

He told Sky: “What they’re doing is, they’re loading up the boxes on the ground and then people just rush in.”

Rose added: “They (the GHF) don’t know what they’re doing. They don’t have anyone working on these operations who has any experience of operating, of administering food distributions because anyone who did have that experience wouldn’t want to be part of it because this isn’t how you treat people.”

A group of charities and humanitarian groups on Tuesday condemned the GHF’s operations, saying they violate international principles.

More than 200 groups have called for the reinstatement of the previous aid distribution system overseen by the UN.