Middle East Experience

A mortar shell landed on a grass field next to a gas site in Khor Mor, Iraq operated by UAE energy firm Dana Gas on Friday, a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Saturday, causing no casualties or damage.Operations at the facility were unaffected by the attack, the source added.For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.A Katyusha rocket targeted employee housing of UAE energy firm Dana Gas in Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq on Friday, landing in the company’s Khor Mor gas field, two security sources said.Friday’s attack was the second on Dana Gas facilities this week.A Katyusha rocket landed inside Khor Mor on Wednesday but caused no damage, Sulaymaniyah’s counter-terrorism service said.Local television broadcasts on Friday showed a column of rising smoke near the field with sirens sounding. It could not be immediately verified by Reuters.There was no immediate word on possible casualties from the attack.No group has claimed responsibility for either attack but armed groups that some Iraqi officials say are backed by Iran have claimed similar attacks in the past.Read more:Another rocket attack targets UAE’s Dana Gas site in Iraq: SourcesIraq swears in new lawmakers after Sadrists exit, Iran-backed politicians prominent
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: No damage or casualties after attack near UAE’s Dana Gas site in Iraq: Source 

Iran’s indirect talks with the United States on reviving the 2015 nuclear pact will resume soon, the Iranian foreign minister said on Saturday amid a push by the European Union’s top diplomat to break a months-long impasse in the negotiations.“We are prepared to resume talks in the coming days. What is important for Iran is to fully receive the economic benefits of the 2015 accord,” Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said, adding that he had held a “long but positive meeting” with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.The pact appeared close to being revived in March when the EU - which is coordinating negotiations - invited foreign ministers representing the accord’s parties to Vienna to finalize an agreement after 11 months of indirect talks between Tehran and President Joe Biden’s administration.But the talks have since been bogged down, chiefly over Tehran’s insistence that Washington remove the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from the US Foreign Terrorist Organization list.“We are expected to resume talks in the coming days and break the impasse. It has been three months and we need to accelerate the work. I am very happy about the decision that has been made in Tehran and Washington,” Borrell told a televised news conference in Tehran.Two officials, one Iranian and one European, told Reuters ahead of Borrell’s trip that “two issues including one on sanctions remained to be resolved,” comments that Iran’s Foreign Ministry has neither confirmed nor denied.“We agreed on resumption of negotiations between Iran and US in the coming days, facilitated by my team, to solve the last outstanding issues,” Borrell tweeted, without specifying the venue.“And the coming days mean coming days. I mean, quickly, immediately.”In 2018, then-US President Donald pulled out of the deal, under which Iran agreed to curbs on its nuclear program in return for relief from economic sanctions.The US withdrawal and its reimposition of crippling sanctions prompted Iran to begin violating its core nuclear limits about a year later.Western powers fear Iran is getting closer to being able to produce a nuclear bomb if it decided to, though Iran says its intentions are entirely peaceful.Read more:Oslo shooting suspect who killed two is a Norwegian of Iranian descent: PoliceEU’s Borrell visits Iran in bid to revive nuclear talksFormer US VP Pence blasts nuclear talks with Iran
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Iran nuclear talks to resume in days, says EU’s Borrell

Riot police prevented a peaceful vigil by human rights defenders demonstrating on behalf of people who have been forcibly disappeared in Turkey. Police handcuffed and detained the head of the Human Rights Association, Öztürk Türkdoğan, prominent human rights lawyer, Eren Keskin, and several relatives of victims of enforced disappearances from the Saturday Mothers/People. The vigil ..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Turkey: Police detain human rights defenders and relatives of disappeared people on Saturday Mothers/People 900th vigil

What Qatar has offered so far, in terms of investment pledges, cannot be compared to what has been offered by Riyadh and Abu Dhabi..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Eyes on ‘full normalisation’ of ties as Qatar emir meets Egypt president

UAE energy company Dana Gas owns the complex, and the gas field lies between the cities of Kirkuk and Sulaimaniyah..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: No damage or casualties after attack near Dana Gas site in Iraq

More than $100 million shortfall in funding for 2022 is about the same as the shortfall that UNRWA has faced every year for almost a decade..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Donors pledge 0 million but Palestinian refugees need more

Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm 80?
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Paul McCartney reaches milestone with 80th birthday

Erdogan said the punishment for burning forests should be "intimidating" to the point of death sentences, words taken by Turkey's justice minister as "instructions."
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Turkey mulls return of death penalty after Erdogan's wildfires threats

The exam board that dropped the poet and others from the curriculum has overlooked their effects on young minds..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Philip Larkin’s profound and beautiful poetry sent me back to the classroom | Rachel Cooke

The decision to release the officers was issued by the PA Military Prosecutor due to the health conditions arising from the spread of the coronavirus.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: PA releases officers accused of killing anti-corruption activist Nizar Banat