RIYADH: The head of Libya’s Government of National Unity suspended Foreign Minister Najla Mangoush on Sunday and referred her for investigation after Israel said its Foreign Minister Eli Cohen had met her last week despite the countries not having formal relations.

Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah issued the suspension order following a backlash, with the country’s Presidential Council, which functions as head of state, demanding clarification.

AMMAN: Protesters demanding an end to authoritarian rule shut the ruling Baath party headquarters in the southwestern Syrian Druze city of Sweida as protests which entered their second week showed no signs of abating, civic activists and witnesses said.
Youths with welding machines sealed the gates of the building of the party led by President Bashar al Assad, which has been in power since a 1963 coup.

CAIRO: Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces said it was open to a long-term cease-fire with the army and presented its vision for a “Sudan Reborn,” an initiative that could revive efforts to hold direct talks between the warring parties.
The statement came as fighting between the RSF and the army enters its 20th week with no side claiming victory while millions have been driven from their homes in the capital and other cities.

BAGHDAD: Iraq’s interior ministry said Sunday an Daesh group member had been arrested in a Baghdad hotel, accusing him of carrying out intelligence-gathering missions for the terrorist organization.
The man, whose name was not given, was detained by “intelligence units charged with the security of tourist infrastructure,” a ministry press release said.
It said he was accused of supplying the terrorists with “personal information about members of the security forces in Nineveh province” in northern Iraq.
The man had confessed to being an Daesh member, it added.

GAZA: Gaza’s students began their new school term on Sunday, but it is unclear if they will be able to complete the year uninterrupted due to a funding crisis at the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency.

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East or UNRWA runs 288 schools in the Palestinian territory, among 700 across parts of the Middle East region that it funds alongside 140 medical clinics.

But it is short of nearly $200 million needed to pay for staff salaries and keep the services running until the end of 2023.