ALGIERS: The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Monday during a visit to Algeria called for stronger energy cooperation with Africa’s top gas exporter as well as enhanced security ties.

About “90 percent of Algerian gas exports go to Europe, and we know we can count on Algeria, which is a reliable partner and has been through difficult times,” Borrell said after a meeting with Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.

ISTANBUL: SunExpress, a joint venture between Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa, said on Tuesday that summer bookings to Turkiye spiked as of this month after a brief drop following February’s devastating earthquakes.

The airline expects to carry more than 12 million passengers this year, Chief Executive Max Kownatzki told Reuters on the sidelines of a news conference in Istanbul.

Within days after the massive earthquakes that killed more than 48,000 people and left millions homeless in Turkiye, bookings fell by 50 percent, Kownatzki said.

GAZA CITY: The Palestinian militant movement Hamas warned Israel on Tuesday it would react to any possible “violations” at a flashpoint holy site in Jerusalem during the upcoming Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, issued the warning less than two weeks before the start of Ramadan and amid an escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict under Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

AL-MUKALLA, Yemen: UN Yemen envoy Hans Grundberg has visited Iran to drum up support for the diplomatic push to bring about peace in Yemen and renew the UN-brokered truce.

The envoy’s office said on Twitter on Monday that Grundberg met with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and other Iranian officials to discuss the launch of more inclusive peace negotiations between Yemen’s warring groups to end the country’s eight-year war.

JERUSALEM: The Israeli parliament on Monday advanced a bill that would make it harder to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the corruption charges against him, as it plowed ahead with a broader plan to overhaul the country’s legal system in defiance of mass protests.
Lawmakers in the Knesset gave preliminary approval during a late-night vote on the bill, which would allow the parliament to declare a prime minister unfit to rule only for physical or mental reasons.