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.

TOKYO: Japan and Jordan held their third foreign ministers’ strategic dialogue in Tokyo on March 13.

The two ministers agreed to develop their ties further on a wide range of bilateral, regional and East Asian issues, including security, economy, financial aid to Jordan and supporting refugees.

Hayashi Yoshimasa, Japan’s foreign minister, attended the meeting with Ayman Al-Safadi, Jordan’s deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs and expatriates of Jordan, who is visiting Japan.

TOKYO: Hayashi Katsuyoshi, special assistant to Japan’s foreign minister, held consultations in Oman last week on the situation in Yemen with “parties concerned to the Yemeni conflict,” the foreign ministry in Tokyo said on March 13.

Hayashi, former ambassador of Japan to the Republic of Yemen, met Mohammed Abdulsalam, spokesman for the Houthis, and Sheikh Khalifa bin Ali bin Issa Al Harthy, undersecretary for diplomatic affairs of Oman’s foreign ministry, between March 5-7.