CAIRO: A deterioration in religious values was one of the main drivers of war and violence around the world, a prominent Egyptian faith leader has claimed.

Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayyeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, made his comments during a recent meeting with Pope Tawadros II of the Coptic Orthodox Church.

Al-Tayyeb said: “The wars we are witnessing today are mainly caused by the deviation from the morals of religion, the spread of atheism, and disbelief in God.”

ANKARA: Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has announced that he will visit the US this month, as Ankara starts the new year with a diplomatic push in Washington.

He will arrive on Jan. 17 and, among other engagements, meet US Secretary of State Antony Blinken the following day. He might also travel to Houston to open Turkiye’s new consulate there.

It will be the first official visit to the US by a senior member of the Turkish government since President Joe Biden took office two years ago.

ROME: Mustapha Aroui, a former Tunisian environment and local affairs minister, has been sentenced to three years in prison for his role in the illegal shipping of household waste from Italy to Tunisia.

The Criminal Chamber of the Tunis Court of First Instance sentenced three other defendants to the same term and also jailed a ministry official for 10 years.

JERUSALEM: A Jerusalem bishop said on Wednesday he was “dismayed” by the desecration of dozens of Christian graves on the edge of the Old City, as police probed the vandalism.

Stone graves lay in pieces with crosses toppled at the Protestant cemetery on Mount Zion, where Christians believe Jesus’s Last Supper took place.

“We discovered that more than 30 tombstones and crosses were smashed to pieces,” Hosam Naoum, an Anglican bishop, told journalists at the cemetery.

BAGHDAD: Iraq’s anti-corruption agency said on Wednesday the justice minister had been given a court summons after he was accused of blocking a graft probe by refusing to hand over documents.

A probe began last month into “suspicions of corruption” in the delivery of prison meals, with “poor quality” and limited food provided compared to the payments made.

On Tuesday, Judge Haider Hanoun, who heads the government’s anti-corruption agency, accused Minister of Justice Khaled Shawani of “using his power to hinder the work” of investigators.