ROME: Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has summoned the Iranian ambassador to protest the “unacceptable” response to women-led protests in the Islamic republic, his office said Tuesday.
Ambassador designate Mohammad Reza Sabouri has been called in to a meeting on Wednesday, the foreign ministry said in a note to the media.
Tajani has previously condemned the situation in Iran as an “unacceptable shame,” saying Rome took a “hard line” in defense of women.

RAMALLAH: At least 11 people were injured on Tuesday in Jerusalem as Israeli forces clashed in the north of the city with protesters demanding the release of the bodies of Palestinians who died in custody at Qalandia checkpoint.

Soldiers fired bullets and used tear gas to disperse the crowd as dozens of Palestinians marched from Al-Amari refugee camp, south of Ramallah, toward the checkpoint.

DIYARBAKIR, Turkiye: Bullet marks reveal the spot where a rights lawyer was shot in the head at the height of clashes in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir between Kurdish militants and security forces in 2015.

Much of the Kurdish-majority city of over one million had to be rebuilt after the street battles, in which Tahir Elci, the president of the local bar association, died near a famous mosque.

But the wounds still fester as Turkiye heads into an election due by June from which the main pro-Kurdish party could be excluded.

AL-MUKALLA: The Yemeni riyal began plummeting in government-controlled areas this week, days after the head of the Presidential Leadership Council said his government will be unable to pay public employees due to Houthi strikes.

The riyal was exchanged at 1,200 per dollar in Aden, Al-Mukalla and other liberated areas on Tuesday compared to 1,170 last week, erasing months of improvement over the previous nine months.

BEIRUT: A Lebanese MP has called for action against smugglers who are worsening the economic crises by smuggling already scarce US dollars out of the country to Syria.

Hadi Abu Al-Hassan said the smugglers, who are capitalizing on the weak Lebanese pound, were worsening the availability of hard currency and causing “insane” rises in exchange rates.