The Jordanian royal court said, "His Majesty King Abdullah II will leave the homeland on Sunday for Germany to undergo surgery to treat a herniated disc in the thoracic spine."

He added, "According to the advice of Jordanian doctors who were briefed on His Majesty's condition, the operation will be performed at a specialized hospital in Frankfurt, Germany this week."

The 60-year-old King of Jordan had previously suffered from spinal pain intermittently due to parachute jumping during his years of service in special operations.

But the pressure on the nerve resulting from the herniated disc has increased recently, which increased the pain and necessitated an urgent operation, according to the doctors' advice.

The operation is followed by a rest period of about a week before the king returns to Jordan.

Although Jordan is known for its quality hospitals, the king's medical journey to Germany has raised suspicion. Especially after a recent coup that aimed at overthrowing him. 

The presidential statement clarified that the new presidential leadership council in Yemen would take over the political, military and security powers throughout the transitional period, the official Yemeni news agency (Saba) reported.

The Presidential Command Council will also be in charge of negotiating a ceasefire with the Houthis.
The council is chaired by Rashad Muhammad Al-Alimi, with seven members: Sultan Al-Arada, Tariq Saleh, Abdul Rahman Abu Zara'a, Abdullah Al-Alimi, and Othman Majali, Aidarous Al-Zubaidi and Faraj Al-Bahsani.

Hadi also said, "the formation of the Presidential Leadership Council helps to complete the implementation of the transitional period, and he has authorized the Presidential Leadership Council with full powers in accordance with the constitution and the Gulf initiative and its executive mechanisms."
He added that each member of the Presidential Leadership Council has the rank of Vice President of the Presidential Leadership Council. The President and members of the Presidential Leadership Council are committed to the principle of collective responsibility and their quest to achieve the highest degree of consensus among them.

The President of the Presidential Command Council is the supreme commander of the armed forces and has the power to ratify agreements, declare a state of emergency and general mobilization.
Consultation and Reconciliation Commission will be established to support the Leadership Council, which will consist of 50 members.

The statement noted, "A commission will be established to bring together the various components to support the Presidential Leadership Council and work to unify and gather national forces in a way that enhances the efforts of the Presidential Leadership Council and create the appropriate conditions to stop fighting and conflicts between all forces and reach peace that achieves security and stability in all parts of Yemen."
The presidential decision assigns the President of the council exclusive powers and competencies, which are:

The Supreme Command of the Armed Forces.

Representing the Republic at home and abroad.

Appointing provincial governors, security directors, Supreme Court 
judges, and the governor of the Central Bank.

Ratification of agreements not requiring the ratification from the House of Representatives after the approval of the Council of Ministers.

Establishing diplomatic missions and appointing and recalling ambassadors according to the law.

Inviting the Council of Ministers to a joint meeting with the President of the Presidential Leadership Council whenever needed.

Yemen is destroyed by an almost decade long conflict that has undermined its infrastructure and normal life. A two-month ceasefire might bring new opportunities to end the war. 

Iraqi council of representatives elected Mam Jalal as the first Iraqi president after collapse of Saddam’s dictatorial rule on 6th April 2005. The day is remembered as a historical milestone in Kurdish history. For the first time in history Kurds were represented in Iraq.

His election was the last nail in the coffin of dictatorship in Iraq. It was welcomed internationally as Mam Jalal was a democrat, working to establish democracy in Iraq since his early teenage years. Former American president, George Bush alongside many prominent world leaders congratulated President Talabani and lent their support to his presidency.

President Talabani was elected to office twice due to his abilities to keep all rival factions in check and help the Iraqi economy to grow by double digits every year until he left political in late 2012 due to health problems.

After president Talabani’s departure from Iraqi politics, Iraq has decended into turmoil and instability.

Israeli foreign minister Yair Lapid's remarks, came during his visit to the Greek capital Athens, where he arrived on Tuesday for a tripartite meeting among foreign ministers of Israel, Greece, and the Greek Cypriot administration.

Mentioning the "warming of relations" between Turkey and Israel, Lapid said, "it is a blessed chance whose time has come," according to a statement by Israel's Foreign Ministry.

"It also produces a great opportunity to deepen our ties and strengthen regional stability," he also added.

The meeting between Greece, Israel, and Cypriot Greek administration foreign ministers in Athens focused on the latest developments in the wider Eastern Mediterranean region, including energy and security issues. The group discussed further strengthening trilateral ties.

"There is a war in Europe. Once again, a large and powerful country has invaded a smaller neighbor without any justification. Once again, the ground is soaked with the blood of innocent civilians," he said.

Maintaining that the war stands to change European and Middle Eastern energy markets, Lapid said the parties are examining further economic cooperation, emphasizing the energy market.

The trio was part of the East Mediterranean Gas Forum established in 2019 with other states, including Egypt and Jordan – without Turkey.

Tunisia has calls Turkey's ambassador after the country's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticized his counterpart for dissolving Parliament.
Tunisia's President Kais Saied, in a statement released on Tuesday evening, told foreign minister Othman Jarandi that he rejected "all interference in any form" in Tunisian affairs, without directly mentioning Erdogan.

Since July, Said has been seizing wide-ranging powers, sacked the assembly last week, eight months after suspending it, in a blow against the democratic system born out of the country's 2011 uprising.

On Monday, Erdogan had criticized Saied's latest move as a "blow to the will of the Tunisian people" and a "smear on democracy."

The Treasury Department announced the new sanctions against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps unit responsible for the research and development of ballistic missiles, as well as Iran's Parchin Chemical Industries and an Iranian intermediary who worked on procurement of parts for propelling missiles.

Although there were talks of Washington removing the IRGC from the terror list amid a breakthrough in the Vienna nuclear talks, the recent actions might complicate the talks once again. 

Iran's ministry of foreign affairs slammed the decision and called it "another ill will move towards the Iranian people."

A Turkish prosecutor on Thursday called for the trial of suspects in the killing of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi to be halted.

The court was asked to suspend the trial in absentia of 26 Saudis accused of involvement in the 2018 murder of the Washington Post writer at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

The prosecution lawyer also requested the case be transferred to the Saudi courts, who have previously refused to extradite the suspects. The court said it would seek advice from the Turkish Ministry of Justice and set the next hearing for April 7.

Washington is to blame for the pause in talks between Tehran and world powers in Vienna aimed at reviving their 2015 nuclear deal, an Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson said on Monday.

"America is responsible for the halt of these talks ... a deal is very much within reach," Saeed Khatibzadeh told a weekly news conference.

"Washington should make political decision for the deal's revival," he said, adding that Tehran would "not wait forever".

The U.S. State Department said on Thursday that a small number of outstanding issues remain in the nuclear talks, adding that the onus was on Tehran to make those decisions.

Iran has said that there are still major issues, including Washington removing a Iran’s IRGC from the terror list.

Tehran has been pushing for guarantees that any future U.S. president would not withdraw from the agreement. The extent to which sanctions would be rolled back is another unresolved issue.

Khatibzadeh also added Tehran was ready to resume talks with its key regional rival, Saudi Arabia, if Riyadh showed willingness to resolve outstanding bilateral issues.

A Russian demand forced world powers to pause nuclear negotiations in early March, But Moscow later said had written guarantees that its trade with Iran would not be affected by Ukraine-related sanctions, suggesting Moscow could allow a revival of the tattered pact to go forward.

Lebanese Deputy Prime Minister H.E. Al-Shami declared “state bankruptcy and the Central Bank of Lebanon”, and said that the losses would be distributed to the state, the Bank of Lebanon, banks and depositors.

“The losses will be distributed to the state, the Bank of Lebanon, banks and depositors, and there is no specific percentage, unfortunately the state is bankrupt as well as the Bank of Lebanon, and we want to come up with a result, and the loss has occurred because of policies for decades, and if we do not do something, the loss will be much greater,” he said.

“There is a truth that cannot be ignored, we cannot live in denial, we cannot open withdrawals (banking) to all people, and I wish we were in a normal state,” al-Shami said.

“We are in the midst of negotiations with the IMF and in daily contact with the IMF, and for the first time this large mission has come and we have made significant progress in the IMF negotiations,” he said.

“We hope to reach an agreement on this or another tour,” al-Shami said. The negotiations are currently focused on several topics: reform and restructuring of the banking sector, balanced fiscal policy to service public debt, public sector and electricity reform, exchange rate consolidation, monetary policy and inflation management.”

He pointed out that KPMG is auditing the Bank of Lebanon, and that the bank is conducting an inventory of the amounts of gold in its possession, and has already begun the inventory process.

Local sources said on Tuesday, that the people of Qurmaneh village, west of the city of Ad-Darbasiyah on the Turkish border found the body of two Syrian youths on the outskirts of the village, who had been thrown by the Turkish army there.

The sources added that the bodies of the two young men bore signs of torture, which led to their death, at the hands of the Turkish army while they were trying to cross the border, and this was confirmed by the medical report in the city of Ad-Darbasiyah, where the bodies were transferred by Rojava Internal Security Forces, commonly known as “Asayish.”

The sources confirmed that one of the bodies belonged to a young man from the village of “Sabaa Sukour” in Jiay Kazuana “Jabal Abdel Aziz, named Adel Muhammad Al-Badr, born in 2001.

The sources indicated that the identity of the second body is not known yet.