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Tunisia Reports Two COVID-19 Variant Cases

People wait to get tested for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), outside a mobile testing lab in Tunis, Tunisia October 7, 2020.REUTERS/Angus McDowall/File Photo
People wait to get tested for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), outside a mobile testing lab in Tunis, Tunisia October 7, 2020.REUTERS/Angus McDowall/File Photo
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Tunisia Reports Two COVID-19 Variant Cases

People wait to get tested for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), outside a mobile testing lab in Tunis, Tunisia October 7, 2020.REUTERS/Angus McDowall/File Photo
People wait to get tested for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), outside a mobile testing lab in Tunis, Tunisia October 7, 2020.REUTERS/Angus McDowall/File Photo

Tunisian health officials announced that two people have been tested positive for a new variant of COVID-19 in the governorate of Tunis.

Recent medical reports revealed that the new variants of the virus, discovered in the UK, South Africa, and Brazil, are highly transmissible compared to the Chinese strain.

Director of the Pasteur Institute Hashemi al-Wazir affirmed that the two new cases were discovered by coincidence after a number of tests were conducted.

Wazir said that the first case is asymptomatic while the second is a senior suffering from critical illness and has passed away.

The Tunisian authorities will intensify research and analysis to know more about this new variant.

Head of the Health and Social Committee in the Tunisian Parliament Dr. Sohail Alouni said that the current laboratory tests in the country are incapable of detecting the recently discovered variants.

He noted that the Health Ministry will import new type of tests to serve this purpose.

Tunisian Health Ministry on Saturday reported 903 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of infections in the country to 227,643.

On the same day, 36 deaths were recorded, bringing the toll to 7,755.

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Iraq Bans Kurdish PKK and Strengthens Its Cooperation with Türkiye

Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, right, and Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attend a meeting to sign mutual agreements in Baghdad, on April 22, 2024. (AP)
Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, right, and Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attend a meeting to sign mutual agreements in Baghdad, on April 22, 2024. (AP)
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Iraq Bans Kurdish PKK and Strengthens Its Cooperation with Türkiye

Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, right, and Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attend a meeting to sign mutual agreements in Baghdad, on April 22, 2024. (AP)
Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, right, and Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attend a meeting to sign mutual agreements in Baghdad, on April 22, 2024. (AP)

The Iraqi government announced Tuesday an official ban on a Kurdish separatist group which has been engaged in in a long-running conflict with Türkiye.

Türkiye has been seeking greater cooperation from Baghdad in its fight against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, a Kurdish separatist group that has waged an insurgency against Türkiye since the 1980s and is banned there.

The order issued July 14 and published Tuesday by the Department of Administrative Affairs at the Iraqi Parliament said Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani had issued instructions for the PKK to be described as the “banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party” in all official correspondence. It was the clearest statement from the Iraqi government on the group’s status to date.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Iraq in April for the first time in more than a decade. At the time, Erdogan said he and Sudani had “consulted on the joint steps we can take against the PKK terrorist organization and its extensions, which target Türkiye from Iraqi territory.”

Iraq has not followed Türkiye’s lead in designating the PKK a terrorist group but has put it on its list of banned organizations.

The PKK has maintained bases in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region. In recent months, Türkiye has built up its troops in northern Iraq and has threatened an offensive to clear PKK forces from the border area.

Türkiye often launches strikes against targets in Syria and Iraq that it believes to be affiliated with the PKK. Baghdad has complained that the strikes are a breach of its sovereignty, but earlier this year, the two governments issued a joint statement saying that the “PKK organization represents a security threat to both Türkiye and Iraq.”

The Turkish defense ministry said Tuesday that four suspected PKK militants were killed in an air offensive in northern Iraq, including one who was allegedly on a list of militants most wanted by Türkiye.

The ministry identified the man as Yusuf Kalkan and said he was wanted for membership in a terror organization as well as for founding and directing a terror group.