Egypt, Sudan Discuss Joint Cooperation to Face Pandemic, Supply Vaccines

A man receives a dose of the China's Sinopharm vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at a mass immunization venue inside Cairo's International Exhibition Center in Cairo, Egypt June 5, 2021. Reuters
A man receives a dose of the China's Sinopharm vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at a mass immunization venue inside Cairo's International Exhibition Center in Cairo, Egypt June 5, 2021. Reuters
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Egypt, Sudan Discuss Joint Cooperation to Face Pandemic, Supply Vaccines

A man receives a dose of the China's Sinopharm vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at a mass immunization venue inside Cairo's International Exhibition Center in Cairo, Egypt June 5, 2021. Reuters
A man receives a dose of the China's Sinopharm vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at a mass immunization venue inside Cairo's International Exhibition Center in Cairo, Egypt June 5, 2021. Reuters

Egypt and Sudan discussed on Wednesday enhancing joint cooperation to face the spread of the coronavirus and to supply COVID-19 vaccines, which Cairo has started manufacturing locally.

At a meeting with Sudanese Health Minister Omar Naguib in Cairo, Egyptian Health and Population Minister Hala Zayed stressed President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s keenness to offer medical support to Sudan for enhancing its health care system.

Zayed and Naguib discussed enhancing joint cooperation in Sudan's health sector to fight infections and epidemics, and also at the level of professional medical education and the localization of the pharmaceutical industry.

Egyptian Health Ministry Spokesman Khaled Megahed said that the two ministers also discussed implementing in Sudan an initiative made by Sisi on treating one million Africans from Hepatitis C.

He said Zayed noted that an Egyptian delegation to Sudan have completed equipping five centers there for implementing the initiative as well as training for health staff on diagnosis protocols.

According to Megahed, the Egyptian Minister noted that Cairo already dispatched to Khartoum PCR testing for the Hepatitis C and drug doses sufficient for an average of 250,000 Sudanese.

In addition, Zayed advised the transfer of medical oxygen to the Sudanese Health Ministry.

The two sides also agreed to revive the joint project aimed at combating the malaria-bearing Gambia mosquito.

The Egyptian minister expressed her country’s readiness to welcome additional people who were injured during the Sudanese Revolution 2018-2019 to help them complete their treatment in Egyptian hospitals.

For his part, the Sudanese minister thanked Sisi for his support to the health sector in Sudan especially for fighting the coronavirus.

He acclaimed Cairo for producing the first batch of the COVID-19 vaccine and lauded Egypt’s efforts to provide doses for sisterly countries, after meeting its local needs.



US Charges Iran Guards Captain in 2022 Killing of American in Iraq

Smog obscures the skyline in Tehran, Iran, 18 December 2024. (EPA)
Smog obscures the skyline in Tehran, Iran, 18 December 2024. (EPA)
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US Charges Iran Guards Captain in 2022 Killing of American in Iraq

Smog obscures the skyline in Tehran, Iran, 18 December 2024. (EPA)
Smog obscures the skyline in Tehran, Iran, 18 December 2024. (EPA)

The US Justice Department said on Friday it had charged a captain in Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards with murder and terrorism offenses in the 2022 death of American Stephen Troell in Iraq.

Mohammad Reza Nouri, 36, helped plan an attack on Troell, 45, who was working at an English language institute in central Baghdad, according to a complaint unsealed in US Federal Court in Manhattan.

The attack was carried out in retaliation for the US killing of the Revolutionary Guards' top commander Qassem Soleimani in a 2020 drone strike, according to the complaint.

"The Department of Justice will not tolerate terrorists and authoritarian regimes targeting and murdering Americans anywhere in the world," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

Nouri is already in custody in Iraq after being convicted, along with four Iraqis, in that country for Troell's murder. All five were sentenced to life in prison in Iraq last year.

Nouri is facing eight charges in US court, including murder of a US national and providing material support to terrorism resulting in death. The United States considers the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization.

It was not yet clear if Nouri had an attorney. Iran's mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The complaint accuses Nouri of collecting personal information on Troell, whom he appears to have believed was an American or Israeli intelligence officer, and recruiting operatives to target him.

Troell was shot and killed on Nov. 7, 2022, after a heavily armed gunman forced him to stop while he was driving home with his wife, according to US authorities.