Travellers entering Jordan must now wear an electronic bracelets to guarantee that they observe home quarantine against the spread of coronavirus. The policy took effect on 4 July.

Around 1,200 families belonging to the ancient Yazidi minority have returned to their home city of Sinjar, north-eastern Iraq, since June 2020. Following the Islamic State (IS) occupation of Sinjar in 2014, many Yazidis have been living in makeshift camps in Sharya, north Mosul, in Iraq’s Kurdistan region.

The Jordanian Ministry of Health has banned all forms of smoking in closed public places as of 1 July, driven in no small part to the coronavirus pandemic.

More than 190,000 work permits have been issued to Syrian refugees in Jordan, said Jordan’s Minister of Foreign and Expatriate Affairs, Ayman Safadi, at the recent IVth Brussels Conference on Support for the Future of Syria and the Region.

On 1 July 2020, Egypt announced the resumption of international tourism in three coastal governorates – Marsa Matrouh, South Sinai and Red Sea. This is considered to be the first step in a phased reopening of the tourism industry after a 3-month closure due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

On 30 June 2020, the UN raised a total of $7.7 billion in humanitarian aid for Syria at the virtual UN donor conference on Syria in Brussels, Belgium.  

Syria has been devastated by more than nine years of war that has displaced half of the country’s population. The war in Syria has killed more than 400,000 people and sparked a refugee exodus to neighbouring countries and Europe.

Morocco has ordered the 24 attack helicopters from Boeing in a deal worth $440 million, following a request of the aircraft in late 2019. 

Egypt has reportedly signed an agreement for the production of 500 Russian T-90MS tanks in the country.

Iran has issued an arrest warrant for American President Donald J. Trump and other 36 American political and military officials, whom Iran accuses of involvement in the killing of Iranian top general Qassem Soleimani in early January 2020, Tehran prosecutor Ali Qais Mehr said on Monday, 29 June 2020.

Iranian police has arrested three men on suspicion of trying to sell two babies on Instagram for between $2,000 and $2,500.