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A photo for President Sisi, King Abdullah II, the Crown Price of Abu Dhabi, and Iraqi Prime Minister from the Egyptian Presidency. The photo was cropped to show only the first three leaders.

CAIRO 29 May 2022: Jordan is working with the United Arab of Emirates (UAE), Egypt and Iraq to build foundations of political and economic cooperation, said Jordanian monarch King Abdullah II in a meeting with a number of former prime ministers at the Al Husseiniya Palace in Amman, on Sunday.

He added that Jordan maintains its relations with every party in the region and does not depend on one party, to diversify options for achieving its interests and securing its strategic needs.

The Jordanian king affirmed the importance of joint projects to fight poverty and unemployment, and to find solutions to food security, energy and water challenges.

Abu Dhabi Developmental Holding Company PJSC (ADQ) will allocate an investment fund of $10 billion to invest in projects emanating from the integrated industrial partnership between the UAE, Jordan and Egypt in the agreed sectors.

Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and the UAE's Special Envoy for Climate Change, announced the integrated industrial partnership between the UAE, Jordan and Egypt, at the conference held in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, May 29.

Today, the UAE is entering a new phase, under an exceptional leadership that looks forward to the future and focuses its efforts on enhancing security and safety, peace and stability, as essential enablers of growth and prosperity that serve humankind, in the Emirates, the region, and the world at large, the minister said.

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King Abdullah II: Jordan works with UAE, Egypt, Iraq to build foundations of political and economic cooperation - Egypt Today

President Biden Friday again made an exaggeration about the number of times he's been to the Middle East, as he gave a commencement speech to U.S. Naval Academy graduates in Maryland.

"I've been in and out of Iraq and Afghanistan of over 40 I think 38 times," the president said.

That number was incorrect, however. A spokesperson for Biden's National Security Council (NSC) said Friday the correct number of times Biden visited Iraq and Afghanistan is 21.

U.S. President Joe Biden, March 31, 2022. Biden's White House has walked back several of the president's comments recently. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

BIDEN SAYS PUTIN NATO-IZED EUROPE WITH WAR IN UKRAINE

Biden made the Friday comment in the context of congratulating Naval Academy graduates of being, "members of the greatest fighting force in the history of the world." The president said that based on his visits to the Middle East, and his family's military service, he has firsthand knowledge of the quality of the U.S. armed forces.

"I've seen you in action, this is the finest military, not a joke, we have the finest military in the history of the world," Biden said.

Friday's statement was not the first time Biden's made a false claim about how often he's visited the Middle East. While running for president, Biden said at least once he'd been to Iraq and Afghanistan "over 30 times," according to the Washington Post.

As a presidential candidate, Biden also told at least one "moving but false" war story, according to the Washington Post, which jumbled several events loosely together to create a narrative that "never happened."

UKRAINE NEEDS TO FACE REALITY TO END CONFLICT, TALK TO PUTIN: ZELENSKYY

Friday's clarification by the NSC is also just the latest of several recent comments from the president that his team needed to walk back.

Most recently, the White House was forced to clean up a comment Biden made which indicated the U.S. may defend Taiwan militarily if attacked by China.

Earlier this year, Biden made a gaffe saying the U.S. may not have a response to a "minor incursion" by Russia into Ukraine, which his staff walked back. And in Warsaw, Poland this year, Biden said, "this man cannot remain in power," referring to Putin. The White House quickly clarified that Biden was not calling for regime change in Russia.

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Also during his speech to Naval Academy graduates, Biden touted his approach to U.S. foreign policy, including his emphasis on alliances. He also said Russian President Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine is backfiring as western nations' alliances get stronger.

"The actions taken by Putin were an attempt, to use my phrase, to Finlandize all of Europe, make it all neutral," Biden said, using a term that refers to Finland's neutrality during the Cold War. "Instead, he NATOized all of Europe."

"Putin's brutal, brutal war in Ukraine, not only is he trying to take over Ukraine, he's really trying to wipe out the culture and identity of Ukrainian people," Biden also said, raising his voice in outrage. "Attacking schools, nurseries, hospitals, museums with no other purpose than eliminate a culture, a direct assault on the fundamental tenets of rule-based international order. That's what you're graduating into."

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Biden repeats false claim about trips to Iraq and Afghanistan, this time to graduating midshipmen - Yahoo News

BAGHDAD -- Militants from the Islamic State group killed 12 civilians and wounded at least six in two separate attacks in Iraq, apparently taking advantage of a sandstorm that sharply reduced visibility across the country, security officials said Tuesday.

The attacks occurred on Monday evening in Kirkuk and Diyala provinces, where farmers came under fire while harvesting their crops.

The Iraqi Security Media Cell said in a statement that six civilians were killed in the attack in the village of Sami Asi, south of the city of Kirkuk. The Kurdish news network Rudaw said after the killings, an Iraqi federal police force that arrived on the scene was ambushed and three policemen were killed.

Earlier, IS launched an attack in Diyalas town of Gulala, killing six residents, two Iraqi security officials said.

The Sunni extremist group claimed responsibility late Monday for the Kirkuk attack, claiming it killed five Shiites in their agricultural fields in al-Rashad area in Kirkuk and set fire to five vehicles. It said its fighters clashed with a supporting unit from the federal police and destroyed one of their vehicles.

IS overran large parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014 and declared a self-styled Islamic caliphate. The group was territorially defeated in 2017 after a years-long war spearheaded by local forces and a U.S.-led international coalition. But it continues to carry out hit-and-run attacks through sleeper cells across both countries.

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Iraqi officials: Attacks by IS militants kill 12 civilians

An Iraqi man who has been living legally in the United States since 2020 was arrested Tuesday and charged with plotting to kill former President George W. Bush to avenge the Iraq War.

Shihab Ahmed Shihab Shihab of Columbus, Ohio, was taken into custody by agents with the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force on Tuesday morning, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of Ohio said.

He was charged in federal court with attempting to illegally bring an individual into the United States, a federal crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison, and aiding and abetting the attempted murder of a former U.S. official, which carries a potential prison sentence of up to 20 years.

Shihab originally entered the United States in September 2020 on a visitor visa, according to officials, and filed a claim for asylum in March 2021, which is pending review.

According to a March 23 search warrant application unsealed Tuesday and published by Forbes, Shihab told an FBI informant that he wanted to smuggle four Iraqi nationals living in Iraq, Turkey, Egypt and Denmark into the United States through Mexico to help him carry out the assassination.

Bush announces the start of war between the United States and Iraq during a televised address from the Oval Office, March 19, 2003. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

Shihab wished to kill former President Bush because [he] felt that he was responsible for killing many Iraqis and breaking apart the entire country of Iraq, FBI Special Agent John Ypsilantis, a member of the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Cincinnati, said in the filing.

According to the search warrant, Shihab asked the FBI informant for details about security operations at Bushs home in Dallas and ranch in Crawford, Texas, and even traveled there in February to do video surveillance. The informant picked up Shihab at the airport in Dallas and assisted him as he used his phone to record video of Bushs gated home as well as the library and offices at the George W. Bush Institute, according to the filing.

At no time was there a threat to Bush, who as a former president has round-the-clock Secret Service protection.

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While Shihab was not identified as a member of the Islamic State militant group by the FBI or Justice Department, the FBIs warrant described the smuggling plot as an attempt to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, specifically ISIS.

The front of Bush's home in Dallas. (Tom Pennington/Getty Images/File)

Federal authorities began their investigation as a potential immigration fraud case, when Shihab allegedly intended to help a person he thought was another Iraqi citizen enter the United States for a fee of $40,000 in August 2021.

In reality, the individual was fictitious, and the interaction was coordinated under the direction of the FBI, the U.S. attorneys office in Ohio said.

In November, the suspect revealed to the FBI informant that the plot to assassinate Bush would be in retaliation for Iraqi deaths during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

In March of this year, Shihab allegedly met with others in a hotel room in Columbus to look at sample firearms and law enforcement uniforms.

According to the FBI, he told the informant that he wanted to be involved in the actual attack and assassination and that he did not care if he died as he would be proud to have been involved.

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Iraqi man living in U.S. charged in alleged plot to assassinate George ...

Iraq closed public buildings and temporarily shut airports on Monday as the ninth sandstorm since mid-April descended.

More than 1,000 people were hospitalised with respiratory problems, the health ministry said. Flights were also grounded in neighbouring Kuwait for a second time this month. The second heavy sandstorm in less than a week also descended on Saudi Arabias capital, Riyadh.

The Iraqi capital, Baghdad, was enveloped in dust cloud with usually traffic-choked streets largely deserted and bathed in orange light. South of the capital, near the Shia shrine city of Najaf, shepherds also found themselves shrouded in dust.

The Iraqi prime minister, Mustafa al-Kadhemi, ordered all work to cease in state-run institutions except for health and security services, citing poor climatic conditions and the arrival of violent sandstorms.

Air traffic was suspended at the international airports in Baghdad, Arbil and Najaf, before flights resumed in the capital and Arbil.

Later on Monday evening, Arbils airport closed again due to thick dust, according to the state news agency INA.

Iraq is ranked as one of the worlds five most vulnerable nations to climate change and desertification.

The environment ministry has warned that over the next two decades Iraq could endure an average of 272 days of sandstorms a year, rising to above 300 by 2050.

Iraqs previous two sandstorms sent nearly 10,000 people to hospital with respiratory problems and killed one person.

With Agence France-Presse

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Ninth sandstorm in less than two months shuts down much of Iraq