Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his erstwhile rival Benny Gantz announced "significant progress" in talks Sunday towards forming an emergency unity government amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. Gantz, whose now fractured centrist Blue and White alliance had positioned itself...

Armoured vehicles in the streets, hundreds arrested, smartphone surveillance -- sweeping measures to fight the coronavirus have raised concerns in the Middle East over the erosion of already threatened human rights. As the world battles the COVID-19 pandemic, more than three billion people...

Iran is to allocate 20 percent of its annual state budget to fighting the coronavirus outbreak in the country, one of the worst-hit in the world, President Hassan Rouhani said Saturday. Iran's death toll from coronavirus rose to 2,517 Saturday, with 139 fatalities in the past 24 hours,...

Under the sign “Take out only” and a tall bottle of antiseptic by his side, Mazin Hashim, 54, rearranged the coals heating a water pipe outside his famed cafe in Baghdad. He put up the placard to satisfy recent government restrictions on movement and gatherings that are aimed at...