Leading Palestinian businessmen announced Tuesday they would boycott an economics-focused conference next month in Bahrain that is part of the United States' Middle East peace plan. The Palestinian political leadership had already announced it would not attend the June 25-26 conference, but...

A wife of an adviser to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was shot and killed at her home, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported Tuesday. The report said Mitra Najafi – the second wife of Mohammad Ali Najafi, a former reformist mayor of Tehran and a Rouhani confidant – was killed...

Iran's foreign ministry on Tuesday insisted it did not currently see the need for mediation with the United States, as it played down the chances of a military clash with Washington. Spokesman Abbas Mousavi told a press conference that Tehran "does not feel any tension or (the possibility...

Regional lawmakers elected Nechirvan Barzani as president of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq, a spokesman for the regional parliament told Reuters on Tuesday. Barzani, who had been serving as regional prime minister, won 68 votes from the 84 lawmakers present. The regional...