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With Hezbollah in mind, Israel builds a new wall

High in the hills above the Mediterranean, Israeli troops worked while soldiers from a country still technically at war with them peered down from only metres above. The odd spectacle played out this week as Israel continued work on a new concrete wall along its northern border with...

Iran says to go beyond previous enrichment if deal fails

Iran will begin uranium enrichment beyond previous levels if the remaining parties fail to uphold the 2015 nuclear deal, its Atomic Energy Organisation told local media on Wednesday. "We will not return to previous levels if our counterparts leave the JCPOA (nuclear deal), but will...

Netanyahu orders closure of Israel's Paraguay embassy

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the closure of Israel's embassy in Paraguay, his office said, after the South American country announced Wednesday it was moving its mission back to Tel Aviv from Jerusalem. "The prime minister has asked the foreign ministry to close the...

Jordan court sentences Daesh member to 20 years

A Jordanian court has sentenced an alleged Daesh (ISIS) member to 20 years of hard labor for a 2016 attack on security forces, an AFP correspondent at the trial said. The 25-year-old was charged with acquiring automatic weapons along with his two brothers and turning their house in...

Iraqi security forces face new protests in Basra

Iraqi security forces sprayed tear gas and fired into the air to try to disperse thousands of protesters on Wednesday in the southern city of Basra, in some of the worst unrest in the region for months. The deaths of five protesters in clashes with security forces on Tuesday added to...

Egypt officials say suspected bomb found near US embassy

Egyptian security officials say they are investigating a suspected explosive device near the heavily fortified U.S. Embassy in the heart of Cairo, Egypt's capital. They say the device was spotted Tuesday outside the concrete barriers that encircle the embassy and the ambassador's...

Negotiations with Palestinians are pointless: Israeli minister

Israel's defense minister said Monday that negotiations with Palestinians on the situation in both Gaza and the occupied West Bank were pointless and that the country should act unilaterally. Avigdor Lieberman's remarks came as Egypt and the United Nations were working to forge a...

Iranian rial hits record low at 128,000 to the dollar

The Iranian rial hit a record low against the U.S. dollar on the unofficial market Monday, amid a deterioration in the economic situation and the reimposition of sanctions by the United States. The dollar was being offered for as much as 128,000 rials, according to foreign exchange website...

Iraq's new parliament meets as rival blocs vie for majority

Iraq's newly-elected parliament is meeting for the first time as rival factions compete over the right to name a new government. The parliament Monday opened its first session since national elections in May with an orchestral performance of the national anthem and a prayer....

Turkey hikes gas and power prices by as much as 14 percent as lira crisis deepens

Turkey raised natural gas prices over the weekend by as much as 14 percent, two sources said, while the energy regulator announced a similar increase in electricity costs as a deepening currency crisis stokes inflation. The lira has fallen 42 percent against the dollar this year, hit by...

US team asked Abbas about Jordan-Palestinian confederation: NGO

US officials working on a Middle East peace plan have asked Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas about forming a confederation with Jordan, Abbas told activists Sunday, according to one of them. Abbas recounted the conversation he had with White House aides Jared Kushner and Jason...

Israel welcomes end of US funding for UN Palestinian refugee agency

Israel welcomed Saturday a US decision to end funding for the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), accusing the organisation which supports some five million Palestinians of perpetuating the Middle East conflict. Israel and the United States have accused the nearly 70-year-old agency...

At Gaza protests, medical workers face great danger

Each Friday, volunteer medic Asmaa Qudih goes through a tense ritual: She prays, kisses her mother's hand and packs a bag with medical supplies as she heads off to work at the weekly mass protests along Gaza's border fence with Israel. Treating the wounded has become dangerous for...

Iran moves missiles to Iraq in warning to enemies

Iran has given ballistic missiles to Shiite proxies in Iraq and is developing the capacity to build more there to deter attacks on its interests in the Middle East and to give it the means to hit regional foes, Iranian, Iraqi and Western sources said. Any sign that Iran is preparing a more...

US halts funding to UN agency for Palestinian refugees

The United States is ending its decades of funding for the U.N. agency that helps Palestinian refugees, the State Department announced Friday, a week after slashing bilateral U.S. aid for projects in the West Bank and Gaza. The U.S. supplies nearly 30 percent of the total budget of the...

Palestinian envoy warns US aid cuts threaten peace prospects

Palestinian ambassador to Washington Hossam Zomlot warned Washington on Friday against canceling all US aid to the United Nations agency serving Palestinian refugees. The administration of President Donald Trump is expected to announce in coming weeks that it will cease all financing of...

Iran rejects French call for wider talks

Iran rejected France's call for talks on issues beyond the nuclear dossier on Friday, saying it was impossible so long as Western powers failed to meet existing commitments. "There is no basis of trust for negotiations, certainly on subjects which are non-negotiable," said foreign...

Security Council renews Lebanon peacekeeping force's mandate

The UN Security Council voted unanimously Thursday to renew for another year the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon. The measure backing the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) calls on the Lebanese government to boost its naval capabilities, with the...