The US Embassy in Turkey issued a security alert Friday, saying it received reports of a possible attack on Americans and other foreigners, and temporarily suspended consular services. "The US Mission in Turkey has received credible reports of potential terrorist attacks and kidnappings...

Iran imposed sanctions on the US ambassador to Iraq Friday, citing "terrorist" acts against its interests, in a tit-for-tat move after Washington blacklisted Tehran's Baghdad envoy. Matthew Tueller and two other US diplomats in Iraq "have effectively engaged in organizing, financing,...

One year after mass protests pushed him to resign, Saad Hariri is back as Lebanon's prime minister designate to draw together a pro-reform cabinet that can save the crisis-hit country. What circumstances brought him back? What do the international community and key players inside the...

Two more senior Palestinian officials have tested positive for the novel coronavirus as veteran chief negotiator Saeb Erekat fights for his life in an Israeli hospital, one of them told AFP. Palestine Liberation Organization central committee member Azzam al-Ahmad said he and social...

Khirbet Al-Majaz, a patch of desert at the end of a long, dusty trail in the West Bank, may not look like an area at the centre of a two-decade court battle. But after years of legal wrangling, the Palestinian Bedouins perched there on a rocky hill may be facing final expulsion if Israel's...

Israeli warplanes struck suspected Hamas military targets in the Gaza Strip before dawn on Friday following rocket fire from the blockaded Palestinian territory. Fighter jets and other aircraft struck a "weapons manufacturing site and underground infrastructures" operated by Islamist group...

Palestinian lawyers Thursday filed a complaint to sue the British government for the 1917 declaration setting out London's support for a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. The lawyers filed a complaint in the occupied West Bank town of Nablus that claimed "the suffering of...

Lebanese veteran politician Saad al-Hariri was named prime minister for a fourth time on Thursday and pledged to form a new government to tackle the country’s worst crisis since its 1975-1990 civil war. After his nomination, Hariri said he would quickly form a cabinet of specialists to...

A leading international human rights group Thursday said a Lebanon-led probe into the devastating port explosion in Beirut this summer has been marred by political meddling and lack of judicial independence, resulting in failure to yield credible results two months later. Human Rights Watch...

Lebanon’s former premier Saad al-Hariri appeared on course to be nominated for a fourth term as prime minister on Thursday and try to form a new government to tackle the country’s deepest crisis since its 1975-1990 civil war. Hariri needs to win the most support from parliamentarians who...

Following in the footsteps of Gulf countries Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, Sudan too has decided to normalize its relations with Israel under US mediation, a report has claimed. Khartoum is likely to make an official announcement on the establishment of diplomatic ties on the...

An Israeli official predicted on Wednesday that the United States would announce another deal establishing ties between Israel and an Arab or Muslim country before the U.S. election. “I have a reasonable basis to believe that the announcement will come before Nov. 3 - that, if you’ll...

 Iran tested home-made air defence systems Wednesday during military exercises, state media said, days after the expiry of an international arms embargo against the Islamic republic. The manoeuvres -- dubbed "Defenders of the Sky" -- took place in "an area covering half of the...

Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun said on Wednesday he would fulfill his duty in designating a prime minister but put the onus on the new premier to launch moves to pull the country from financial crisis. f wrangling, political sources said. But he would face major challenges to overcome...

 Iran's health ministry Wednesday reported 5,616 new coronavirus cases for the previous 24 hours, the highest daily number since February, bringing the national tally to 545,286 in the Middle East's hardest-hit country. Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari told state TV that 312 people...

 Israeli prosecutors Wednesday recommended charging a police officer with reckless killing in the deadly shooting of an autistic Palestinian man in occupied Jerusalem's Old City earlier this year. The decision came nearly five months after the shooting of Eyad Hallaq. Hallaq's family,...

It was a series of intercepted phone calls on a tense night in June that made Iraq’s new prime minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi fully realise how few friends he had. During one call, a senior Iraqi leader with strong ties to Iran instructed the security chief for Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone,...

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc agreed to pay $4.14 million to settle civil allegations that a Turkish subsidiary committed “egregious” violations of U.S. sanctions against Iran, the U.S. Treasury Department said on Tuesday. The department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said...

Hasanain Alminshid had received death threats for his human rights activism for years, but ignored most of them. After his mentor was gunned down outside a police station, he finally made the difficult choice to flee Iraq. “It’s too dangerous now. There have been killings in the open in...

A group of United Arab Emirates officials became the first Gulf Arab delegation ever to visit in Israel on Tuesday, cementing a normalisation deal in an occasion that Israel and U.S. officials described as historic but the Palestinians called “shameful”. The UAE and Gulf neighbour Bahrain...