Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat remained in critical but stable condition in an Israeli hospital Tuesday, his family said, after he was infected with the coronavirus. Erekat’s family told the official Palestinian news agency WAFA that he was receiving artificial respiration in the...

A first official United Arab Emirates delegation arrived in Israel on Tuesday after the two countries normalised ties last month under a U.S.-brokered accord forged largely over shared fears of Iran. An Etihad Airways plane carrying Emirati government officials from Abu Dhabi, with U.S....

 The cabinet of the United Arab Emirates on Monday approved an agreement to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel that was signed in Washington last month, ahead of the first official visit by a UAE government delegation to Israel. The UAE and fellow Gulf state Bahrain in...

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...

The IMF Monday urged Middle East and North African countries to accelerate reforms and diversification efforts as the energy-rich region faces unprecedented challenges due to the coronavirus and low oil prices. In its latest regional economic outlook report, the International Monetary Fund...

Ben Smith of the New York Times is not known for pulling his punches. The former editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed, who revealed the dossier on suspicions that the Kremlin held kompromat on Donald Trump, is on a new beat – the US media. Smith’s most recent column was a bombshell, his target...

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday said that arms sales to Iran would breach UN resolutions and result in sanctions, after Tehran said the longstanding UN embargo on arms trade with the Islamic republic had expired. "The United States is prepared to use its domestic authorities to...

The leaders of Lebanon’s Maronite and Orthodox Christian churches urged Lebanese leaders on Sunday to stop delaying talks on forming a government in scathing sermons in which they blamed them for the country’s financial crisis and political deadlock. Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai, leader...

Long-time chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, diagnosed with coronavirus, was being hospitalised in Israel on Sunday after his condition worsened, the Palestine Liberation Organization and his brother said. The PLO said in a statement that "following his contraction of Covid-19, and...

An arms embargo imposed since 2007 by the UN Security Council (UNSC) ended Sunday, according to Iran’s foreign ministry. All restrictions on the transfer of arms, related activities and financial services to and from Iran, and all prohibitions regarding the entry into or transit through...

Under a controversial normalization deal, an Israeli trade delegation will travel to the Gulf state of Bahrain on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced.  In a written statement, Netanyahu said Israel’s first-ever trade delegation to Bahrain will be led by National...

An Egyptian activist and satirist detained for more than two years has been released, his family has announced. Shady Abu Zeid was arrested in May 2018 and held in pre-trial detention over charges of "membership of a banned group" and "disseminating false news", according to rights...

Iran announced Saturday that its death toll from the coronavirus has passed the milestone of 30,000 killed, in what has been the Mideast region's worst outbreak. The announcement by Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari saw Iran put its total death toll from the outbreak at 30,123...

Lebanon’s largest Christian political party said on Saturday it would not back the nomination of former Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri to lead a government to tackle a deep economic crisis, further complicating efforts to agree a new premier. Hariri, who quit as prime minister last October...

Supporters of Hashed al-Shaabi, an Iraqi paramilitary network dominated by Iran-backed factions, Saturday burned down the main Kurdish party's headquarters in Baghdad after criticism from a Kurdish ex-minister. Hundreds of Hashed demonstrators swept past a security detail and stormed into...

Lebanon marks the first anniversary on Saturday of a non-sectarian protest movement that has rocked the political elite but has yet to achieve its goal of sweeping reform. A whirlwind of hope and despair has gripped the country in the year since protests began with an economic crisis and a...

Israel, which was angered in February by the UN listing companies with activities in illegal Israeli settlements, has granted no visas to UN rights staff for months, the agency said Friday. "Visa applications have not been formally refused, but the Israeli authorities have abstained from...

An exiled Iran opposition group said Friday it had uncovered a secret new military site run by a shadowy defence ministry research unit which they fear is being used for testing in the Iranian nuclear programme. The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said that work on the site in...

At the plush Armani hotel in the shadow of the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest tower, a rabbi switches on the stoves at what is billed as Dubai's first kosher restaurant. With the ink still fresh on the United Arab Emirates' landmark normalisation accord with Israel, restaurants and...

One of the targets of large cyber attacks on two Iranian government institutions this week was the electronic infrastructure of the country’s ports, an Iranian news agency reported on Friday. The government’s Information Technology Organization on Thursday reported the hacking of two...