Unpaid salaries, mask shortages, threats from patients' families -- doctors across Iraq are cracking under such conditions, just as they face a long-feared spike in coronavirus cases. "We're collapsing," said Mohammed, a doctor at a COVID-19 ward in Baghdad who declined to use his full name...

More than a dozen pro-Iran fighters arrested in an unprecedented raid by elite Iraqi forces were released Monday and the case against them dropped, their group's spokesman said. Counter-terrorism forces detained the Kataeb Hezbollah members late Thursday for allegedly planning a rocket...

 A senior member of Lebanon’s negotiating team with the IMF resigned as finance ministry director general on Monday, saying vested interests were undermining the government’s economic recovery plan. Alain Bifani, who held the ministry post for 20 years, is the second member of...

The Israeli government is set to hold a Cabinet vote on July 1 on the annexation of all settlement blocs and the Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank. As the annexation is facing outcry from the Palestinians and the international community, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is...

Iran said Monday it has called for Interpol to arrest President Donald Trump and 35 other US officials for the January killing of its top general in an American drone strike. Tehran prosecutor Ali Qasi Mehr, quoted by state news agency IRNA, said 36 US political and military officials...

The United Nations top human rights official Michelle Bachelet called on Israel Monday to halt its "illegal" plans to annex part of occupied Palestinian territory in the West Bank and warned it could lead to deadly clashes. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to extend Israeli...

An expiring United Nations weapons embargo on Iran must remain in place to prevent it from "becoming the arms dealer of choice for rogue regimes and terrorist organizations around the world," the U.S. special representative to Iran said Sunday. Brian Hook told The Associated Press that the...

Lebanon's foreign ministry has summoned the US ambassador over remarks criticising Hezbollah, a day after a judge slapped a controversial ban on local media covering her statements, state media said Sunday. Foreign Minister Nassif Hitti "has summoned US ambassador Dorothy Shea for a meeting...

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Sunday that his country is experiencing its toughest year because of US sanctions coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic. The coronavirus crisis has exacerbated economic problems that worsened after US President Donald Trump withdrew in 2018 from Iran's...

Hamas has warned that Israeli annexation in the occupied West Bank would be a "declaration of war", but the Islamist group must weigh the cost of a new fight, analysts said. In recent weeks, there have been almost daily protests in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip against US President Donald...

Iran launched a campaign Saturday to motivate a reluctant public to use face masks as the country faces a sharp increase in infections and deaths from the coronavirus. Iran was one of the worst hit countries early in the pandemic, and since restrictions to stem its spread were gradually...

Egypt lifted many restrictions Saturday put in place against the coronavirus pandemic, reopening cafes, clubs, gyms and theaters after more than three months of closure, despite a continued upward trend in new infections. Authorities also allowed the reopening of mosques and churches,...

Iran's supreme leader warned Saturday that the country's economic problems would worsen if the novel coronavirus spreads unchecked, saying the initial momentum to contain it had since "waned". The Islamic republic has struggled to curb the COVID-19 outbreak since it reported its first...

Israel’s latest hit TV series takes the viewers straight into the heart of the country’s archenemy Iran. “Tehran” tells the story of Tamar Rabinyan, a young Mossad operative tasked with hacking into and disabling an Iranian nuclear reactor so the Israeli military can carry out an...

Two rockets were fired from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip towards Israeli territory Friday, the army said. Sirens sounded in the Israeli district of Sderot, close to the border with Gaza, medics and the army said. The reported rocket fire came the day after Hamas warned that Israel's...

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said Friday she does not yet have reason to see a breakthrough in negotiations with Lebanon to help resolve the country's economic crisis. Georgieva told a Reuters Newsmaker webcast event that IMF officials continue to work...

Iraqi security forces raided a stronghold of a powerful Iran-backed militia in southern Baghdad late Thursday and detained more than a dozen members of the group, government officials and paramilitary sources said. The raid was the most brazen action by Iraqi forces against a major...

A Turkish court handed down life sentences to 121 people Friday for taking part in the 2016 attempted overthrow of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, state media reported. The court in Ankara sentenced 86 suspects to "aggravated" life imprisonment for "attempting to violate the constitution"...

A UN rights investigator urged the European Union on Friday to consider measures to prevent or punish any Israeli annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank, a few days after over 1,000 European lawmakers made a similar call. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres added his...

A 5.5-magnitude earthquake jolted Turkey’s western province of Manisa on Friday, according to the country's disaster management agency. The Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) said the quake struck near the Saruhanli district at 10.21 a.m. local time (0721GMT). It originated...