UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged Israel to drop plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, saying it would be a "most serious violation of international law," in a report made public Tuesday. The report to the Security Council comes ahead of its twice-yearly meeting on...

A Palestinian man was shot dead Tuesday at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank after driving his car "quickly" towards a border officer, Israeli police said. The Palestinian was "shot and killed" at a checkpoint in Abu Dis, close to Jerusalem, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said....

An Iranian official confirmed Tuesday the arrest of three members of a student charity but denied the organisation's offices had been shut, ILNA news agency reported. "The recent arrest of three members of Imam Ali's (Popular Students Relief) Society was done based on a court order," Zahra...

Lebanon's economic crisis has led to a collapse of the local currency and purchasing power, plunging whole segments of society into poverty as exemplified by near-empty fridges in many households. Earlier this year, Lebanon defaulted on its debt and, while the peg to the dollar remains...

Turkish authorities allowed a group of top lawyers Tuesday to continue a symbolic march into the capital of Ankara, ending a more than 24-hour standoff between the lawyers and police. The heads of some 60 regional bar associations in Turkey embarked on a march to Ankara wearing professional...

Two months before Donald Trump unveiled his Middle East peace plan on Jan. 28, Luxembourg's foreign minister was certain the US president would break with the European Union and recognize Israeli sovereignty over Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. Jean Asselborn wrote to his EU...

A further slump in Iran's rial is "temporary", Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Tuesday after the currency sank to its lowest value in decades. A US dollar was offered for about 205,000 rials Tuesday, up from 188,200 rials Friday and 198,000 rials early Monday, according to foreign...

Baby Omar Yaghi was eight months old when he died, unable to travel from Gaza to Israel for life-saving heart surgery after Palestinian officials cut coordination. The baby's mother Raneen has been unable to speak or eat since losing her son last week, his uncle Mohammed Yaghi told AFP....

Cowering in a pipe after fleeing Lebanon, a man desperate for work became the latest Sudanese national to risk his life in a perilous trek across the Israeli border. With Lebanon facing its worst economic crisis in decades, soaring unemployment has sparked a new trend at the country's...

Iran’s currency Monday dropped to its lowest value ever against the dollar and officials warned Iranian exporters to bring their foreign earnings home from abroad. Money exchange shops briefly traded the Iranian rial 200,000 for a dollar and later in the day, the currency was valued at...

 Palestinians are worried their restricted access to the salty waters of the Dead Sea and its mineral-rich beaches could be cut further if Israel annexes land in the occupied West Bank. Israel, citing support from US President Donald Trump, has announced plans to extend sovereignty...

In Baghdad’s vast exhibition grounds, masked workers lugged hospital beds into rows for makeshift coronavirus wards, as doctors and officials sounded the alarm Sunday over a surge in virus cases in the capital. The long-dreaded scenario is gripping the country amid a severe economic crisis...

Iranian health authorities reported over 100 new deaths from the novel coronavirus Sunday for the third day running, stressing that the outbreak had not yet peaked in the hard-hit country. Iran reported its first coronavirus cases on February 19 and has since struggled to contain the...

When Jacqueline Shahada was blinded in one eye during a Palestinian demonstration along the Gaza border, she never thought she would lose her husband and children too. It was November 2018 and like every Friday for more than six months, thousands of Palestinians gathered along the...

Iranian health authorities Saturday announced more than 100 new deaths from coronavirus and another 2,000 cases of the illness, as the country's fight against the pandemic entered its fifth month. Iran reported its first coronavirus cases on February 19, and it has since struggled to...

Iran on Friday blasted Britain, France, and Germany for their opposition to lifting a UN arms embargo set to expire in October.  “E3 must stop public face-saving & muster the courage to state publicly what they admit privately: their failure to fulfill even own JCPOA [2015 Iran...

Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades has postponed a planned visit to Jerusalem next Tuesday because of concerns over the worsening coronavirus situation in Israel, officials said. Anastasiades had been due to hold high-level discussions on energy, tourism and defence but both sides agreed...

Standing barefoot on an Israeli beach, Hamama Jarban blew her whistle and watched her students race towards the water clutching their colorful surfboards. Each weekend she welcomes enthusiastic would-be surfers to the shore, teaching them how to lie and then stand on their boards. "I am...

The UN nuclear watchdog's 35-nation Board of Governors called on Iran Friday to stop denying the agency access to two suspected former sites and to cooperate fully with it, diplomats attending the meeting said. A resolution, adopted in a vote called after China expressed opposition to it,...

Turkish bombardment has killed a Kurdish shepherd in northern Iraq, a local official said on Friday, the first known civilian victim of Ankara's air and ground assault on the region. The official from Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, Ihsan Chalabi, told AFP the shepherd was killed early...