U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday that his country welcomes an apparent agreement among Iraq’s Shia, Sunni and Kurdish groups to form a new government, adding it would need to be capable of confronting the coronavirus pandemic, helping the economy and bringing arms under...

A number of Arab countries have extended their lockdowns of major cities in a bid to curb the spread of the coronavirus, despite the curfews having a devastating impact on local businesses. Jordan announced on Sunday that it was extending its lockdown - one of the strictest in the world -...

 Defence firm Elbit Systems said Monday it will manufacture thousands of automatic ventilation machines at the request of the Israeli government as the coronavirus outbreak has led to a global shortage. Based on technology developed by LifeCan Medical, these machines will enable...

Iran's death toll from the coronavirus outbreak has risen to 4,585, with 111 more overnight, a health ministry official said Monday, adding the total number of infected cases had reached 73,303 in the most-affected Middle Eastern country On Sunday, the government lifted a ban on travel...

 Coronavirus testing has resumed in the Gaza Strip after Israel allowed five testing kits purchased by the World Health Organization (WHO) into the enclave, a Gaza health ministry spokesman said Monday. But the spokesman, Ashraf al-Qidra, said the kits would be of "limited immediate...

Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu resigned late Sunday, taking responsibility for a poorly timed announcement of a weekend coronavirus curfew that prompted thousands of people to rush into the streets. Soylu is one of the most senior figures in Turkish President Recep Tayyip...

Jordan on Sunday extended a month-long lockdown that has closed schools, universities and government agencies until the end of the month to stem the spread of coronavirus, the government spokesman said. Amjad Adailah said Prime Minister Omar Razzaz took the decision in light of...

Turkey's confirmed cases of coronavirus increased by 4,789 in the past 24 hours, and 97 people more have died, taking the death toll to 1,198, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said Sunday. The total number of recovered cases stood at 3,446, and the number of tests carried out over the last 24...

Israel's president on Sunday turned down a request from Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz for a two-week extension to form a new coalition government. The announcement by President Reuven Rivlin means that Gantz and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have a midnight deadline Monday...

Turkey is not planning to make an agreement with the International Monetary Fund, a presidential spokesman said on Sunday, as the country eyes funding options to cushion the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak. On Friday, Reuters cited officials as saying Turkey had held talks with...

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said Sunday the country had won a legal "victory" over $1.6 billion of its assets that had long been frozen on a US request in Luxembourg. Tehran and Washington have long been arch enemies and tensions have risen sharply since President Donald Trump in 2018...

A handful of priests celebrated Easter on Sunday at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, built on the site where Christians believe Jesus was crucified and resurrected. In the heart of Jerusalem's Old City, the church -- which had not been closed over Easter for at least a century -- has been...

Turkey’s confirmed cases of coronavirus increased by 4,747 and 98 people died in the last 24 hours, taking the total death toll from the disease to 1,006, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Friday. The total number of recovered cases stood at 2,423, with 281 recoveries in the last 24...

Iran's total death toll from the new coronavirus outbreak rose to 4,232 Friday with 122 lives lost in the past 24 hours, according to a health ministry spokesman. The total number of people diagnosed with the disease increased by 1,972 in the past 24 hours to a total of 68,192, the spokesman,...

Lebanon's security forces said Friday they had made their largest cannabis seizure in history last month, unearthing 25 tonnes of the drug intended for Africa. The Mediterranean country on March 15 announced a lockdown to stop the spread of COVID-19, which has now officially infected 609...

 Hamas arrested a Palestinian in Gaza on Thursday, saying that he had taken part in a video conference with Israelis and describing his act as “treason.” The Gaza interior ministry identified the man as Rami Aman and said that some of his associates, whose details were not disclosed,...

Iraqi oil minister Thamer Ghadhban said on Thursday it was necessary to determine the limit of oil cuts, the timeline, the start date of applying the measures and to distribute the shares fairly and equally, a statement from oil ministry said. The minister’s comments were made in the OPEC+...

The contrast could hardly have been starker -- an octogenarian Palestinian president giving a brief pre-recorded speech, and a prime minister talking in-depth and fielding questions about the coronavirus response. As the Palestinian government seeks to combat the spread of COVID-19, its...

Iraq's president named intelligence chief Mustafa al-Kadhimi as prime minister-designate on Thursday, the third person tapped to lead the country in just 10 weeks as it struggles to replace a government that fell last year after months of deadly protests. Kadhimi was nominated by President...

Iran's health ministry said Thursday 117 new deaths from the novel coronavirus took the total to 4,110 in one of the countries worst hit by the pandemic. But ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said the latest figures showed there was a downward trend in the number of new coronavirus...