Jordan imposed a 24-hour nationwide curfew on Thursday, starting from midnight, to help stem the coronavirus outbreak, the state news agency reported. Medical staff will be exempt. Jordan had registered 278 coronavirus cases and five deaths as of April 1.

Malka Abu Aker has seen her crowded refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank swell year upon year since fleeing there over 70 years ago, with the arrival of new generations and those escaping successive Mideast conflicts. But with the coronavirus spreading locally, the 73-year-old...

Battered by Lebanon’s economic crisis, Hassan Zeitar was already struggling to keep his family fed when the coronavirus lockdown stripped him of the little money he made as a minibus driver. Now housebound in Beirut, Zeitar is racking up debt at a local grocery to provide rice and lentils...

Iran said Thursday it "only acts in self-defence" after President Donald Trump warned it against attacks on US troops in Iraq, as a new war of words heated up despite the coronavirus pandemic. Tensions between the arch-foes flared in Iraq where the United States deployed Patriot air defence...

Iran on Thursday reported 124 new deaths from the coronavirus, raising its total to 3,160, as President Rouhani warned that the country may still battle the pandemic for another year. Health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour announced the latest toll in a news conference and confirmed...

Israeli Health Minister Yaakov Litzman and his wife were diagnosed with coronavirus and are in isolation following guidelines, his ministry said on Thursday. Several other senior officials, including the head of Israel's foreign intelligence agency Mossad, were also self-isolating due to...

Iran has no proxies but it has friends, tweeted Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Thursday, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump said that the country or its proxies planned a sneak attack on U.S. targets in Iraq. "Don't be misled by usual warmongers, AGAIN,...

Turkey’s death toll from the coronavirus outbreak increased by 63 to 277 on Tuesday, its highest rise yet, while the number of confirmed cases from the disease rose by 2,148 to 15,679, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said. Speaking to reporters in Ankara, Koca said 14,396 tests had been...

President Donald Trump warned Iran on Wednesday of a "heavy price" if it or its allies in Iraq attack US troops stationed there. "If this happens, Iran will pay a very heavy price, indeed!" Trump tweeted. The US president also wrote: "Upon information and belief, Iran or its proxies are...

Israel on Wednesday linked any assistance it might offer for the Gaza Strip's efforts against coronavirus to progress in its attempt to recover two Israeli soldiers lost during the 2014 war in the Palestinian enclave. Blockaded and impoverished, Islamist Hamas-ruled Gaza has reported 12...

A top Iranian general arrived in Baghdad this week to try and unify Iraq's fractured political leaders, Iraqi officials said Wednesday, as stiff opposition by one major bloc thwarts the chances the country's latest prime minister-designate can form a government. Esmail Ghaani, head of...

Iran's death toll from the new coronavirus has reached 3,036, with 138 deaths in the past 24 hours, Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur told state TV on Wednesday, adding that the country had 47,593 infected cases. "We had 2,987 new cases of infected people in the past 24 hours and...

The Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah is marshalling its deep resources in the fight against coronavirus, using a corps of volunteers, doctors and facilities to carve out a prominent role in the crisis-riven state's response. The campaign is part of wider efforts by Lebanon's sectarian...

Queen Tex factory in Gaza used to specialise in manufacturing shirts and jeans, but with the novel coronavirus epidemic sweeping the globe it has pivoted into medicalwear. Now lines of men are using old sewing machines to stitch together masks while also wearing them, as the blockaded...

Iran's president said on Wednesday the United States had missed a historic opportunity to lift sanctions on his country during the coronavirus outbreak, though he said the penalties had not hampered Tehran's fight against the infection. "It was a great opportunity for Americans to apologise...

 U.S Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held out the possibility Tuesday that the United States may consider easing sanctions on Iran and other nations to help fight the coronavirus epidemic but gave no concrete sign it plans to do so. The comments reflected a shift in tone by the U.S....

Lebanon’s government agreed a procedure on Tuesday to allow citizens abroad to come back despite a coronavirus lockdown after its expat policy drew criticism from political leaders. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, one of the country’s most powerful figures, had threatened to withdraw...

A U.N. aid agency Tuesday began delivering food to the homes of impoverished Palestinians instead of making them pick up such parcels at crowded distribution centers - part of an attempt to prevent a mass outbreak of the new coronavirus in the densely populated Gaza Strip. As the virus...

European nations have delivered medical goods to Iran in the first transaction under the Instex mechanism set up to evade American sanctions on Tehran, the German foreign ministry said Tuesday. "France, Germany and the United Kingdom confirm that Instex has successfully concluded its first...

The United States is expected to allow Russian, Chinese and European companies to continue their work at Iranian nuclear sites to make it harder for Tehran to develop nuclear weapons, four sources familiar with the matter said on Monday. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity and...