Iran is ready to cooperate with the European Union on issues related to the nuclear deal it agreed with world powers in 2015, President Hassan Rouhani was quoted as saying on Monday by the ISNA news service. He made his comments at a meeting with Josep Borell, the head of the EU’s...

Thousands of Israeli Arabs, many waving Palestinian flags, demonstrated in this town in Israel at the weekend to voice their fear that U.S. President Donald Trump’s Middle East plan could see them stripped of their rights as Israeli citizens. Trump’s proposal, disclosed last week, would see...

Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday held talks with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and called for the opening of missions in each others' countries, during a visit aimed at boosting ties. Netanyahu last visited Uganda in July 2016 to mark the 40th anniversary of a hostage rescue at...

A month after a U.S. missile killed him, Qassem Soleimani looms as large over Iraq’s fractured democracy as he ever did alive. The death of the Iranian general removed a shrewd guiding hand on the pro-Tehran Shi’ite militias who revered him, setting off a menacing new instability in Iraq’s...

Iran will launch a satellite by the end of this week, a government minister said on Monday, as part of a fledging programme that the United States says is a cover for ballistic missile development. "We are not afraid of failure and we will not lose hope. With your prayers and trust in God,...

Bridegrooms in the Gaza Strip are finding marriage a path to debtors’ prison rather than to happiness. Wedding celebrations cost around $10,000 in the Palestinian enclave, but a tradition of strong family ties and large gatherings often trumps financial common sense. So with...

Iraqi Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s supporters, also known as blue hats, on Monday allegedly opened fire on people protesting against the appointment of Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi as the country’s prime minister. This came after al-Sadr had asked his supporters to help security forces clear the...

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation said on Monday it rejects U.S. President Donald Trump's Middle East peace plan. The pan-Islamic body, which represents more than 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide, "rejects this US-Israeli plan, as it does not meet the minimum aspirations and legitimate...

Top EU diplomat Josep Borrell held talks Monday in the Iranian capital on a mission aimed at lowering tensions over the Islamic republic's nuclear programme. Borrell's trip, his first to Iran since taking office, follows a spike in tensions between arch foes Washington and Tehran following...

Iran is no longer sharing evidence from the investigation into the Ukraine airliner crash with Ukraine after audio from the investigation was leaked by Ukrainian media, the director in charge of accident investigations at Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization was quoted as saying on Monday....

Iran will not have bilateral talks with America, Iran’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday. “Iran does not have and will not have any kind of bilateral negotiation with American and this is our policy,” ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said in a press conference broadcast live on state TV....

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said Monday that the spread of China's new coronavirus had hit oil demand and called for an effort to stabilise oil prices, Iran's official news agency IRNA reported. The minister also said Iran would agree to an earlier OPEC meeting if the rest of the...

Protests camps in Iraq's capital and the south began to fracture on Monday, activists and AFP reporters said, split over whether to back prime minister-designate Mohammad Allawi. Allawi's nomination on February 1 has so far failed to quell the months-long rallies sweeping Baghdad and the...

The death toll from anti-government protests in Iraq has risen to 556, Iraq's Independent High Commission for Human Rights said Sunday. A statement from the press office of Ali al-Bayati, a representative of the commission, said those who doubt the figure should reveal their evidence....

US presidential advisor Jared Kushner said on Sunday that if Palestinians are unable to meet the conditions of the new Middle East peace plan he crafted, Israel should not take "the risk to recognize them as a state." The plan laid out by Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law, and...

A policy statement by Lebanon's new government calls for interest rate cuts and bank recapitalization in a rescue plan that includes "painful steps" to address a financial crisis, according to a draft seen Sunday by Reuters. The policy statement, on which the new government will seek a...

Populist Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr urged his followers Sunday to help security forces clear roads blocked during months of sit-in protests, calling for "day-to-day life" to resume following the appointment of a new prime minister. Sadr, who has alternately sided with the anti-government...

Dozens protested near the US embassy in Lebanon Sunday against US President Donald Trump's Middle East plan. The demonstrators, both Palestinian refugees and Lebanese, chanted slogans and flew flags as security forces blocked off a road to the diplomatic compound. Some protesters tried...

Iranians must have the "right to choose" between different political movements, President Hassan Rouhani said Sunday, as controversy grows over the disqualification of thousands of candidates in upcoming polls. Speaking at the mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini during annual...

Israel launched air strikes on the Gaza Strip early Sunday in retaliation for projectiles fired from the Palestinian enclave into southern Israel, the army said. Military jets and helicopters struck targets linked to Hamas, the group that controls Gaza, shortly after midnight, with no...