Top EU diplomat Josep Borrell is expected in Tehran Monday, Iran's foreign ministry announced a day ahead of the visit, amid new tensions over the Iranian nuclear issue. Borrell "will visit Iran tomorrow for the first time since taking office (in early december). He is set to meet the...

Furious anti-government youth held their ground in protest squares across Iraq's south on Sunday, despite the previous evening's appointment of a prime minister who insists he is an independent. Mohammad Allawi announced his own nomination as premier on Saturday, which marked exactly four...

Japan sent a naval destroyer to the Middle East on Sunday for a rare overseas mission to ensure the safety of its ships amid lingering tension between Iran and the US. The vessel left the Yokosuka naval base, south of Tokyo, for an information gathering mission in the Gulf of Oman, northern...

A decision by the United States to lift sanctions on one of two units of the Chinese tanker company COSCO was not a sign that the Trump administration was letting up on its “maximum pressure” against Iran, a senior U.S. official said on Saturday. The lifting of sanctions on Friday by the...

Turkey's president received in Istanbul the political chief of Hamas on Saturday. The closed-door meeting was held between Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Hamas's Ismail Haniyeh at the Vahdettin Pavilion, lasting one hour and 15 minutes. Erdogan had held a phone call with his...

Former communications minister Mohammed Allawi was named prime minister-designate by rival Iraqi factions Saturday after weeks of political deadlock, three officials said. The choice comes as the country weathers troubled times including ongoing anti-government protests and the constant...

The Lebanese government has received a Central Bank circular aimed at regulating relationships between banks and their customers and will study and decide on it within days, Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni told broadcaster LBCI on Saturday. Lebanese banks, seeking to prevent capital flight,...

Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas Saturday announced a cut of all ties with Israel and the United States, including security cooperation, days after Washington unveiled a controversial Middle East peace plan. Abbas spoke at an Arab League meeting in Cairo called after US President Donald...

Arab foreign ministers are meeting Saturday in Egypt’s capital to discuss a White House plan for ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that would grant the Palestinians limited self-rule in parts of the occupied West Bank, while allowing Israel to annex all its settlements there and keep...

A deadline set by Iraq's president for parliament to name a new premier was set to expire Saturday amid renewed pressure from the street after influential cleric Moqtada Sadr called for fresh protests. Baghdad and the mainly Shiite south have been gripped by four months of anti-government...

Israeli warplanes hit the Gaza Strip's Islamist rulers Hamas on Saturday after cross-border mortar fire by Palestinian militants, the Israeli army said. Fighter aircraft hit "Hamas terror targets in the northern Gaza Strip," an army statement said. "Among the targets were weapon storage...

New American sanctions against Iran's nuclear programme will have "no effect", Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said Friday. Washington announced new sanctions on Thursday against the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran and its head Ali Akbar Salehi. Brian Hook,...

Iraq's leading Shi'ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, condemned Friday the use of force to disperse protest camps across the country, as security forces stepped up a crackdown against demonstrators. Protesters across Iraq are seeking the removal of what they see as a corrupt...

Turkey will never recognize and accept the U.S.’ so-called peace plan, the country’s president said on Friday. “This plan aims annexation of the occupied Palestine territories,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during a meeting of provincial heads of his ruling Justice and Development (AK)...

MOSCOW (AP) — When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left the White House after the unveiling of President Donald Trump’s Mideast plan, which hugely favors Israel, he and his entourage could barely contain their glee as they boasted of realizing their dream of swiftly annexing large...

Jordan has signed a new $1.3 billion programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the state news agency Petra said on Thursday. Petra said it was a four-year programme, but it gave no further details. In December, the country’s finance minister said a new IMF deal would secure...

The United States is trying to secure permission from Iraq to bring Patriot missile defenses into the country to better defend U.S. forces after Iran’s Jan. 8 missile attack, which wounded 50 American troops, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Thursday. The United States did not have...

The United States will allow Russian, Chinese and European firms to continue work at Iranian nuclear sites to make it harder for Iran to develop a nuclear weapon, but will impose sanctions on its nuclear entity and top official, sources said on Thursday. The Trump administration, which in...

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner said Washington wants Israel to wait until after its March 2 election before making any moves towards settlement annexation in the West Bank following the announcement of a U.S. peace plan. Kushner, an architect of the peace proposal hailed by Israel...

Business is booming at Iran’s largest flag factory which makes U.S., British and Israeli flags for Iranian protesters to burn. At the factory in the town of Khomein, southwest of the capital Tehran, young men and women print the flags by hand then hang them up to dry. The factory produces...