Lebanon's banks will not go bankrupt and deposits are secure but the country needs foreign support to pull itself from crisis, Central Bank Gov. Riad Salameh said on Thursday, amid deep financial strains that have shaken confidence in banks. Speaking to broadcaster MTV in his first extended...

The Israeli defence ministry has hailed a "breakthrough" in the development of cheaper laser-based air defences, as tensions soar in the region after Iran hit US targets in retaliation for a high-profile assassination. The lasers, still under development, would be capable of intercepting...

Iraq's caretaker premier Adel Abdel Mahdi has asked the United States to send a delegation to Baghdad to begin preparing for a troop pullout, his office said on Friday. In a phone call late Thursday with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Abdel Mahdi "requested that delegates be sent to...

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has accepted an invitation from Iran to take part in its investigation into the crash of a Ukrainian airplane in Tehran, the agency confirmed late on Thursday. The NTSB said in a statement its Response Operations Center had received...

Iran could have nuclear weapons in one to two years if the country carries on violating the 2015 nuclear accord, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Friday. “If they continue with unravelling the Vienna agreement, then yes, within a fairly short period of time, between one...

Iran on Friday denied being responsible for the downing of a Ukraine International Airlines jet that crashed Wednesday in Tehran, calling the allegation a lie and psychological operation of the U.S., the state-run IRNA news agency reported. In a statement, government spokesman Ali Rabiei...

Iranian newspapers proclaimed the country's attack on U.S. forces in Iraq to be "a dark night for Americans," and Washington's "first admission of failure in history." On the bustling streets of Tehran, however, there was relief Thursday that neither side appeared primed for war. “War...

Iran spurned the U.S. president’s call for a new nuclear pact and its commanders threatened more attacks as the Middle East remained on edge following the U.S. killing of an Iranian general and Tehran’s retaliatory missile strikes. Concern the war-scarred region was primed for a wider...

A Ukraine airliner that crashed in Iran, killing all 176 people aboard, was most likely brought down accidentally by Iranian air defenses, U.S. officials said on Thursday, as President Donald Trump said he had a terrible feeling about the disaster. One U.S. official said U.S. satellites had...

 U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday she did not believe President Donald Trump's administration had made the United States safer by killing Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani. "I do not believe in terms of what is in the public domain that they...

The powerful Lebanese group Hezbollah is working to remove obstacles to a deal on a new government which must be formed as soon as possible to avoid collapse, one of its top officials said on Thursday. Lebanon has been without a functioning government since Saad al-Hariri quit as prime...

A senior Iranian commander said Iran's missile attacks on U.S. targets in Iraq did not aim to kill American soldiers but sought to damage Washington's "military machine" and were the start of a series of attacks across the region, state television reported. Amirali Hajizadeh, the head of...

Turkish and Pegasus airlines will resume flights to Iran and Iraq Thursday night, company sources told Reuters, after they halted flights for some 24 hours due to tensions between Iran and the United States. Turkish Airlines will fly to Tehran out of Istanbul's Sabiha Gokcen Airport at 1805...

Following the U.S. drone strike that killed a top Iranian general, President Donald Trump will ask allies to scrap the Iran nuclear deal, Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday. The agreement has been unraveling since Trump pulled the United States from it. "The president is going to call...

President Donald Trump has stepped back from new military action against Iran after its missile strikes on Iraqi bases housing U.S. troops caused no casualties but he told Iran he would tighten already crippling U.S. sanctions. Trump and Iranian officials looked to defuse a crisis that on...

Arch-foes Tehran and Washington may be temporarily calling it even after Iranian missiles targeted US forces in Iraq, but analysts predict violent instability will keep blighting Baghdad. "Iraq will remain a zone of conflict," said Randa Slim of the Washington based Middle East Institute....

Iranian investigators said Thursday that the crew members of the Ukrainian jetliner that crashed the previous day never made a radio call for help and were trying to turn back to the airport when the plane went down. Iran's civil aviation authority made the comments in a preliminary...

Two rockets reportedly landed in Iraq’s heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad early Thursday, where the U.S. embassy is located. Warning sirens could be heard blaring near the embassy compound, according to security sources. No further details were available.

Iran is believed to have deliberately sought to avoid U.S. military casualties in missile strikes on bases housing American troops in Iraq launched in retaliation for the U.S. killing of an Iranian general, according to U.S. and European government sources familiar with intelligence...

President Donald Trump said Wednesday Iran appeared to be "standing down" after missile strikes on US troop bases in Iraq that resulted in no American or Iraqi deaths. "All of our soldiers are safe and only minimal damage was sustained at our military bases. Our great American forces are...