Fearing food shortages in protest-hit Lebanon, Sanaa crammed bags of fava beans into a packed trolley, one of dozens of shoppers who rushed to buy basic supplies in a Beirut department store. "I don't remember ever stocking up on so much food," said the 40-year-old woman. "We are preparing...

An explosion in Iraq has injured five Italian soldiers, three of them seriously, the Italian military said on Sunday. The military said an improvised explosive devise detonated as a team of Italian special forces passed close by. The wounded men were evacuated to safety by U.S. helicopters...

Political talks to agree an urgently needed Lebanese government are still deadlocked, three senior sources said on Sunday, as the powerful Shi’ite group Hezbollah indicated it would not be forced into concessions. The latest failure to break Lebanon’s political impasse will worsen pressures...

Iran’s Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that the whereabouts of former FBI agent Robert Levinson, missing since visiting Iran’s Kish Island in 2007, remain unknown, and it denied a report that Tehran had opened a criminal case against him. Levinson disappeared while on a trip to the island...

Israelis were prevented from entering Jordanian border enclaves on Sunday after a deal allowing farmers to work land there expired, 25 years after a landmark peace treaty. Since the two countries signed the deal in 1994, Jordan has allowed Israeli farmers access to the territories of Ghumar...

Iran has discovered a massive new oil field, President Hassan Rouhani said Sunday, a find that would boost its proven reserves by about a third in a rare piece of "good news" for an economy battered by US sanctions. In a speech aired on state TV, Rouhani said the country's economy had...

Iraqi protesters clashed with security forces in Baghdad on Sunday, following a deadly crackdown that Amnesty International warned could turn into a "bloodbath". Demonstrators across the south fought to maintain anti-government sit-ins, as security forces fired tear gas to try to keep them...

Iran should come to the negotiating table with world powers and Gulf countries to seek a new deal that would deescalate regional tensions and revive its economy, a senior United Arab Emirates official said on Sunday. Tensions in the Gulf have risen since attacks on oil tankers in a vital...

Former Secretary-General of Lebanon’s Shia Hezbollah movement criticized Iran’s supreme leader Sunday for being behind corruption in Lebanon and Iraq, where anti-government and corruption protests are ongoing. Subhi al-Tufayli, speaking to Arab and social media, delivered remarks on recent...

Five months before he passed away, the first elected Palestinian President Yasir Arafat had sent a message to the Turkish government to continue defending the holy city of Al-Quds (Jerusalem) and Al-Aqsa mosque.  Arafat, who was also founder of the Palestinian Liberation Organization...

Seven protesters were killed Saturday in Iraq as security forces cleared protest sites in Baghdad and Basra after political leaders agreed to stand by the embattled government by any means. The leaders, sources told AFP, also agreed to put an end to rallies rocking Iraq's capital and its...

Iran has the capacity to enrich uranium up to 60%, a spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) said on Saturday, far more than is required for most civilian uses but short of the 90% needed to make nuclear bomb fuel. “The organization has the possibility to produce 5%, 20%...

Strange men following them. Threats phoned in or muttered in the middle of a crowd. As Iraq's anti-government protests falter, activists and volunteer medics feel the noose tightening around them. Speaking to AFP using pseudonyms, they have described an apparent campaign of surveillance and...

A rationing of dollars by banks in protest-hit Lebanon sparked growing alarm on Saturday as some petrol pumps ran dry and grocery stores introduced fresh price hikes. For two decades, the Lebanese pound has been pegged to the greenback and both currencies used interchangeably in daily life....

Lebanon’s grand mufti, the top cleric for Sunni Muslims, called on Saturday for the formation of a new emergency government of technical experts and for those in power to meet protesters’ demands. The country is in political and economic turmoil after three weeks of nationwide protests that...

  Iraq's oil production and export rates remain stable, Oil Minister Thamer Ghadhban said Saturday, as the country remained gripped by widespread anti-government protests. "Ghadhban pointed to the stability of production and export rates, and the extractive side was in very good...

The smells of grilled cheese and cooked corn waft over the protesters in the Lebanese capital -- with daily crowds filling the the capital's main squares, the movement has been a boon for street vendors. Ibrahim is a plasterer by trade, but when he saw crowds flocking by the tens of...

Iran said Saturday it is prepared if necessary to release footage of an incident with a UN nuclear inspector last week that led to it cancelling her accreditation. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Iran of "an outrageous and unwarranted act of intimidation," while the European Union...

Iraqi security forces began clearing protest sites in Baghdad and across the south on Saturday, after political leaders agreed to stand by the current government by any means necessary, including force. The fractured political class appears to have rallied around embattled Prime Minister...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran is acknowledging for the first time it has an open case before its Revolutionary Court over the 2007 disappearance of a former FBI agent on an unauthorized CIA mission to the country, renewing questions over what happened to him. In a filing to...