The Pentagon announced Friday that it is deploying an amphibious assault ship and a Patriot missile battery to the Middle East to bolster an aircraft carrier force sent to counter alleged threats from Iran. The USS Arlington, which transports marines, amphibious vehicles, conventional...

Around 180,000 Muslims prayed at east Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound Friday, the first in the holy Islamic month of Ramadan, a body responsible for the site said. The figure from the Waqf organisation is 50 percent higher than last year, when around 120,000 people attended the first...

Nearly half of the vulture population in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights have died of apparent poisoning, Israel's Nature and Parks Authority Friday, in a new blow to an already decimated breed. Eight out of around 20 griffon vultures left in the area were found dead on Friday, the...

A deputy head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard said that Tehran will not hold talks with its arch enemy the United States and that Washington "will not dare launch military action against us", the semi-official news agency Tasnim reported Friday. U.S. President Donald Trump Thursday urged...

Israel lifted a ban on Friday on Palestinian fishing boats putting to sea off Gaza, an Israeli military body said, ending a measure imposed during a deadly flare-up of violence earlier this month. The measure is seen as a first step in implementing a fragile truce meant to avert a new...

The U.S. is crafting a surrender document, not a peace plan, and the Palestinians will not accept it regardless of how much money is offered, Palestine's foreign minister said Thursday. Riyad al-Maliki was addressing a meeting at the UN's New York headquarters at which the U.S.'s Middle...

Loudspeakers blared nationalist Arabic music across hillsides in northern Israel on Thursday as children ran across a field waving Palestinian flags. The scene was a rally for members of Israel’s 21 percent Arab minority. The Israeli term for them is Israeli-Arabs, but many now reject that...

European powers denounced Iran’s threat to resume nuclear work on Thursday but vowed to save a landmark deal with Tehran despite US pressure. Iran said it would defy some limits it had accepted under the 2015 agreement, and threatened to go further if Europe, China and Russia fail to...

Scores of Jewish settlers on Thursday forced their way into Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound to mark Israel’s “Independence Day”, according to a Palestinian official.  “Since Thursday morning, over 130 Jewish extremists have entered the compound to mark the 71st...

European powers said Thursday that they still backed the nuclear deal with Iran, but rejected any "ultimatums" from Tehran to keep it alive. "We reject any ultimatums and we will assess Iran's compliance on the basis of Iran's performance regarding its nuclear-related commitments" under a...

A lack of health funding in Gaza means 1,700 people shot by Israeli security forces may have to have amputations in the next two years, Jamie McGoldrick, the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for occupied Palestinian territory, told reporters Wednesday. McGoldrick said 29,000 Palestinians had...

The Iraqi judiciary has tried and sentenced more than 500 foreigners since the start of 2018 for joining Daesh (ISIS), the country's Supreme Court announced Wednesday. It said "514 verdicts were issued, for both men and women, while another 202 accused are still being interrogated and 44...

Washington is counting on Middle East allies to help prevent its sanctions on Iran's oil exports from sending oil prices skyrocketing, but analysts warn that this could further destabilise the already precarious balance within OPEC. The US reimposed sanctions on Iran -- including its crude...

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made an unannounced visit to Baghdad on Tuesday and met Iraq’s prime minister and other top officials to discuss the safety of Americans in Iraq and explain U.S. security concerns amid rising Iranian activity. The visit came two days after U.S. national...

Israel will not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weaponry, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday, reiterating a long-held Israeli position after Tehran announced it was scaling back some of its commitments under a 2015 nuclear deal. "This morning, on my way here, I heard that Iran...

An Israeli newspaper published a document Tuesday which was circulated between officials in Israel’s Foreign Ministry that details elements of the U.S. back-channel peace plan known as the "Deal of the Century". No American, Israeli or Palestinian authorities have confirmed the leaked...

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday threatened to resume high level enrichment of uranium if his country’s interests in the nuclear deal with world powers are not protected within 60 days. Rouhani’s remarks came at a speech broadcast on national television. Last year, U.S....

The Palestinian U.N. ambassador says the European Union, Russia and the United Nations should take action to save a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict if the long-awaited U.S. peace plan doesn't lead to two independent nations. Riyad Mansour told a group of journalists...

The Palestinians are asking the European Union to pick up the mantle in defense of the two-state solution if the upcoming US peace plan ditches Palestinian statehood, their UN envoy said Tuesday. President Donald Trump's administration is expected to unveil the long-awaited plan possibly as...

Iran's top security body dismissed as "psychological warfare" a U.S. announcement that a carrier strike group and bombers are being sent to the Middle East as a message to Tehran, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported Tuesday. U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton said on...