Israel’s military chief is pleading to keep politics out of the army amid rising protests by the Druze minority against a recently passed law that enshrines the state’s Jewish character and that critics say undermines its democratic values. Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot has called on “all commanders...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Iran on Wednesday that if it were to try to block the key Red Sea Bab al-Mandab strait, it would likely face an international coalition that would include Israel. "If Iran will try to block the straits of Bab al-Mandab, I am certain that it...

Senior Iranian officials Tuesday rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s offer of talks without preconditions as worthless and “a humiliation” after he acted to reimpose sanctions on Tehran following his withdrawal from a landmark nuclear deal. Separately, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said...

Egypt says police have killed five suspected militants in a shootout north of Cairo. The Interior Ministry says Monday the militants were killed in an exchange of fire as security forces raided their hideout in the el-Obour district. It says another five militants were arrested....

A Turkish court has rejected an appeal for U.S. Christian pastor Andrew Brunson to be released from house arrest during his trial on terrorism charges, state broadcaster TRT Haber said on Tuesday. Brunson's lawyer, Ismail Cem Halavurt, told Reuters he had not been notified of a court ruling.

An Israeli court jailed a 1948 Palestinian poet for five months Tuesday after convicting her of incitement to terrorism for a poem and remarks she posted on social media during a wave of Palestinian street attacks. Dareen Tatour, 36, posted on Facebook and YouTube a video of herself...

Israeli MPs are to return from summer recess next week to discuss mounting criticism of a new law proclaiming the country the nation state of the Jewish people, parliament said Tuesday. President Reuven Rivlin has meanwhile reportedly said he will sign the law in Arabic, in an apparent...

U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday he would be willing to meet Iranian leaders without preconditions to discuss how to improve ties after he pulled the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal, saying, "If they want to meet, we'll meet." Asked at a White House news conference...

Egyptian police are investigating the death of a Coptic Christian bishop who was found dead in his monastery northwest of Cairo Sunday, the Coptic Church said. The body of Bishop Epiphanius "was handed to forensic investigators to determine the cause of the death and whether or not it...

Iran's top security body has approved the release of opposition figures Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, under house arrest for seven years for leading mass protests in 2009, a family member told local media. "I have heard that the decision to lift the house arrest was approved...

A Palestinian teenager released by Israel Sunday after completing a prison term for kicking and slapping an Israeli soldier urged continued struggle against Israeli occupation of the West Bank, a call echoed by the Palestinian president. Ahed Tamimi, 17, became a heroine to Palestinians...

Two Palestinian fighters were killed in the eastern Gaza Strip early Sunday, their movement said, in an explosion during what residents said were preparations to launch a projectile at Israel. The left-wing Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) named the two members of...

Turkey’s Assyrian community has welcomed a new regulation allowing free allocation of places of worship such as synagogues, churches, and monasteries to minority foundations. Yilmaz Hicbezmez, deputy head of an association linked to the Mor Hananyo Monastery -- also known as the...

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi sacked five local election officials Saturday on charges of corruption during the May 12 parliamentary election, a spokesman for the Independent High Elections Commission (IHEC) said. The move comes as Iraq conducts a manual recount of the ballots - a...

An Egyptian court sentenced 75 people to death on Saturday, including top figures of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group, for their involvement in a 2013 sit-in, state media reported. The Cairo Criminal Court referred the sentences to the Grand Mufti — the country's top theological...

Thousands of people took to the streets of Baghdad and cities across southern Iraq Friday in the latest protests against corruption, social ills and political leadership. Surrounded by a cordon of anti-riot personnel equipped with electric batons, protestors in Baghdad's Tahrir Square...

 Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian man during Friday protests at the Gaza-Israel border, the health ministry in Gaza said in a statement. It named the dead man as Ghazi Abu Mustafee, 43, and said he was shot in the head near the border fence, east of Khan Younis in the...

The Israeli army has imposed a tight siege on the Palestinian village of Kubar near the West Bank city of Ramallah, eyewitnesses told Anadolu Agency on Friday. According to witnesses, Israeli forces stormed the village and raided the home of Mohamed Yousef, a local resident who was shot...

A Palestinian teenage girl, who was shot by Israeli soldiers during anti-occupation rallies on Gaza Strip, will be able to walk again, her doctor said. Meryem Abu-Matar, 16, who lives in Gaza’s Rafah city, was brought to Istanbul for medical treatment. Since March, Abu-Matar has been...

For more than three years after graduation, Karar Alaa Abdel-Wahid tried to get a stable job in the Iraqi government and in the private sector - to no avail. He once was offered a job with the Oil Ministry in his energy-rich hometown of Basra, but it came with a hefty price: he would...