Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said Thursday a committee will investigate allegations of fraud in the May 12 national elections, according to a statement from his office. The committee will be led by the head of the financial control bureau, the statement said.

Following Washington's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, the Islamic republic's supreme leader has laid out his country's conditions for upholding its side of the landmark accord with world powers. The following excerpts from an address by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to Iranian...

Turkey and Saudi Arabia have deep-rooted relations and similar approaches on key regional issues, a panel heard Wednesday. "Turkey-Saudi Arabia Media Meeting", organized by the Directorate General of Press and Information (BYEGM), was held in capital Ankara. The speakers focused...

At least eight Iraqi civilians were killed Thursday in a suicide bombing north of the capital, according to a security source. The suicide bombers targeted a park in the al-Shuala area north of Baghdad, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking...

Having failed to persuade U.S. President Donald Trump to stay in the Iran nuclear accord, French President Emmanuel Macron is reaching out to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Macron heads to St. Petersburg on Thursday amid deep differences with Putin over Syria, Ukraine and alleged...

Two Turkish village guards were killed and three others wounded when a roadside bomb exploded on Thursday as their vehicle was travelling in an area near Turkey's border with Iraq and Iran, security sources said. The Turkish military launched an air-backed operation in the southeastern...

Israel's defense minister said on Thursday he plans to seek approval next week for the construction of some 2,500 new homes in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. Avigdor Lieberman, writing on Twitter, said a regional planning board would be asked to designate 1,400 of the...

Turkey has means to curtail the currency fluctuations in the short term, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday. "The exchange rate fluctuations are due to global factors and are not related to Turkey alone," Erdogan said in a meeting with former lawmakers during an iftar...

A Palestinian child on Wednesday succumbed to injuries he sustained last week in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.  “Odai Abu Khalil, 15, was shot and injured by Israeli soldiers last Friday near the Beit El settlement north of...

A spokesman for Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s Sairoon movement -- which came in first in May 12 parliamentary polls -- has said that his party will not let Iraq turn into a launchpad for attacking other countries of the region. In televised comments on Wednesday, Sairoon spokesman Ziya...

Palestine has submitted its instrument of accession to Chemical Weapons Convention to European Union, the international watchdog said on Wednesday. In a statement, Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said Palestine “deposited on 17 May 2018 its instrument of...

An Israeli court Wednesday suspended an expulsion order for Human Rights Watch's country director until a decision is taken on a HRW legal challenge against it, the rights watchdog said. The injunction granted by the district court in Jerusalem came only a day ahead of the deadline for...

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has cancelled a planned trip to Israel, an official at his office said on Wednesday, adding that the reason was domestic policy matters to be tended to in the coming days. Philippe had been planning to visit at the end of May.

A Palestinian was injured early Wednesday by Israeli army gunfire in clashes in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus. The violence broke out when Israeli forces raided a number of houses in Nablus’ old town, according to an Anadolu Agency correspondent in the area. According to...

  Iran's environment chief said Tuesday that a government committee had concluded there was no evidence against wildlife activists rounded up on spying charges in recent months. Isa Kalantari, head of the government's department of environment, told state news agency IRNA that...

The United States Tuesday imposed sanctions on five Iranians it said were linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. In a statement on its website, the U.S. Treasury named the individuals as Mehdi Azarpisheh, Mohammad Jafari, Mahmud Kazemabad, Javad Shir Amin, and Sayyed Mohammad...

US Treasury issues fresh Iran-related sanctions: statement

Israel intentionally targeted Palestinian protesters near the Gaza-Israel security fence last week, Pierre Krahenbuhl, head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), said Tuesday. Speaking at a press conference in Gaza City, Krahenbuhl described the...

The Israeli authorities on Tuesday refused a request by the EU to investigate the alleged beating and arrest of an Arab-Israeli activist during a pro-Gaza demonstration in Haifa last weekend. Describing his country as “the only democracy in the Middle East”, Public Security Minister...

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas remained in hospital for a third day Tuesday with pneumonia, with a hospital spokeswoman saying there was as yet no timeframe for his discharge. "He is doing fine but still needs to take care," the spokeswoman for the Istishari Arab Hospital near...