The chairman of a U.N. humanitarian taskforce on Syria said on Thursday he was disappointed by a slowdown in aid access, largely because of blockages by government-backed forces, but he hoped there would be a major evacuation from four towns. Jan Egeland said the evacuation was...

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday called on Iraqi forces to allow aid to enter the Islamic State-held city of Falluja where it said tens of thousands of residents face acute shortages of food and medicine. The Iraqi army, police and Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias - backed by...

An Iranian delegation will meet Saudi officials next week to discuss arrangements for this year's hajj pilgrimage, the first dialogue between the rival powers since a diplomatic crisis erupted in January. Riyadh severed diplomatic ties with Iran on Jan. 3, a day after its missions in Tehran...

Displaced residents of the famed Syrian city of Palmyra, recently recaptured by the army, will begin returning to their homes at the weekend, a government official told AFP Thursday. Syria's armed forces recaptured Palmyra and the adjacent world-famous ruins from the ISIS on March 27, ending...