Middle Eastern states should put their differences behind them and forge a security pact modeled on the European Union in order to pull the region back from the brink, Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani said Friday. He asked the international community to keep up diplomatic...

MOSCOW: Seven candidates are lined up against Vladimir Putin in a Russian presidential election next month that he is all but guaranteed to win, extending his Kremlin term to 2024 with a fourth term in office. His competitors include a former reality TV star and a director of a fruit...

  (Zaman Al Wasl)- The Syrian regime continues to impose restrictions and put economic pressure on several areas in the Damascus countryside.  The Ministry of Finance has issued a decree imposing taxes on all residents of the city of al-Tal under the threat of...

Turkish military and Free Syrian Army (FSA) on Friday liberated two more villages in northwestern Syria from the control of PYD/PKK terrorists. According to Anadolu Agency correspondents on the ground, the villages of Hassan Kalkawi and Jalma near Raju town in Afrin were cleared from...

Israeli demonstrators gathered in Tel Aviv Friday to urge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign after police recommended he be charged with bribery in two corruption cases. Police said Tuesday enough evidence had been found for Netanyahu to be charged, saddling the four-term...

ANKARA- A Turkish court Friday sentenced three prominent journalists to life in jail on charges of aiding the network blamed for a failed coup in 2016, TRT Haber television said, even after Turkey's highest court had ordered the release of one of them.  Mehmet Altan, an economics...

KARACHI, Pakistan: Pakistan is sending troops to ally Saudi Arabia on a "training and advise mission", the military said, three years after it decided against sending soldiers to join the Arab-led military intervention in Yemen. The exact role the troops will play was unclear, but a...

RAQA (AFP) -  Mohammed Kuraji returned to Syria's Raqa to prepare a homecoming but ended up organising a funeral. Stepping into his home, an unexploded mine detonated and killed his elderly father. "It was terrifying. The blast was so strong that I couldn't hear," said the...

A prominent militant commander was killed by a rival hardline group in northern Syria early Friday, a monitor said, in a new hint of fierce intra-rebel tensions in the area. An array of factions still hold parts of Aleppo province and almost all of neighboring Idlib, but they have...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- At least 20 troops from coastal Tartus province killed in the first two weeks of February, local activists said. Tartus is the main manpower supply for the regime army and its backed militias. Posters of dead young fighters have been sweeping the streets of Tartus and...

Dozens of world leaders, top defense officials and diplomats were gathering Friday in southern Germany for an influential security conference, amid growing strains between the U.S. and other NATO nations and Russia over the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine. U.S. Secretary of Defense James...

Iraq has received a first batch of Russian-made T-90 battle tanks as part of a purchase agreement signed last year, according to an Iraqi Defense Ministry source. “The first batch of Russian tanks arrived yesterday [Thursday] at the Umm Qasr Port [in southern Iraq],” the source told...

Two Turkish pilots died Friday when a military training plane crashed during an exercise in the western province of Izmir, the army said. The military said officials lost contact with the SF-260D jet 23 minutes after it took off from the Cigli base on a training flight at 10:26 am....

MOSCOW- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday he denies Russia was responsible for the 'NotPetya' cyber-attack last year, after the White House Thursday joined the British government in accusing Moscow of the attack. In response to a question about the attack, he said he...

A Kenyan official says suspected al-Shabab extremists have killed three teachers in an overnight attack in the northeastern county of Wajir. North Eastern regional coordinator Mohammad Saleh says an unknown number of gunmen attacked Qarsa primary school and targeted non-Muslim teachers....

Uganda said Thursday it was widening a probe of government officials who allegedly stole aid intended for refugees to include U.N. staff, amid concern the scandal may hold up donor cash needed for the country's surging refugee population. Allegations that officials may have inflated...

SOFIA- The European Union Thursday called for a swift restart of the stalled United Nations peace talks for Syria, worried by Russia's efforts to tighten the grip on power of its ally, President Bashar Assad. The U.N. talks in Geneva have made little progress during seven years of the...

HYDERABAD, India: Iran's president said Thursday that his country was ready to help promote dialogue as a way to end bloodshed in countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Yemen. Hassan Rouhani made the comments to a group of Muslim religious scholars in the in southern Indian city of...

Erdogan 'clearly' told Tillerson of Turkey's expectations in Ankara meeting: presidency

The Israeli Central Court in the southern city of Beersheba on Thursday slapped Palestinian resistance icon Raed Salah with six more months in solitary confinement, according to Salah’s lawyer. The head of the banned Islamic Movement in Israel, Salah has already served out six months in...