Tehran readies counter-proposal as Iran-US nuclear talks set to resume Sunday in Muscat
Iran has said it will present a counter-proposal to the latest draft from Washington, which it had criticised for failing...Geostrategy
Israel says Gaza-bound aid boat activists awaiting deportation after their vessel intercepted
Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg and other activists detained aboard a Gaza-bound aid boat have been taken to a Tel Aviv...Geostrategy
Israel-Hezbollah tensions drive fears of widening Gaza war
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah's group and Israeli forces have exchanged near-daily fire since Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel...Hezbollah said it fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel in retaliation for a deadly air strike in south Lebanon
Experts are divided on the prospect of wider war
Hizbollah threatens Israel after military says Lebanon offensive ready
Hassan Nasrallah - whose powerful Iran-backed group has exchanged near-daily fire with Israel since its ally Hamas's October 7 attack...Hizbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said "no place" in Israel would "be spared our rockets", in a televised address broadcast amid spiraling tensions across the Israel-Lebanon border
Meanwhile, the war between Israel and Hamas raged in Gaza, with Israeli air strikes and clashes between troops and Palestinian fighters
Israel says Lebanon offensive plan ‘approved’ as tensions surge
Palestinian Territories - The Israeli army on Tuesday said plans for an offensive in Lebanon were "approved and validated" amid...The war in Gaza has heightened tensions across the region, with Israeli forces and Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, exchanging fire on a near-daily basis
Al-Awda hospital said it received the bodies of "six martyrs and 15 wounded as a result of Israeli air strikes on various areas in the central and southern Gaza Strip."
Huthi missile attack severely injures sailor on cargo ship: US military
Two cruise missiles launched by Yemen's Huthi rebels struck a bulk cargo carrier in the Gulf of Aden on Thursday,...The M/V Verbena -- a Palauan-flagged, Ukrainian-owned, Polish-operated ship -- "reported damage and fires on board
The Huthis on Thursday said they had carried out attacks on three ships within the past 24 hours
Battles rage in Rafah as Biden blames Hamas for truce delay
On Monday, the UN Security Council adopted a US-drafted resolution supporting the plan, and on Thursday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz...Israeli ground forces have operated in Rafah since early May, despite widespread alarm over the fate of Palestinian civilians there
Hamas said its fighters were battling Israeli troops on the streets of the city near the besieged Gaza Strip's border with Egypt
Fire at Iraqi oil refinery injures 13
"More than 10 people were injured, mainly men from the Arbil civil defense," said the Iraqi civil defense in a...The fire broke out in a major crude oil tank on Wednesday night
The civil defense agency said the fire "started in one refinery before spreading to another"
Gaza war rages as US wants to ‘close’ ceasefire agreement
Doha, Qatar - Top US diplomat Antony Blinken said Wednesday that a truce and hostage release deal to end the Gaza...Blinken, in Doha for the last stop of a tour to promote President Joe Biden's Gaza ceasefire roadmap, said the United States would work with regional partners to "close the deal."
Hamas submitted late Tuesday its response to mediators Qatar and Egypt, and Blinken said some of the proposed amendments "are workable and some are not."
Houthis claim attack on merchant ship in Red Sea off Yemen
The Houthis, who are at war with a Saudi-led coalition after ousting the government from Sanaa in 2014, have launched...The ship was hit about 68 nautical miles (126 kilometres) southwest of the rebel-held port city of Hodeida, maritime security firm Ambrey had said earlier in the day
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, which is run by Britain's Royal Navy, said a vessel was "hit on the stern by a small craft" 66 nautical miles southwest of Hodeida
Blinken heads to key mediator Qatar after Hamas seeks tweaks to truce deal
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was heading on Wednesday to talks in key mediator Qatar after Hamas gave a...Hamas proposed an amended ceasefire timeline and the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops
Blinken said in Israel on Tuesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has committed himself to the plan
Erdogan visits opposition party headquarters first time in 18 years
Istanbul, Turkey - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited the opposition CHP party headquarters on Tuesday, the first time in 18...The one-and-a-half-hour meeting between Erdogan and CHP leader Ozgur Ozel in the capital Ankara comes more than a month after their first encounter in May
Erdogan has signalled "softening" in politics after the March vote observers called his worst defeat since his Islamic-rooted AKP party took power in 2002
