Such a scenario has led to despondency among many Arab-Israelis -- who make up around 20 percent of the population -- potentially denting their turnout. "We need to work harder, first of all, to convince people to go out and vote," Aida Touma-Suleiman, from the Hadash-Taal alliance, told AFP.

Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani's 21-member cabinet is expected to face myriad challenges. The oil-rich but war-ravaged country is plagued by endemic corruption, rampant unemployment and decaying infrastructure. "Our ministerial team will shoulder the responsibility at this critical period, in which the world is witnessing tremendous political and economic changes...

The decision to make the biggest-ever dip into the emergency oil reserves -- usually kept for responding to situations such as hurricane-related shutdowns at oil refineries -- was Biden's gambit to calm energy markets and shield the world's biggest economy from Ukraine war shocks.

Kuwait's crown prince swore in a new government, less than a month after the emirate held parliamentary elections in which the opposition reaped major gains. The polls capped a political stand-off between the former cabinet and legislature that saw lawmakers occupy the national assembly building for days.

Kuwait City, Kuwait— Kuwait has brought in a new oil minister in a new cabinet reshuffle after the September elections. Bader Hamed Yousef Al-Mulla was appointed as Kuwait’s new oil minister on Sunday as part of the Gulf country’s new cabinet. In the reshuffle, Salem Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah was appointed...

Tripoli, Libya—The United Nations' new Libya envoy, Abdoulaye Bathily, took up post in Tripoli Friday, vowing to work towards elections in the North African country, rocked by over a decade of conflict. "I arrived in Tripoli today to assume my functions as the special representative of the secretary general for Libya...

Kuwait City, Kuwait— Kuwait has decided to postpone the convening of the first parliament session after elections to Oct. 18, according to media reports. The news agency KUNA said in a statement: “The National Assembly’s first regular session of the 17th legislative term is adjourned until Oct. 18, head of...

It remains without not only a new government but a budget too, obstructing much-needed reforms and infrastructure projects in the oil-rich but war-ravaged country. Iraq has raked in huge revenues from oil exports this year, but the profits are locked up in the central bank's coffers, which have amassed $87...

Turkish inflation jumped to a new 24-year high exceeding 83 percent in September, official data showed Monday after the central bank cut interest rates despite surging prices.

United Nations has warned of the outbreak of new phase of violence in Libya as the country faces delays in moving toward elections. Last week heavy gunfire and shelling broke out in many neighborhoods of Tripoli, leaving 32 people dead. The rival prime ministers of the country blamed each other...

Less than a year after the last polls, Iraq President Barham Saleh has encouraged early elections to settle a political crisis that has escalated into deadly clashes, killing dozens and wounding hundreds more. It has been a key demand of Moqtada Sadr whose supporters clashed with security forces starting on...

Sadr and his supporters have been calling for parliament to be dissolved and for new elections, but on Saturday he said doing so was not "so important". Instead, it is "more important" that "all parties and figures who have been part of the political process" since the 2003 US-led invasion...

Sadr, a longtime political and religious force in the oil-rich but war-scarred country, has for months been in a political standoff with a rival Shiite alliance backed by Iran. Worshippers converged on a vast square inside the normally secure Green Zone, home to government and diplomatic buildings, including the parliament...

Nearly 10 months on from the last elections, the country still has no government, new prime minister or new president, due to repeated squabbles between factions over forming a coalition. In the latest political turmoil to strike the oil-rich but war-scarred nation, Sadr called for a "revolutionary and peaceful process,...

Powerful Iraqi Shiite preacher Moqtada Sadr Sunday urged other factions to support a protest that has seen his followers occupy parliament in a dispute over who should name the next prime minister. On Sunday, the protesters appeared in no mood to leave, as volunteers distributed soup, hard-boiled eggs, bread and...

The storming of Iraq's parliament by hundreds of supporters of populist Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr has piled pressure on his political opponents working to form a government nearly 10 months after an election.

Libya's Tripoli-based Presidential Council on Tuesday announced a plan to extract the country from its latest political crisis and hold elections. "In response to the legitimate demands of the Libyan people and their desire for change, the Presidential Council... agreed on a ge neral framework for a working plan to...

Israel's Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Wednesday he would not stand in upcoming elections, as parliament postponed a vote to dissolve itself and force the country's fifth vote in less than four years. The premier, who conceded last week that his eight-party alliance which took office a year ago was...

Israel's parliament is expected to dissolve Wednesday, ending Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's year-long tenure and triggering a fifth election in less than four years that could see ex-premier Benjamin Netanyahu reclaim power.  Barring an 11th-hour shock agreement to save the coalition or form a new government within the existing parliament,...

The Israeli parliament unanimously approved early Tuesday a draft bill to dissolve parliament, a key legislative step that pushes the country closer toward its fifth election in less than four years.

Once parliament dissolves, Israel's caretaker government will be headed by Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, in accordance with a power-sharing deal the pair reached.

The world body said it will broker new talks between rival institutions from war-torn Libya next week to try to break a deadlock on the rules for long-awaited elections.

The 66-year-old billionaire, who had been widely expected to keep his job, secured 54 votes during parliamentary consultations, giving him a clear edge over other potential nominees.

Joe Biden pitched a temporary fuel tax break Wednesday to help American drivers face the highest inflation in four decades, but critics called it window dressing by an unpopular US president ahead of difficult midterm elections.

Representatives of the Tripoli-based High Council of State and of the parliament, based in eastern Libya, began meetings in Cairo more than a week ago, but without success.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said: "We urge those elected and the country's political leaders to heed the Lebanese people's call for change and to work seriously, and with urgency, to take the necessary actions to rescue the economy,"

The MP Zoabi said: "Again and again the heads of the coalition have taken hawkish, rigid and right-wing stances regarding basic issues of utmost importance for Arab society".

Lebanon headed to the polls today for its first election since multiple crises dragged it to the brink of failed statehood, with the ruling elite expected to comfortably weather public anger. The parliamentary election is the first test for opposition movements spawned by an unprecedented anti-establishment uprising in 2019 that...

The country will observe a 40-day state mourning with the flag flown at half-mast starting today, the ministry announced, adding that work will be suspended at all ministries, departments, and federal, local and private entities for three days, starting Saturday, May 14.

The official unemployment rate in crisis-hit Lebanon jumped almost three-fold to reach 29.6 percent at the start of the year, a joint survey by the UN and the government said Thursday. "Lebanon's unemployment rate increased from 11.4 percent in 2018-2019 to 29.6 percent in January 2022, indicating that almost one...

Lebanon's elections Sunday won't yield a seismic shift despite widespread discontent with a graft-tainted political class blamed for a painful economic crisis and a deadly disaster, experts say. Given Lebanon's sectarian-based politics, it will likely "reproduce the political class and give it internal and international legitimacy", said Rima Majed of...

Some 130,000 Lebanese expatriates out of 225,000 registered voters cast their ballots, foreign ministry official Hadi Hashem said, releasing preliminary figures. In 2018, roughly 50,000 people out of 90,000 registered voters abroad voted, a turnout of 56 percent.

Families have reported at least 23 still missing, all women and children while Lebanese govt asked armed forces to investigate the deadly boat capsize.

Macron was set to win 57.0-58.5 percent of the vote compared with Le Pen on 41.5-43.0 percent, according to projections by polling firms for French television channels based on a sample of the vote count.

This time, a series of polls have suggested Macron would win 51 to 54 percent against 46 to 49 percent for Le Pen, with margins of error making a Le Pen victory possible. In 2017, Macron won 66 percent to Le Pen's 34 percent.

Flash opinion polls conducted in the wake of first-round voting in France's presidential election Sunday forecast that Emmanuel Macron will secure a new five-year term in the second-round run-off on April 24 against far-right rival Marine Le Pen.

Pakistan will go to the polls to elect a new government within three months after Prime Minister Imran Khan foiled an attempt to boot him from office Sunday by getting the president to dissolve the national assembly. The presidency -- a largely ceremonial office -- acceded hours later.

Independent candidates dominated the Palestinian local elections, winning 64 percent of seats, up from just 37 percent five years ago, according to official results released on Sunday. But with established parties infiltrating independent lists, analysts were not immediately able to say how far the results from Saturday's vote truly amounted...

The Libyan people want to end a decade of violence and elect a government, showing "zero appetite" for further conflict despite a renewed political standoff, the UN's top in-country official told AFP.

Central Elections Commission chief Hanna Nasser said a number of candidates had been arrested for political reasons.

"Chadian parties have officially requested to Qatar to mediate in the peace negotiations," Qatar government’s special envoy for mediation said.

"When are we going to talk about it?" read a sign at demonstration in France where thousands came out to urge politician to work on climate crisis issues.

Construction tycoon Dbeibah was appointed following a landmark 2020 ceasefire with a mandate to lead the country to December 24 elections.

Stephanie Williams, UN chief Antonio Guterres' Special Advisor on Libya, warned in a series of tweets that "the solution to Libya's crisis does not lie in forming rival administrations and perennial transitions."

The emergence of the new government once again gives Libya two prime ministers, as was the case between unrest-plagued 2014 and 2020.

The European Union will send election observers to monitor Lebanon's May 15 parliamentary polls, at the invitation of Beirut's government, the bloc's foreign service said on Wednesday. The team's chief observer, Gyoergy Hoelvenyi, said in a statement it will be the fourth time the EU has sent observers to Lebanon,...

Libyans on Thursday mark 11 years since the revolt that toppled dictator Moamer Kadhafi, but the democracy many hoped for seems as elusive as ever, and many fear a return to conflict. The anniversary comes as the country, for years plagued by divisions between east and west, finds itself with...

Iraq's supreme court on Sunday ruled out a bid by veteran politician Hoshyar Zebari to run for president after a complaint filed against him over corruption charges. Zebari, 68, who served as foreign minister for a decade after the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein, had already been...

Libya's parliament announced Monday it would meet next week to pick a replacement for interim Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah. The announcement, a month after planned elections were abandoned amid bitter arguments over their legal basis, lays bare once again the extent of divisions between eastern and western factions in the...

The consultation will last until March 20 with topics including politics, economics, finance, social, health, education, and cultural affairs.