London, UK - Britain on Monday announced sanctions on four "extremist Israeli settlers" accused of committing human rights abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank, following a similar move by the United States earlier this month. The curbs follow what the UK called "unprecedented levels of violence by extremist settlers in...

RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA – The Kingdom's surprise decision to halt a planned expansion of its oil production capacity reflects ambitions to expand into other forms of energy, the Gulf country's energy minister said on Monday. Oil giant Aramco announced on January 30 that the energy ministry had ordered it to maintain...

DUBAI, UAE- As Houthi attacks roil the Red Sea and Western air raids target the rebels, moves to end Yemen's long-running war are at a standstill, threatening further woe for a country on its knees. As recently as December, painstaking negotiations were gaining ground and the United Nations said the warring...

Despite maintaining its ties with Israel since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, the UAE has been at pains to express solidarity with Palestinians as anger mounted in the Arab world over the conflict.

Talks have been underway for weeks to secure a second truce in the four-month war, which would see more hostages freed in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

The Appeals Court in The Hague sided with a group of human rights organizations that argued the parts contributed to violations of law by Israel in its war with Hamas.

UN human rights chief Volker Turk urged world powers to "restrain rather than enable" as fears of a looming ground incursion grew among more than one million Palestinians trapped in the territory's far south. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to send ground troops into the crowded Rafah area as...

ABU DHABI, UAE – The Emirates General Pension and Social Security Authority (GPSSA) has issued a circular to government and private sector employers, detailing the regulations for pension deductions and end-of-service gratuity in line with Federal Decree Law No. 57 of 2023. The circular included limiting the procedure of deduction...

The military said in a statement that "during a joint IDF (military), ISA (Shin Bet security agency), and Israel Police operation in Rafah, overnight, two Israeli hostages were rescued, Fernando Simon Marman (60) and Louis Har (70), who were kidnapped by the Hamas terrorist organization on October 7th from Kibbutz...

According to the military spokesman for Iraq's prime minister, the discussions aim to schedule a timeline for a pullout of coalition forces from Iraq, leading to the end of its mission. He said the meetings will take place on a regular basis in order to achieve the commission's works as...

Witnesses heard an intense series of strikes and saw smoke billowing above the city, which now hosts more than half of Gaza's total population after they fled bombardment elsewhere on the Strip. The strikes hit 14 houses and three mosques in different parts of Rafah, according to the Hamas government.

In late 2020, Morocco established diplomatic ties with Israel under the Abraham Accords brokered by the United States which saw similar moves by the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. As part of the deal, Rabat received Washington's recognition of its claim to sovereignty over the disputed territory of Western Sahara.

"The Palestinian economy's dire outlook is worsening as the conflict persists," managing director Kristalina Georgieva told the World Governments Summit in Dubai. "Only a durable peace and political solution will fundamentally change it".

Yemen's Houthi rebels, supported by Iran, have launched dozens of attacks against ships in the Red Sea since November, targeting boats headed for Israel in an act of "solidarity" with inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, which is in the grip of the war between Israel and Hamas. Despite retaliatory strikes...

Amir-Abdollahian met top officials in Beirut including Hizbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a powerful ally of the group. He also met Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Ziad Nakhaleh, senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan, and deputy chief of the People's Front for the Liberation of Palestine Jamil Mazhar,...

While the Israel-Lebanon violence has been largely contained to the border area, a strike earlier on Saturday hit the coastal town of Jadra. The second-farthest deadly attack from the border in four months of hostilities "was a failed attempt to assassinate a senior official in the (Hamas) movement", a Palestinian...

Israel's army and the Shin Bet security agency said operations in Gaza City in recent weeks had led to the discovery of a "tunnel shaft" near a school run by the humanitarian agency. Documents and weapons in the UN compound itself "confirmed that the offices had in fact also been...

The United Arab Emirates' defense ministry said that the soldiers were "exposed to a terrorist act" while "performing their work duties in training and qualifying the Somali Armed Forces". The ministry, without giving further details, said that two others were wounded in the incident.

A total of 17 Houthi fighters were killed in US strikes, the Iran-backed Yemeni rebel group said through its official media. "The bodies of a number of martyrs of the nation as a result of the bombing of the American-British aggression were carried through Sanaa in a solemn funeral procession,"...

Palestinian Territories - Six-year-old Hind Rajab pleaded to be rescued, after her family's car came under fire in war-ravaged Gaza City, leaving her alone, frightened and injured, surrounded by the bodies of her dead relatives. "I am so scared," she had said in a desperate phone call to the Palestine...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week said he had ordered troops to prepare to go in to the city, crowded with displaced Palestinians, as it hunts down those responsible for the deadly October 7 attacks on southern Israel. The announcement has prompted concern from foreign governments including the United States...

New defense technologies including artificial intelligence-powered gunsights and robotic drones form a bright spot in an otherwise dire period for Israel's tech industry. Over 150 countries in December backed a UN resolution identifying "serious challenges and concerns" in new military tech, including "artificial intelligence and autonomy in weapons systems."

AMMAN, JORDAN - The Chairman of the Amman Chamber of Commerce Khalil Haj Tawfiq has called on Jordanian and Tunisian companies to forge stronger partnerships and enhancing their countries commercial, industrial and investment relations.During a meeting with Tunisian Ambassador to Jordan Mufida Zaribi, Haj Tawfiq emphasized the necessity of boosting...

Ahead of a key meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels and the second anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine war, Jens Stoltenberg insisted that "we need to reconstitute and expand our industrial base faster, to increase deliveries to Ukraine and refill our own stocks." "This means shifting from slow peacetime to...

Rafah is the southernmost city in the Palestinian enclave that has been hit by a fierce Israeli offensive since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel. Many of the population of 2.2 million have taken refuge there. Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told officials to "submit to the cabinet...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the army to prepare to "evacuate" hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza's Rafah, his office said, after US warned it would not support any ground assault. Netanyahu's planned offensive on Rafah, where an estimated 1.3 million civilians have sought refuge, drew condemnation...

The number of checkpoints and barriers in the Palestinian territory has greatly increased since October 7, adding hours to already lengthy commutes and forcing residents to either wait at the checkpoints or take long detours. Largely unaffected are the 490,000 Israelis living across the West Bank in settlements -- considered...

During a two-hour long interview with the former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Russia's President Vladimir Putin defended his decision to invade Ukraine in February 2022. The president said the West now realizes that Russia will not be defeated, despite US, European and NATO help to Ukraine.

"We expect the negotiations to be very complex and difficult but Hamas is open to discussions and the movement is keen to reach a ceasefire," added the official, who is familiar with the negotiations. "The two parties will hold several rounds of negotiations indirectly," he said on condition of anonymity

Washington, US - The United States military confirmed on Thursday its forces conducted multiple strikes against Houthi missile systems as the Yemen-based rebel group prepared to launch attacks that threatened US Navy and merchant ships. Late Wednesday Sanaa time US Central Command forces "conducted self-defense strikes against two Houthi mobile anti-ship...

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken left Israel without securing a pause in fighting, wrapping up his fifth crisis tour of the Middle East since the war started. In fact, Israeli PM said he has ordered troops to 'prepare to operate' in Rafah.

Four students and a woman and her son were among the dead along with an unidentified civilian, the Observatory said, while a Syrian working with Lebanon's Hizbollah group and an unidentified pro-Iran fighter were also killed. A source close to Hizbollah confirmed to AFP that two of the Iran-backed fighters...

"The presence of US forces in our region has no justification," Raisi said in a Tehran ceremony ahead of the 45th anniversary of Iran's Islamic revolution on February 12.

"Ten people, including six civilians and two Hizbollah fighters, were killed in Israeli strikes on a building in the Hamra neighborhood of Homs," the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP. The strikes completely levelled the building in one of the city's most affluent...

"There's a lot of work to be done, but we are very much focused on doing that work and hopefully being able to resume the release of hostages that was interrupted" after a week-long truce in November, he said. The US top envoy, on his fifth Middle East tour since...

Cairo, Egypt -- Egypt and Qatar are sponsoring a new round of negotiations to start Thursday in Cairo aimed at achieving "calm" in Gaza as well as a hostage release deal, an Egyptian official said. A Hamas source with knowledge of the matter confirmed the Palestinian group had agreed to the...

Republicans in the House of Representatives scheduled the vote after the Democratic-led Senate released a bipartisan bill Sunday pairing billions of dollars for Israel and Ukraine with some of the strictest immigration curbs in decades. But support for that $118bn package has dwindled, with Donald Trump pressuring Republicans to avoid handing President Joe...

The move comes two weeks after Britain and the United States unveiled new coordinated asset freezes and travel bans on the fighters. Hamas itself, along with several linked groups, is already listed by Ottawa as a banned terrorist organization.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that five people have been killed including three civilians, and seven others were injured in Israeli strikes on a building in the Hamra neighbourhood of Homs city. The country's defence ministry reported that "the Israeli enemy launched air strikes targeting a number of...

Strasbourg, France - The EU on Tuesday urged a 90-percent cut to its greenhouse gas emissions by 2040, even as the bloc's transition to a greener future was clouded by a widespread farmers' revolt. "Based on the best available science, and a detailed impact assessment, we are recommending that the 2040 target...

TEHRAN, IRAN – The country has exported more than 6.7 million tons of agricultural and food products worth US$4.8 billion during the first 10 months of the current Iranian year (March 21, 2023 – January 20, 2024), an Iranian economic official said. Rouhollah Latifi, the spokesman of the Iranian House...

RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA – The Commander of the Royal Saudi Air Defense Force Lieutenant-General Mazyad bin Suleiman Al-Amr has inspected Russia’s S-350 and S-400 air defense systems at the World Defense Show, a TASS correspondent reports. The commander visited the stands of Russian companies, paying special attention to the S-350...

Hamas has for more than a week mulled the deal drawn up in its absence at Paris talks, as international pressure mounts to end the four-month war. Hamas said the proposal was aimed at "ending the aggression against our people, securing relief and shelter, reconstruction, lifting the siege on the...

Cairo, Egypt -- The potential termination of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) due to a lack of funds poses a danger for the entire region, Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said. "The cessation of the work of this UN...

ISTANBUL, TURKEY - Turkish police on Tuesday shot dead two assailants from a leftist organization, branded "terrorists" by authorities, who attacked a security checkpoint outside Istanbul's main court, killing one person and injuring five, officials said. Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said the assailants were members of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front...

The Palestinian Ministry of Education said more than 4,851 students were killed by Israeli forces in Gaza, while 8,227 others were injured. In the West Bank, a total of 44 students were killed, 283 others injured and 89 detained.

French minister denounced anti-Palestinian rhetoric and "even calls to commit war crimes" by Israeli officials, after some Netanyahu allies have appeared to endorse Jewish re-settlement of the Gaza Strip after the war. Sejourne called for supporting the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority of president Mahmud Abbas.

Amman, Jordan-- The UAE and Jordan have explored opportunities for collaboration in the fields of economy, investment, food security, renewable energy and sustainability in a meeting between the UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed and Jordan's King Abdullah in Amman. The meeting between the two leaders, which took place at...

The US forces targeted many positions in Syria and Iraq in retaliation for a drone attack on a base in Jordan that killed three US soldiers. The strikes, which targeted elite Iranian units and pro-Iranian militant groups, have led to fears that the ongoing war in Gaza could spiral into...

NEW YORK, US - World War III may break out before US President Joe Biden leaves office, former US president Donald Trump told Fox News. Trump said that Biden is failing to deal with his responsibilities as head of state. "You know, nine months (before the election) is a long...