Speaking at a joint press conference with with the prime ministers of Spain and Belgium in Cairo, Sisi said revival of the process to end the Israel-Palestinian conflict "may not be what is required". Instead he called for a different approach, recognizing the Palestinian state by the international community and...

RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA - A total of 6,225 Saudi industrial businesses are operating in Egypt with US$30 billion worth of investments, Abdulrahman Altawil, the Kingdom’s Deputy Minister, Developmental Housing, Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing said here. This reflects their confidence in the Egyptian market, he said. In a speech...

Beijing has this year sought to play a greater role in the Middle East, facilitating a historic rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and sending an envoy to the region to push for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Weeks of talks involving Israel, Hamas, Qatar, Egypt and the US saw three girls and a boy, aged from two to nine besides six women aged over 70 arrive in Israeli territory.

DOHA, QATAR - The merchandise trade balance of Qatar (difference between total exports and imports) recorded a surplus of US$6.7 billion (QR60.9 billion) Q3 2023, down from US$28 billion (QR102.1 billion) in Q3 2022. According to the press release on Quarterly Foreign Merchandise Trade Statistics, Q3 2023 State of Qatar,...

RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA - The Saudi-Algerian Business Forum concluded its activities with the two countries signing eight agreements aiming at enhancing trade and investment. The agreements covered trade, investment, information technology, business incubators and accelerators, tourism services, elevators, and spare parts. The agreements were signed on Thursday by the Federation...

Most foreign nations -- including India -- do not officially recognize Afghanistan's Taliban government but acknowledge them as the de facto ruling authority. This has left many Afghan embassies and consulates in limbo, with diplomats appointed by the former government refusing to cede control of embassy buildings and property to...

Germany on November 2 banned Hamas and Samidoun. According to official figures, Germany hosts an estimated 450 members of Hamas, proscribed as a "terrorist" organization by the European Union, the United States and Israel. The ministry said that while Hamas members had not staged "violent action" in Germany so far,...

An Egyptian security source told AFP that Israeli security officials, International Red Cross-Red Crescent staff and an Egyptian team would deploy to Rafah, on the Egypt-Gaza border, to receive the hostages, who will then be flown to Israel. AFP has confirmed the identities of 210 of the roughly 240 people...

Hizbollah says it has been acting in support of Hamas since the Palestinian Islamist movement's October 7 attacks on Israel, which Israeli officials say killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw about 240 people taken hostage. Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas and its retaliatory air and ground offensive in...

Beirut, Lebanon - Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has met with Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hizbollah, which has traded cross-border fire with Israel since the start of the Gaza war, the Lebanese movement said on Thursday. Since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, the border between Lebanon and Israel...

Cairo, Egypt - Tunisian film star Hend Sabri has resigned as World Food Program goodwill ambassador in protest at what she called the use of starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza. Sabri, a leading figure in Arab cinema, said that she had decided with "a heavy heart and deep...

An official in the Hamas-run health ministry specified to AFP that one other doctor and two nurses had been detained, as well as the hospital director. In a statement, Hamas said it "strongly denounces" the arrest of Salmiya and his colleagues, calling on the International Committee of the Red Cross...

The warning comes after the Huthis on Sunday seized an Israel-linked cargo vessel, opening a new dimension in the Gaza war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. Helicopter-borne troops seized the Galaxy Leader and its 25 international crew days after the Huthis threatened to target Israeli shipping because...

After tedious days marked by idle chitchat and dreary diets of beans and instant coffee, the men, all Egyptians, took some comfort in news that more fuel and other essentials may soon be allowed in as part of a four-day truce that could begin as soon as Friday. But it...

The group, in a statement, said that Abbas Raad, son of the head of Hizbollah's parliamentary bloc Mohammed Raad, was "martyred on the road to Jerusalem". Later Hizbollah issued separate statements with the identities and photographs of four other fighters who were also killed. The group and Israel have been...

Experts say Saudi Arabia's successful bid to host 2034 World Cup might not have been possible if there had not been already a successful world cup in 2022.

Paris, France -- The emirate of Qatar has further boosted its status as a specialist power in resolving delicate hostage situations by using its influence to help secure the release of hostages by Palestinian militant group Hamas. Analysts say Qatar has honed a careful balancing act, allowing it to marry warm...

Erdogan went on to reiterate his claim that Israel was a “terrorist state”: “We need to know this once and for all. Israel is a terrorist state. There is no need to hesitate to say this. This is the truth we know. This is the case.”

Some world leaders like Ramaphosa and Erdogan use the term genocide to describe Israeli actions in Gaza. Israel has also been accused of war crimes by rights organizations.

US President Joe Biden thanked the leaders of Qatar and Egypt for their "critical leadership" in reaching the deal. "I am extraordinarily gratified that some of these brave souls… will be reunited with their families once this deal is fully implemented," Biden said, referring to the hostages.

Commercial traffic ground to a halt Tuesday when Pakistan began requiring the crew of commercial vehicles to have passports and visas to enter, and Afghanistan responded by refusing to allow any trucks to pass. Long-fraught relations between Kabul and Islamabad have worsened since October, when Pakistan announced plans to deport...

Ravaged by war and rocked by Islamic State group attacks, Iraq's demand for mental health professionals is great, but help is hard to come by. Baghdad's Al-Rashad psychiatric hospital receives patients suffering from serious psychological illnesses, such as schizophrenia, and offers outpatient treatment for depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.

When Khulud Jarboueh and her children fled their home in the northern Gaza Strip under Israeli bombardment in early October, the young ones were wearing just shorts and T-shirts. The heat of late summer still lingered then. But now she rummages through piles of clothing looking for something to keep...

Jakarta, Indonesia - Indonesia on Tuesday launched an investment plan to attract $20 billion pledged by Western nations in a renewable energy transition pact agreed last year for the archipelago to slash emissions and wean itself off coal. The roadmap, which comes less than two weeks before the COP28 summit in...

CAIRO, EGYPT -  Atlantic fishing nations have agreed to better protect sharks and rays by limiting the retention of several bycatch species, but advocacy groups warn progress is still lagging. At the conclusion of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) this week, countries agreed on "new measures...

MOSCOW, RUSSIA – The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Indonesia, Palestine and the Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) have arrived here to discuss the Gaza Strip with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, a diplomatic source told TASS. "They have arrived, the meeting will start...

Around 160 children are killed every day in Gaza and UNICEF has warned that the number could skyrocket. More than 900,000 displaced Gazans are staying in overcrowded shelters run by UNRWA.

The state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported "the deaths of three citizens -- two journalists and another civilian -- in enemy bombing" of the Tair Harfa area

Qatar's prime minister said that a deal to free some of the hostages in return for a temporary ceasefire hinged on "minor" practical issues. Under the tentative deal, between 50 and 100 Israeli civilian and foreign hostages would be released, but no military personnel. In exchange, about 300 Palestinians would...

The European Union's top diplomat Josep Borrell drew this conclusion from his discussions with a range of leaders on his tour of the Middle East. He maintained that Israel should not occupy Gaza after the current conflict ends and that the Palestinian Authority should control the besieged enclave.

Moscow, Russia - President Vladimir Putin will take part in an online BRICS summit on the escalation of the situation in the Middle East, the Kremlin press service said on Monday. "On November 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin will take part in an extraordinary BRICS summit (in the videoconference format)...

The UN chief said it was "important to be able to transform this tragedy into an opportunity" -- which, for him, meant moving "in a determined and irreversible way to a two-state solution." This means, after the current conflict ends, "a strengthened Palestinian Authority, assuming responsibilities in Gaza," he said.

A government representative for Abyei condemned the attacks that occurred early Sunday in two counties by armed militias and soldiers wearing uniforms of South Sudan's national army. "In these attacks, 32 people were killed including women and children burned into their huts, and more than twenty (20) people wounded," said...

The Iran-backed rebels in Yemen seized the Galaxy Leader on Sunday, days after they threatened to target Israeli vessels in the waterway over Israel's war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the ship "was hijacked with Iran guidance by the Yemenite...

Following the outbreak of the war last month, Chinese officials, including Foreign Minister Wang, called for an immediate ceasefire and a "cooling down" of the situation. China has historically been sympathetic to the Palestinians and supportive of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel has vowed to eradicate Hamas and to free around 240 people taken hostage by the fighters during the worst attack in its history, most of them Israeli citizens but also dozens of foreigners. On Sunday, Qatari mediators said they were inching closer to a deal to free some of...

Moscow, Russia-- Iran and Russia have held talks over the ongoing Israel's war on the Gaza Strip, expressing "concern over the continuing armed confrontation" there. The deliberations were conducted in talks over telephone between the Russian and Iranian foreign ministers, Sergey Lavrov and Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the Russian foreign ministry said...

Speaking at an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps aerospace force centre in the capital Tehran, Khamenei said "the defeat of the Zionist regime in Gaza is a fact." Israel has relentlessly been pounding the Gaza Strip since Hamas's attack, killing more than 12,300 people in the narrow Palestinian territory, including more...

DUBAI, UAE – Dubai Customs has experienced a robust 13 percent increase with 21.6 million transactions during the first nine months of this year. This surge contrasts with the 19 million transactions recorded during the same period last year. The upswing aligns with the targets of Dubai’s economic agenda D33,...

"The killing of so many people at schools turned shelters, hundreds fleeing for their lives from Al-Shifa Hospital, amid continuing displacement of hundreds of thousands in southern Gaza, are actions which fly in the face of the basic protections civilians must be afforded under international law," United Nations High Commissioner...

Officials will include the foreign ministers of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and Indonesia, as well as the secretary-general of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. "During the visit, China will have in-depth communication and coordination with the joint delegation of foreign ministers of Arab...

Paris, France -- National climate policy action across the countries that produce nearly two-thirds of total greenhouse gas emissions only increased by 1 percent in 2022, the lowest annual growth recorded since 2000, and reflecting a deceleration in ambitions to meet the Paris Agreement temperature goals amid growing energy security...

Two years after attaining statehood, the world's newest nation collapsed into a civil war that claimed 400,000 lives before a peace deal birthed a power-sharing government in early 2020. But many of the milestones of that pact have been missed, and key conditions paving the way for free and fair...

Tehran, Iran-- Expressing deep concern over Israel's possession of nuclear weapons, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has warned of a spurt in the nuclear arms race, leading to an unfavorable situation. "The ongoing possession of nuclear weapons by Israel, coupled with the failure to denuclearize the region, will escalate the...

The Washington Post, citing unnamed sources, said all parties would halt combat operations for at least five days while some hostages were released in batches. But the White House quickly responded on Saturday evening with its message on X to deny any major breakthrough.

Israel's top ally Washington has given its full backing to the country's response to the October 7 shock attack by Hamas, which left 1,200 dead, mostly civilians. But as the death toll from Israel's military campaign in Gaza continues to climb, US has voiced concerns over the manner of the...

Manama, Bahrain-- The ongoing war in Gaza represents a serious setback for the efforts to reduce tension in the region as a whole, said Dr. Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the UAE President. Speaking at the 19th Manama Dialogue, he warned: “Prolonging the war would only amplify its associated risks,...

Cairo, Egypt - European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Saturday said she was opposed to the "forced displacement of Palestinians" during a meeting in Cairo with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Von der Leyen "thanked Egypt for its key role in providing and facilitating humanitarian aid to vulnerable Palestinians",...

MANAMA, BAHRAIN – Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi has said that the hosting of the 19th Manama Dialogue here reinforces the country's leading role in analyzing key political, defense and security issues in the Middle East and beyond. The conference brings together global senior...