Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani was welcomed by Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani at the airport, images broadcast on Iraqi media showed. Relations between the two countries saw a long period of tension under ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, before easing up over the past decade.

Since April 15, the regular army headed by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has been locked in fighting with paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commanded by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. The fighting has driven 2.2 million people from their homes, including 528,000 who have fled to neighbouring countries, according to the...

Last year's donors' conference in Brussels for displaced Syrians raised pledges of $6.7 billion, and the one before that $6.4 billion. The EU overall contributed more than 70 percent of those totals.

Jerusalem, Undefined - Israeli defense exports hit an all-time high of $12.5 billion last year, with Arab countries that recently established ties accounting for nearly a quarter of purchase contracts, officials said Wednesday. The defense ministry, which oversees and approves the exports of Israel's defense industries, said one quarter of deals...

The vote for the presidency, reserved for a Maronite Christian under Lebanon's delicate sectarian power-sharing system, pitted the Hezbollah-backed Sleiman Frangieh against financial official Jihad Azour, who has mainly been endorsed by Christian and independent legislators. But neither had the requisite support, with Azour garnering 59 votes and Frangieh 51...

Mohammed bin Salman has left for a state visit to France where he will meet President Emmanuel Macron, a statement said on Wednesday. On Monday, Saudi Crown Prince will attend an official Saudi reception for Riyadh's candidacy to host Expo 2030. The trip underlines close French ties with the resource-rich...

A landmark deal in 2015, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), gave Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program to guarantee that Tehran could not develop a nuclear weapon -- something it has always denied wanting to do.

Israeli forces killed a Palestinian in a West Bank raid while four Israelis were injured in a separate shooting incident, as fresh violence broke out, officials said. The Palestinian health ministry said 19-year-old Faris Abdel Moneim Mohammed Hashash "was shot dead by the Israeli occupation forces during the aggression against...

The EU offered a 900-billion-euro aid package -- contingent on Tunisia reaching an IMF deal. But Tunisian President Kais Saied has repeatedly refused "diktats" from the IMF and the US has led accusations that the birthplace of the Arab Spring is falling to authoritarianism after the dissolution of parliament and...

The decision comes after the Supreme Court in May cleared his repatriation to Turkey, where he is expected to serve out a drug trafficking sentence.

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND - The world's nuclear powers, and China in particular, increased investment in their arsenals for a third consecutive year in 2022 amid swelling geopolitical tensions, two reports showed Monday. The world's nine nuclear-armed states jointly spent $82.9 billion on their arsenals last year, with the United States accounting for...

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia -- The Ministerial Council of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has stressed the need for coordination, integration and interdependence among GCC countries in all fields. At its 156th session on Sunday, the Council focused on strengthening joint Gulf action, with the Council reviewing the integration process among...

The new bill earmarked 12.7 percent of the budget to the oil-rich autonomous Kurdistan region of northern Iraq. It follows long-standing tensions with Kurdish leaders who had previously denounced amendments relating to oil in the budget, resulting in repeated delays to the vote.

The biggest peril of Artificial Intelligence, experts say, is its ability to demolish the boundaries between reality and fiction, handing cybercriminals a cheap and effective technology to propagate disinformation. In a new breed of scams that has rattled US authorities, fraudsters are using strikingly convincing AI voice cloning tools --...

Kuwait-- Kuwait has urged European states to facilitate the granting of Schengen visas for Kuwaiti citizens. The call was made by Foreign Minister Sheikh Salem Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah who received at a luncheon several European ambassadors, heads of diplomatic missions and charge d'affaires serving in Kuwait. The minister called upon...

The EU is ready to offer Tunisia a 900-million-euro package plus 150 million euros in immediate support, European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said. Aside from trade and investment, it would help Tunisia with border management and to combat human trafficking, with support worth 100 million euros this year,...

Three Iraqi soldiers were killed and four others wounded in a pre-dawn attack in the country's north blamed on the Islamic State group, a military official said. The assailants used automatic weapons in the attack on their barracks, about 25 kilometers west of the city of Kirkuk, the official said...

The 37 counts of the indictment -- released on Friday and focused on his alleged mishandling of classified materials -- set the former president up for a far more severe legal reckoning than the charges of personal, political and commercial misconduct he has largely ridden out in the past.

ISTANBUL, TURKEY - UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan  arrived here on Saturday for a working visit and met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The two leaders reviewed the growing bilateral ties between the UAE and Turkey and explored opportunities for further collaboration. The meeting between Sheikh...

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in a lengthy phone call discussed ways to promote ties, state media reported. "The two sides discussed how to promote relations especially about ongoing negotiations and regional developments," IRNA state news agency quoted Raisi's deputy chief of staff Mohammad Jamshidi...

PARIS, FRANCE -  Forty-five governments have endorsed doubling the average global rate of energy efficiency improvements by the end of the decade to foster sustainable economic growth. This will help put the world on a secure and affordable path towards net zero emissions. "It’s hard to overstate the importance of...

NEW YORK,  US - Minister of State Khalifa Shaheen Al Marar chaired the first signature event of the UAE’s United Nations Security Council presidency. The UAE minister stressed on strengthening cooperation between the UN and the League of Arab States to further peace, security and stability in the region. Al...

Although many ceasefires have been broken, yet the twenty-four truce is seen as a chance to give the people of Sudan a brief respite from the ongoing civil war. Saudi and US mediators have warned that failure to observe the ceasefire would force facilitators to consider adjourning talks in Jeddah.

Russia is receiving materials from Iran to build a drone factory that "could be fully operational early next year," White House national security spokesman John Kirby warned. The White House released a satellite image of the location of the prospective plant in Alabuga special economic zone, some 900 kilometers east...

KHARTOUM, SUDAN -  Sudanese authorities loyal to the regular army have declared UN envoy Volker Perthes "persona non grata", accusing him of taking sides in nearly two months of devastating fighting with rival paramilitaries. Fighting has raged in the north African country since mid-April, when army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and...

"At the invitation of President Xi Jinping, president of the state of Palestine Mahmud Abbas will pay a state visit to China from June 13 to 16," foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said. Beijing has positioned itself as a mediator in the Middle East, brokering the restoration of ties between...

Hafize Gaye Erkan -- whose appointment was published in the official gazette on Friday -- has taken over the post from Sahap Kavcioglu. Under Kavcioglu's watch, the bank's policy rate was decreased to 8.5 percent. It had been at 19 percent in 2021.

The delegation will meet a local judge and might seek to question individuals over the wealth of Salameh and his entourage as other European countries have done, the official added.

Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, in a joint press conference with Blinken, played down talk that the oil-rich kingdom was moving away from Washington in favour of its giant rival, Beijing. "I don't ascribe to this zero-sum game," Prince Faisal said in Riyadh. "We are all capable of having...

The eurozone entered into a technical recession at the start of the year, shrinking by 0.1 percent for a second consecutive quarter, figures from the EU's statistic agency showed. Eurostat revised down an earlier forecast that had predicted slight growth, after economic powerhouse Germany said last month it had fallen...

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia -- Riyadh and Washington urged Western governments Thursday to repatriate citizens who joined the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, where thousands still languish in prisons or camps. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said it was "disheartening and absolutely unacceptable" that some wealthy countries had not...

Blinken spoke during a Gulf Cooperation Council ministerial meeting in the capital Riyadh following talks with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

His comments were a rare acknowledgement by a senior Abbas ally of waning fortunes for the party which has dominated the West Bank since Israel and the Palestinians signed the Oslo peace accords in 1993.

After joining CNN last year, Licht came under fire for editorial decisions including a recent town hall meeting with former president Donald Trump that was dominated by cheering from supporters and jeering at CNN interviewer Kaitlan Collins.

Lawmakers from opposition won 29 of the 50 seats up for grabs in the election, according to results announced by the official Kuwait News Agency. The vote on Tuesday came after Kuwait's constitutional court in March annulled the results of last year's election -- in which the opposition made significant...

Tehran, Iran-- With the restoration of diplomatic ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia, the talk in government circles in Tehran is now focused on cooperating with Riyadh on peaceful nuclear technologies. A hint of the potential cooperation between the two former adversaries came in a tweet by a media outlet...

WASHINGTON, US- The United States placed sanctions on Tuesday on several Chinese and Hong Kong firms it said were supplying Iran's ballistic missile program. The US Treasury said the Chinese companies shipped centrifuges for producing fuels, non-ferrous metals with potential military use, electronics and gyroscopes to already-sanctioned Iranian government bodies and...

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Rome backed efforts to secure an IMF bailout for Tunisia and support to tackle its growing migrant problem. She was speaking after talks in Tunis with President Kais Saied whose country is going through a dire financial crisis, political tensions. Tunisia is also a...

"We consider today an important day in the relations of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Alireza Bigdeli told a flag-raising ceremony. "The cooperation between the countries is entering a new era."

Speaking at the opening of a cabinet meeting on Sunday, Netanyahu said his government had sent a "clear message" to Egypt: "We expect that the joint investigation will be exhaustive and thorough."

ABU DHABI,  UAE - A high-level UAE delegation at the 66th session of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) said the country believes in promoting a safe and sustainable outer space environment. The UAE delegation is headed by Omran Sharaf, Assistant Minister of Foreign...

Blinken's trip will also focus on efforts to end conflicts in Sudan and Yemen, the joint battle against the Islamic State group and the Arab world's relations with Israel. His visit comes at a time of quickly shifting alliances in the Middle East, centered around a China-brokered rapprochement in March...

Iran's Revolutionary Guards unveiled an intermediate range ballistic missile capable of traveling at hypersonic speeds of up to 15 times the speed of sound, state television reported. President Ebrahim Raisi hailed the new missile's hypersonic capability, saying it would boost Iran's "power of deterrence" and "bring peace and stability to...

Polls opened on Tuesday in Kuwait's seventh general election in just over a decade, following repeated political crises that have undermined parliament and stalled reforms. More than 793,000 eligible voters will have the chance to determine the make-up of the 50-seat legislature in the Gulf state.

Israel participated in the event last year, however only as international military observers, without soldiers taking part on the ground. Morocco and Israel have been working to boost cooperation in the military, security, trade and tourism fields since they normalized ties in December 2020.

Geneva, Switzerland - Qatar's labor minister was on Monday appointed without a vote to head the International Labour Organization's annual decision-making conference, despite criticism from some unions amid concerns over labor conditions in Qatar. Asian and Pacific nations, which according to a regional rotation had dibs this year on selecting the...

The United States and India agreed a roadmap for military industrial cooperation, as New Delhi seeks to reduce its reliance on key arms supplier Russia. "We established an ambitious new roadmap for defense industrial cooperation, which will fast track high priority co-development and co-production projects," US Secretary of Defense Lloyd...

Iran is set to reopen its embassy in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday following a seven year closure, Tehran and a diplomatic source said, sealing a Chinese-brokered rapprochement deal announced in March. Riyadh severed relations with Tehran in 2016 after its embassy and consulate in Iran were attacked during protests.

Tehran, Iran-- Iran has called for expansion of ties between Tehran and Ankara after the victory of the incumbent president of Turkey in the recently held elections in the country. The sentiment was expressed by Iran's foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in a phone call with his Turkish counterpart Foreign Minister...

DUBAI, UAE - US special climate envoy John Kerry has met senior Emirati officials in Abu Dhabi, including the head of the United Nations' upcoming climate change conference, official media reported on Sunday. The choice of Sultan Al Jaber, chief executive of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), to head...