The letter from the six-member GCC's foreign ministers also called on the United States "to play its role in reaching a just, comprehensive and lasting solution" to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, speaking earlier this month, said that the Palestinians did not exist as a people,...

The latest demonstration to hit Israel's commercial hub came days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to press on with the changes despite mounting international alarm. But his defence minister said Saturday that "we must stop the legislative process" for a month in view of the divisiveness of the reforms.

Moscow, Russia--Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday he would deploy tactical nuclear weapons in neighbour and ally Belarus, bringing the arms to a country at the gates of the European Union. Putin has previously issued thinly veiled warnings that he could use nuclear weapons in Ukraine if Russia were threatened, reviving...

It suffers from constant stand-offs between elected lawmakers and cabinets installed by the ruling Al-Sabah family, despite a parliamentary system in place since 1962.

The Britain-based Observatory, which has a wide network of sources on the ground, said 19 people were killed in the first wave of US strikes: three Syrian soldiers and 16 members of Iran-backed militias. After the strikes, Biden sought to lower the temperature saying the US "does not seek conflict...

SAINTE-SOLINE, FRANCE - French security forces again clashed with protesters Saturday as campaigners sought to stop the construction of reservoirs for the agricultural industry in the southwest of the country, AFP correspondents said. The violent scenes in Saite-Soline in western France came after days of violent protests nationwide over President Emmanuel...

CHENNAI, INDIA - The UAE spoke on food and energy insecurity and their implications in the second Framework Working Group (FWG) meeting within the G20 Finance Track for 2023 held here on March 24 – 25. The meeting was held to discuss the progress made on the 2023 FWG work...

His detention sparked criticism in the West and among rights groups, and highlighted Rwanda's record of crushing political dissent and free speech under President Paul Kagame. Rusesabagina was jailed after he was found to have backed an armed rebel group in a trial that his supporters denounced as a sham.

Ottawa, Canada--US President Joe Biden on Friday said he believed China has not sent arms to Russia after President Vladimir Putin's forces invaded Ukraine. "I've been hearing now for the past three months (that) China is going to provide significant weapons to Russia... They haven't yet. Doesn't mean they won't, but...

Face-to-face talks between Biden and Trudeau covered a range of areas where both sides are pushing for improvements. A joint statement said that Biden and Trudeau agreed to modernizing their countries' joint air defense alliance, NORAD, with Canada putting billions of dollars into improved radar and fighter aircraft infrastructure.

The US president sought to lower the temperature on Friday, saying the United States "does not seek conflict with Iran, but is prepared to act forcefully to protect our people". Hours after the strikes, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said 10 rockets were fired at American and coalition forces at...

Following last month's rail tragedy, Greece's prime minister said that he would discuss with Italy safety improvements on Geek trains run by an Italian state company. The Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told reporters that he will discuss the way in which the Italian government will be able to support the...

The boat carrying 38 people had set off Thursday from near Sfax and was attempting to reach Italy, said Fawzi El Masmoudi, a court spokesman in the port city. Sub-Saharan African migrants residing in Tunisia have been living in fear since an incendiary speech by President Kais Saied speech last...

Paris, France - France on Friday banned public-sector employees from downloading "recreational applications" on their work phones, the public services ministry said, with a ministerial source adding that Chinese-owned TikTok would be among them. Following bans of TikTok in other European countries, "the government has decided from now on to ban...

Sheikh Thani Bin Abdullah Bin Thani Al-Thani of Qatar, who serves as a UNHCR advocate, has been the biggest contributor to the fund, providing more than $110 million to date, or more than half of total contributions.

JERUSALEM -Israel's attorney general on Friday accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of "illegal" public intervention on the government's divisive judicial reform program, citing his ongoing corruption trial. After largely staying on the sidelines of the discussions, Netanyahu said in a televised address on Thursday he was "entering the arena" and...

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK - Denmark has invited the Russian-controlled operator of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to help recover a mystery object that was spotted near the pipeline, six months after sections were sabotaged. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who revealed the discovery of the object earlier this month, said experts believe that...

Mohammed bin Salman has also worked to mend rifts with regional rivals like Qatar and Turkey, and even offered up the Gulf kingdom as a possible mediator for the war in Ukraine.

Dubai, UAE -- Saudi Arabia has said that the kingdom is on track to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) by 2030, thanks to the restructuring of the water sector and the development of the National Water Strategy. Saudi Arabia's Deputy Minister for Water at the Ministry of...

Netanyahu, in a televised address, said he was determined to advance the reforms but wanted to reach a solution acceptable to both supporters and critics of the proposal. Lawmakers earlier on Thursday approved legislation restricting grounds for declaring a premier unfit for office, a move opposition chief Yair Lapid called...

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday that at the direction of President Joe Biden, he had authorised "precision airstrikes tonight in eastern Syria against facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps." When the strikes were announced, Biden had already travelled to Canada, where he is set...

Warning that it could be left with no option but to cut support for children in Yemen without a funding boost, the UN said that more than 540,000 children under the age of five are suffering life-threatening severe acute malnutrition with one child continuing to die every 10 minutes from...

Riyadh has been hinting at a rapprochement with Syria for weeks. It sent aid to both rebel-held and government-controlled parts of the country in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake that struck southeastern Turkey and northern Syria on February 6, killing tens of thousands of people.

Israeli parliament approved legislation restricting grounds for declaring a premier unfit for office, a move the opposition has called a "personal law" that serves Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The vote came as Netanyahu's government pushes forward with a judicial reform program, which critics say threatens Israeli democracy and has sparked...

Reaffirming their resolve to implement a landmark bilateral reconciliation deal, the Saudi and Iranian foreign ministers spoke by phone to mark the beginning of Ramadan and vowed to meet soon. The two ministers "exchanged congratulations on the occasion of the holy month of Ramadan", which begins in both countries on...

In a crackdown on organized crime, Algeria has dismantled an international network specializing in trafficking people through Algeria to Europe, according to local media reports. The agency tasked with fighting crime arrested nine Syrians and six Algerians suspected of belonging to the group which trafficked Syrians and Lebanese.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said the parliamentary vote scraps "a discriminatory and humiliating law, that prohibited Jews from living in areas in northern Samaria, which is part of our historic homeland," using the biblical name for the northern West Bank.

The UAE accounts for over 40% of Pakistan's trade with Arab countries, with non-oil exports from the UAE to Pakistan valued at nearly AED 4.8 billion ($1.3 billion) in 2022.

Lebanon's economic meltdown, described by the World Bank as one of the worst in recent global history, has plunged most of the population into poverty, according to the UN. Many of the hundreds protesting on Wednesday were retired servicemen whose army pensions have lost most of their value, and depositors...

UN Water forum published its report as the first major conference on the issue in nearly a half-century is set to get underway Wednesday in New York. About 10 percent of the world's population lives in a country where water stress (the ratio of water use to water availability) is...

It was the second such attack in a month on the airport in Syria's second city, which has been a major conduit for relief flights since a February 6 earthquake devastated swathes of northern Syria and neighboring Turkey. The pre-dawn strike targeted "the airport compound and a weapons depot belonging to...

Putin called the talks with Chinese president "meaningful and frank" and said that Russia, which has been largely cut out of European markets because of sanctions, would be able to meet China's "growing demand" for energy. Xi's trip coincides with a surprise visit to Kyiv by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio...

The parliamentary vote notably paves the way for Israeli authorities to formally allow settlers to return to Homesh, the only one of the four sites whose residents were forcibly removed before their homes were demolished. Most governments around the world consider all Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories as illegal...

The head of the Western military alliance said he welcomed any proposals that could lead to a "just and sustainable peace". He said China's paper included some positive elements, including emphasising nuclear safety, protecting civilians and territorial integrity.

New Delhi, India - The first ever meeting of senior officials of India and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) was held in Riyadh on Monday, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs here announced. India has been steadily stepping up institutional engagement of the GCC in addition to regular bilateral meetings...

Jerusalem--Israel's ruling coalition presented on Monday an amended version of a key element in its contentious judicial overhaul, in hopes of allaying concerns at home and abroad for Israeli democracy. The country has seen 11 consecutive weeks of mass demonstrations against the proposed reforms, which are already moving through parliament...

Amman, Jordan - Jordan king Abdullah on Monday discussed his country's modernization efforts in a meeting  with a number of ambassadors of European Union countries to Jordan at Al Husseiniya Palace here. According to a royal court statement, the meeting covered Jordan’s modernization efforts, with King Abdullah reaffirming the Kingdom’s...

The UN has confirmed that Yemen's Houthi rebels and its internationally recognized government have reached an agreement to exchange more than 880 prisoners. This comes in the wake of the China-brokered deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran to restore diplomatic ties between the two countries. The two regional powers back...

"There are no Palestinians, because there are no Palestinian people," far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said at an event in Paris. Smotrich and his Religious Zionism group have a history of making incendiary remarks about Palestinians.

The provincial councils, created by the 2005 constitution following the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, carry relatively significant power in federal Iraq, including allocating the budgets for health, transport and education.

Aid groups urged donors to step up their commitments after the UN complained of the poor level of response to a call it made in mid-February for urgent funding. The International Rescue Committee said they should at least ensure that the UN's emergency appeal for $1bn for Turkey and $397m...

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on wealthy countries to move up their goals of achieving carbon neutrality as close as possible to 2040 in order to "defuse the climate time bomb." He made the remark while introducing a capstone report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on the...

BAGHDAD, IRAQ - Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani will visit Turkey on Tuesday for talks including on scarce water resources and the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a government source said. Sudani is set to meet Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on his first visit to Iraq's northern neighbor since...

China has urged the International Criminal Court to respect immunity for heads of state and to avoid what it called "double standards". Last week the tribunal issued an arrest warrant for Russian leader Vladimir Putin on war crimes charges. China is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, the UN...

New Delhi, India--Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida arrived in India on Monday for talks expected to focus on deepening trade and technology ties as well as shared concern about China. India and Japan along with the United States and Australia make up the Quad alliance, which positions itself as a bulwark...

Just hours after Putin visited Crimea to mark the ninth anniversary of the peninsula's annexation, video distributed by the Kremlin showed him landing by helicopter in Mariupol, the port city that Moscow captured after a long siege last spring. The Russian leader took a tour of the city and was...

The attack in Huwara came three weeks after the fatal shooting of two Israeli settlers, also in the same occupied West Bank town, adding to a surge in violence this year and to fears of escalation during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan starting in the coming week. Neither the...

Cairo, Egypt - Israeli and Palestinian officials were holding talks in Egypt on Sunday "to restore calm" after a surge in deadly violence in the occupied West Bank, Egypt's foreign ministry said. The meeting, which follows similar talks last month in Jordan where both sides pledged to prevent more violence, comes...

BAGHDAD, IRAQ - Iran's top security official on Sunday signed a deal with Iraqi authorities for "protection" of their common border, the Iraqi prime minister's office said, months after Tehran struck Kurdish opposition groups in Iraq's north. Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region hosts camps and rear-bases operated by several Iranian Kurdish factions,...

Abu Dhabi, which normalized relations with Assad's government in 2018, has led aid efforts in the aftermath of the February 6 earthquake that struck southeastern Turkey and northern Syria, killing tens of thousands. A diplomatic momentum generated by aid efforts in the quake's aftermath could bolster Damascus's relations with Middle...