The development came as speaker Mohammed al-Halbusi suggested an agenda for an upcoming national dialogue session following an 11-month political paralysis that sparked deadly clashes in Baghdad last week.

The leader of Italy's far-right League party, Matteo Salvini, has sparked debate by saying that the unprecedented sanctions the West had imposed on Russia over the Ukraine invasion weren't working. "Several months have passed and people are paying two, three, even four times more for their bills," he told Rtl...

The Iranian defense ministry has "provided 51 cities in the country with the necessary installations and equipment for passive defense, said deputy defense minister Mehdi Farahi. He added that the ministry is "now able to identify the threats thanks to the infrastructure put in place to confront all sorts of...

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has welcomed the appointment by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of Abdoulaye Bathily as Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Libya.

The Algerian-backed Polisario Front wants an independent state in the Western Sahara, a vast stretch of mineral-rich desert which Morocco sees as a sovereign part of its own territory.

Shocked at the death of a Syrian detainee in custody of security officials, Lebanon has arrested five State Security agents on suspicion of torturing to death Bashar Abdel Saud. The arrests were made on the orders of the government’s commissioner to the military courts who had ordered an investigation into...

EU Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said Saturday that the European Union was "well prepared" in the event of a total halt in Russian gas deliveries, thanks to storage capacity and energy-saving measures. "We are well prepared to resist Russia's extreme use of the gas weapon," he told reporters on the...

Indonesia has a viable path to reaching its target of net zero emissions by 2060, bringing major benefits to its citizens in the process such as more secure and affordable energy supplies, according to a new IEA report.

Turkey can mediate in a standoff over Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, occupied by Moscow's troops, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Saturday. "President Erdogan said Turkey can play a facilitator role in the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, as they did in the grain deal," the...

Qatar will chair the 9th Annual Conference of the Arab Association of Secretaries General of Parliaments (AASGP), to be held in Cairo on September 4 and 5.

The sale comes a month after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi defiantly visited the self-governing democracy, prompting mainland China to launch a show of force that could be a trial run for a future invasion. The package -- the largest for Taiwan approved under President Joe Biden's administration -- includes $665...

The Group of Seven major industrial democracies vowed to move urgently to set a price cap on Russian oil imports, a crucial source of revenue for Moscow and its war in Ukraine. "Russia is benefitting economically from the uncertainty on energy markets caused by the war and is making big...

Three days after it seized a US military drone vessel in the Gulf, the Iranian navy took control of two American drone vessels in the Red Sea before releasing them. Iranian state media aired footage on Friday purporting to show the two US vessels being released by Iranian forces on...

Brandishing banners and Iraqi flags, the non-partisan protesters streamed into west Baghdad's al-Nusoor square, demanding a complete political overhaul. Demonstrators shouted the Arab Spring slogan: "The people want the fall of the regime."

G7 industrialized powers vowed Friday to "urgently" move towards implementing a price cap on Russian oil imports in a bid to cut a major source of funding for Moscow's war in Ukraine. The G7 said it was working towards a "broad coalition" of support for the measure but officials in...

Prime Minister of Jordan Dr. Bisher Khasawneh met Kuwaiti Minister of Information and Culture Abdul Rahman Al-Mutairi, who is in the Kingdom to head his country's delegation in the 21st Amman International Book Fair.

An explosion rocked a key oil refinery in Iran's southwestern city of Abadan overnight, state media said Friday, reporting no casualties. The explosion was caused by the "bursting of one of the furnaces of the sulphur production unit of Abadan refinery", state news agency IRNA said. The blast "did not...

The UAE top diplomat said that the ongoing dialogue between the two countries has led to the launch of the CSP in 2017, and the signing of the CEPA in 2022.

Federal agents and local police officers were spotted carrying boxes after they left an apartment in Manhattan's lavish Park Avenue and a house in the Hamptons, an upscale vacation destination near New York City, according to the report. Both properties are linked to Vekselberg, NBC said, citing US Treasury documents.

The rebels' Al-Masirah television channel aired footage of the parade it said involved air and naval forces as well as hundreds of uniformed troops. The parade drew a rebuke from the UN mission deployed to oversee the deal the rebels reached with the government and its Saudi-led supporters in Sweden...

UAE Minister of Climate Change and the Environment Mariam bint Mohammed Almheiri participated in the Joint Environment and Climate Ministers’ Meeting as part of the G20 Summit in Indonesia.

In a speech to French ambassadors, France's president Emmanuel Macron said he hoped the deal could be concluded within next few days. The Biden administration is also eager to restore the deal trashed by former president Donald Trump and says that Iran has backed down on some demands that held...

Rosmah Mansor, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison and given a US$216 million fine for graft, has been widely mocked in the past over her reported taste for luxury.

The Cessna single-engine plane was approaching an exclusive airport for private jets in the UAE capital's center when it came down near the white marble landmark, the country's biggest mosque.

The spike in violence is tied to raids launched across the West Bank in recent months by Israeli forces, many targeting armed militants in Nablus and the Jenin area further north.

The journalists' syndicate held elections on Saturday, the first since ousted president Omar al-Bashir dissolved independent unions after rising to power in 1989.

The NGO cited numerous cases of "unlawful killings, pushbacks by shooting and other unlawful returns, arbitrary detention, and torture and other ill-treatment of Afghans at the hands of both Iranian and Turkish officials."

The US Central Command's 5th Fleet said a support ship from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, the Shahid Baziar, was spotted towing the seven-meter (23-foot) Saildrone Explorer unmanned surface vessel (USV) late Monday.

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...

The Kremlin on Tuesday warned it would respond if the European Union makes it harder for Russians to travel to the bloc as part of measures in support of Ukraine. The idea to ban Russian tourists from Europe has divided EU nations, with some in full support and others against...

European leaders want to break the link between soaring gas prices and electricity bills, a wholesale reform of the EU energy market made urgent by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. This continent-wide shake up of 27 EU economies with different energy needs and sources will be a long and politically-fraught process.

Saudi Arabia has seized over 700 million narcotic pills that entered its territory via Lebanon in the past eight years, its ambassador to Beirut said Tuesday. The kingdom suspended fruit and vegetable imports from Lebanon in April last year, accusing it of inaction after seizing millions of captagon amphetamine pills...

Ships from the Iraq Navy, Kuwait Naval Force, Kuwait Coast Guard, US Navy, and US Coast Guard participated in maneuvering exercises and maritime security drills.

The relief aid includes shelter materials, humanitarian needs, food and medical parcels for those affected by torrential rains and floods

Hours after Baghdad’s Green Zone plunged into chaos, UN chief Antonio Guterres has called for "restraint" in Iraq, asking all parties to "take immediate steps to de-escalate the situation." Violence flared up after Moqtada Sadr said he was quitting politics, fueling chaos in which 12 of his supporters were killed.

Tensions have soared in Iraq amid a political crisis that has left the country without a new government, prime minister or president for months, and escalated sharply after Sadr's supporters stormed the government palace following their leader's announcement. At least seven shells fell in the high-security Green Zone, which houses...

Calm seemed to prevail over Tripoli for a second day Monday after the clashes -- the worst violence in the capital since a landmark 2020 ceasefire. The health ministry said 32 people were killed and 159 wounded, including an unspecified number of civilians, in the fighting that began overnight Friday...

The Iran nuclear deal with world powers still appears to be far from certain as President Raisi now says that the deal is pointless unless the UN nuclear watchdog put an end to its probe of undeclared sites. Iran has repeatedly urged the agency to end the issue before any...

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...

Tracy Chamoun, an ex-ambassador and granddaughter of late president Camille Chamoun, announced Monday she will run for the presidency of Lebanon. "I announce to the Lebanese people, and their lawmakers... my candidacy in Lebanon's upcoming presidential elections," Chamoun told a news conference marking the launch of her campaign for the...

Between 100,000 and 200,000 spectators are expected to attend the launch of NASA's most powerful rocket yet, the uncrewed 98-meter Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.

Mujahid's comments came less than a month after US President Joe Biden announced the killing of Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri in a drone strike in Kabul.

Encouraged by Ukraine to ban all Russian tourists from visiting Europe, EU foreign ministers will study the idea in a two-day meeting beginning Tuesday in Prague. Although many have resisted the suggestion fearing it would prevent Russian dissidents from getting out, many have wholeheartedly agreed with it.

Prime Minister Yair Lapid said that Israel's "diplomatic fight" against the deal included its  national security advisor and defense minister holding recent meetings in the United States.

The only Gulf state with a fully elected legislature, the key oil producer has been hit by regular feuding between the ruling Al-Sabah family and the assembly. The current government was formed at the start of August after the previous cabinet resigned in April, just three months after being sworn...

Japan will use its place on the United Nations Security Council to push for an African seat on the top world body, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Sunday. "Japan reiterates its determination to redress the injustice against Africa of not being represented through a permanent membership on the Security Council,"...

The two uneasy NATO neighbors have long-standing sea and air boundary disputes which lead to near-daily air force patrols and interception missions mostly around Greek islands near Turkey's coastline.

The US Seventh Fleet said the pair of Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruisers the USS Antietam and the USS Chancellorsville conducted the "routine" transit on Sunday "through waters where high seas freedoms of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law."

For nearly a year, Iraq has struggled to break a political deadlock that has left the country without a new government, prime minister or president, due to disagreement between factions over forming a coalition. Now with Sadr calling for parliament to be dissolved, it will only deepen the uncertainty.