Doha, Qatar - Qatar's prime minister said on Saturday that momentum had returned to talks aimed at securing a truce and hostage exchange deal in Gaza following Donald Trump's election as US president. The Gulf emirate, along with the United States and Egypt, had been involved in months of unsuccessful negotiations...

Jerusalem--Israel's security cabinet is set to meet Sunday to discuss the "mandate" of a delegation due to travel to Doha for talks on a truce in Gaza, the prime minister's office said. The security cabinet and the smaller, five-member war cabinet will meet Sunday to "decide on the mandate of...

Speaking at a televised news conference, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that critics exhorting Israel not to lauch offensive in Rafah were telling the Jewish country to "lose the war" against Hamas. He suggested that troops would go in regardless of whether a hostage release is reached.

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in a statement said that ships bound for Israel will also be barred from loading cargo at any port in the largely Muslim Southeast Asian nation with immediate effect. He particularly targeted Israel's biggest shipping firm ZIM. Malaysia's cabinet authorised ZIM to dock its vessels at...

The Chinese president called for deeper bilateral cooperation during a meeting with Russia's Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in Beijing. The strong relationship between the two nations, which has endured despite Russia's military invasion of its neighbour Ukraine in early 2022, has faced pointed criticism from Western leaders in recent years.

The two leaders met in Addis Ababa and held talks on various aspects of bilateral relations, in addition to broader regional and international issues of mutual interest. The focus of the discussion was boosting areas of cooperation, including economic, investment, and development ties, across all sectors to increase prosperity of...

Aden, Yemen--Yemeni Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik affirmed that the economic support Saudi Arabia provides to Yemen represents a vital factor for achieving progress in various service and development sectors. During a cabinet meeting today in Aden, Abdulmalik pointed out that the kingdom's economic support backs the efforts of the Yemeni...

Baghdad, Iraq-- An advisor to Iraq's Prime Minister said the country has effective price monetary policy tools to manage public funds. Mudher Muhammed Salih, the advisor to the Prime Minister for Financial Affairs, emphasized the effectiveness of quantitative and price monetary policy tools in managing public funds and discussed factors...

JERUSALEM -  Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid on Monday testified at a Jerusalem court in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ongoing corruption trial. His arrival at the court at around 9:00 am (0600 GMT) was confirmed by two AFP journalists. Lapid's testimony forms part of a case in which Netanyahu is...

Continuing with their protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plans to reform the judiciary, tens of thousands of demonstrators filled up Tel Aviv on Saturday despite the process being put on hold. According to organizers some 258,000 people attended the protest. The demonstration happened a day after a car-ramming attack...

Following the killing of three people in the West Bank and Tel Aviv, Israel has mobilized police and army reserves in the latest escalation of violence in the Middle East. In spite of appeals for restraint, violence has spiked since Israel police stormed into Al-Aqsa mosque on Wednesday and beat...

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...

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...

Carrying signs reading "Save Israel's democracy from Netanyahu", thousands of Israelis demonstrated in Tel Aviv on Saturday against controversial legal reforms touted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government. The demonstrators also held up signs labelling the new government a "threat to world peace."

Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has said the country's new banking regulations have revealed fraudulent dollar transactions made from his country. In recent months the country has been seeking to make sure that its banking system is in sync with the international electronic transfer system.

Ardern said last week she no longer had "enough in the tank" after steering the country through natural disasters, its worst-ever terror attack and the Covid-19 pandemic. Hipkins was sworn in by Governor-General Cindy Kiro during a ceremony in the capital Wellington, saying he was "energised and excited by the...

Appealing to guilty parties to hand themselves in and return all the money, the prime minister of Iraq has revealed that the country has recovered part of $2.5 billion in public funds fraudulently withdrawn from a government account. A wealthy businessman implicated in the theft had given back $125 million.

She faces a daunting to-do list, with the UK in the grip of its worst economic crisis in decades, with double-digit inflation and skyrocketing gas and electricity bills. Truss, who touts herself as a free-market liberal, has promised tax cuts to stimulate growth, despite warnings that greater borrowing could make...

An end to years of tension between regional rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia is near, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi said in an interview published on Saturday. Iraq, a neighbor to both countries, has hosted five rounds of talks over the past year aimed at restoring ties between Saudi Arabia...

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Wednesday barred far-right lawmaker Itamar Ben Gvir from entering Muslim areas of Jerusalem's Old City and holding a rally, in a bid to stem further violence. The ban is intended to prevent further violence in the Old City, including in the Al-Aqsa mosque.

Pakistan will go to the polls to elect a new government within three months after Prime Minister Imran Khan foiled an attempt to boot him from office Sunday by getting the president to dissolve the national assembly. The presidency -- a largely ceremonial office -- acceded hours later.

Britain on Sunday defended lobbying Saudi Arabia to up its oil output as energy sanctions on Russia hit Western consumers, after the Gulf kingdom executed a record number of prisoners.

Israel's premier said Sunday his country had a "moral obligation" to help stem fighting in Ukraine even if chances of success were "not great", after shuttle diplomacy that saw him visit the Kremlin.

The Libyan parliament's pick for prime minister has accused his rival in Tripoli of blocking ministers-in-waiting from traveling to the eastern-based assembly to be sworn in.

Libya's prospective prime minister, appointed by the war-torn country's parliament as it seeks to oust interim premier Abdulhamid Dbeibah, said Thursday his cabinet line-up was ready.

Libya's parliament on Monday began hearings of hopefuls to replace interim prime minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah, a process that could spark new east-west power struggles in the troubled North African nation.

Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh has urged the African Union to withdraw Israel's observer status as heads of state from the 55-member body met for a two-day summit.

The financial advisor to Iraqi Prime Minister, Madher Muhammad Salih, has stressed the need for beginning  a set of measures that encourage civil activity to invest and produce.

Iran on Sunday said it condemned a drone attack targeting Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi and urged "vigilance to foil plots aimed at the security and development" of his country. Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Said Khatibzadeh directed blame at the United States.

Iraq's Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi said he was unhurt and appealed for "calm and restraint" after a drone attack on his residence early Sunday heightened political tensions in the war-scarred country.

Firebrand cleric Moqtada Sadr may be Iraq's big election winner but he will still have to haggle with his opponents, linked to armed pro-Iranian groups, to forge a new government. 

Attack came on a day PM Mustafa Al-Kadhemi was flying home from Washington after talks with Joe Biden.

French foreign minister Le Drian said it was "necessary to preserve calm, and the rule of law, and to allow a rapid return to a normal functioning of Tunisia's democratic institutions".

The billionaire politician, already twice a prime minister, was designated on Monday, days after Saad Hariri threw in the towel

The leaders of the two states also discuss regional and international issues of common interest and efforts to achieve peace and prosperity regionally and internationally.