The Pakistan-Saudi pact was signed just months after Pakistan and India fought an intense four-day conflict in May that killed more than 70 people on both sides in missile, drone and artillery fire

Iran's top diplomat said Friday that his country's missile and defence capabilities would "never" be on the negotiating table, as US President Donald Trump appeared to cool on threats of a strike after a military build-up in the region.

Friday's visit by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi comes after US President Donald Trump threatened a military strike on Iran over its deadly protest crackdown this month and the lack of a nuclear agreement.

Saudi Arabia and seven Muslim-majority countries including Gaza mediators Qatar and Turkey have agreed to join US President Donald Trump's "Board of Peace", the Saudi foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

Somalia's president is to visit close ally Turkey on Tuesday following Israel's recognition of the breakaway territory of Somaliland, Turkey's presidency said.

The betting scandal in Turkish football deepened on Friday as 29 people, including 14 footballers, were arrested, the Istanbul public prosecutor's office announced.

General Mohammed al-Haddad and his four aides died on Tuesday after a visit to Ankara, with Turkish officials saying an electrical failure caused their plane to crash less than 15 minutes after takeoff.

After two days of blue skies and sunshine, the heavens opened, but the downpour did little to dampen the enthusiasm of those in attendance, some of whom had travelled for hours to see Leo on his first overseas trip as pope.

Turkey wants to host next year's UN climate change talks and is ready to organise the event alone if there is no agreement on sharing the event, a Turkish diplomatic source told AFP Sunday.

The announcement was met with a firm rebuttal from Israel. Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Israel "firmly rejects, with contempt" the charges, calling them "the latest PR stunt by the tyrant (Turkish President Recep Tayyip) Erdogan".

Turkey, which played a central role in forging the now shaky three-week-old ceasefire, is pushing for Muslim nations to bring their influence to bear on the reconstruction of the embattled territory.

The ICJ ruling came as aid groups scrambled to scale up much-needed humanitarian assistance into Gaza, seizing upon a fragile ceasefire agreed earlier this month.

Responding to a call from Hamas for help locating the bodies of the 19 hostages, buried under the rubble alongside an untold number of Palestinians, Ankara sent specialists to help in the search.

Istanbul, Turkey - Turkish authorities have banned a Robbie Williams concert scheduled for October 7 in Istanbul over "safety concerns" following several calls for protest, a source from the city governor's office told AFP Sunday. The concert would have occurred on the anniversary of the devastating Hamas-led attacks in Israel...

Turkey called the interception "an act of terrorism," and on Thursday said it had opened an investigation after Israeli forces arrested Turkish citizens on board the flotilla.

Istanbul, Turkey -- Turkish Airlines announced on Friday a deal to buy up to 225 Boeing jets, one day after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made his first White House visit since 2019. The more than two-hour meeting between Erdogan and President Donald Trump raised Ankara's hopes of seeing Washington lift...

Turkey's main opposition CHP re-elected its leader Ozgur Ozel at an extraordinary congress Sunday as the party fights off a barrage of what critics say are politically-motivated legal challenges.

Saudi Arabia has spent months courting Syria's new leaders, aiming to draw closer a country long dominated by Iran and Russia.

Tens of thousands of people protested in Ankara ahead of a key court hearing Monday targeting Turkey's main CHP opposition party that could see its leadership upended.

Istanbul's jailed opposition mayor Ekrem Imamoglu went on trial Friday on charges of falsifying his university degree.

Turkey's central bank on Thursday cut its policy interest rate for a second meeting in a row as the country's double-digit inflation continues to ease

Turkey's main opposition party has announced it will hold an extraordinary congress on September 21 after a court ousted its Istanbul leadership on graft allegations, a party source confirmed to AFP on Saturday.

Istanbul, Turkey - Turkish authorities Wednesday said they have banned a planned concert Friday in Istanbul by Enrico Macias after calls to protest the French singer's pro-Israeli views. The Istanbul governorate said in a statement that it had wanted to prevent any demonstrations on the sidelines of the concert "against...

Turkey's main opposition CHP party on Tuesday vowed to fight after a court dismissed the leadership of its Istanbul branch over alleged irregularities in its leadership congress, the latest legal blow to hit the group.

Khanke, Iraq - Archaeologists in drought-hit Iraq have discovered 40 ancient tombs after water levels in the country's largest reservoir declined, an antiquities official said Saturday. The tombs, believed to be over 2,300 years old, were unearthed at the edges of the Mosul Dam reservoir in the Khanke region of...

Ties between Turkey and Israel have been shattered by Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza, with Ankara accusing Israel of committing "genocide" in the tiny Palestinian territory -- a term roundly rejected by Israel -- and suspending all trade ties in May last year.

Last August, Turkey, a member of NATO, unveiled plans to build a multi-layered air defence system to protect its airspace, modelled on Israel's renowned Iron Dome, naming it "Steel Dome".

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he discussed defence and security cooperation with Senegal's visiting prime minister Ousmane Sonko on Thursday, hailing Turkey's growing ties with Africa.

Istanbul, Turkey - Turkey on Saturday turned on a supply of natural gas from Azerbaijan to Syria, whose infrastructure was ravaged by civil war, with annual deliveries expected to reach up to two billion cubic metres. Syria's Islamist authorities, who toppled Bashar al-Assad in December, are seeking to rebuild the...

From June-Sept, in harvested fields cleared of stubble, merchants bring their cargo to age in the sun, tempering the bright hues of their natural colors and ridding them of undesirable elements.

Ukraine said it hoped the two countries would discuss the release of prisoners and lay the ground for a meeting between President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Turkey's parliament on Saturday passed a controversial bill that opens certain agricultural lands including olive groves to mining activities, local media reported, despite widespread opposition.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday accused Israel of using the Druze minority in Syria as a pretext for expanding into the war-torn country.

Baghdad, Iraq -- The Iraqi government announced Thursday an agreement to resume crude exports from the autonomous Kurdistan region after a more than two-year halt and amid drone attacks on oil fields. Lucrative oil exports have been a major point of tension between Baghdad and Arbil, with a key pipeline...

Founded in the late 1970s by Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK took up arms in 1984, beginning a string of bloody attacks on Turkish soil that sparked a conflict that cost more than 40,000 lives.

Paris, France - Europe and the Mediterranean basin has been hit by a long-lasting drought covering over 45 percent of the region since mid-March, according to AFP analysis of European Drought Observatory (EDO) data made available on Tuesday. It is the first time since data collection began in 2012 that...

Lawmakers from the pro-Kurdish DEM party were to meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday for talks described by jailed PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan as having a "historic nature".

Istanbul, Turkey - Turkey's competition authority has launched an investigation into Spotify for anti-competitive practices as a deputy minister demanded legal action over "provocative" playlists allegedly offensive to the president's wife and disrespectful of Islam. In a statement released on Friday, the competition authority said it had opened an investigation...

Britain's top diplomat David Lammy held top-level talks in Ankara Monday that touched on developments in the Middle East and stronger bilateral trade ties on his first visit to Turkey.

The Iran-Israel war has opened the way to a "new road" for the Middle East in which Turkey will have a key role to play, Washington's envoy to Turkey said Sunday.

Iran and Israel have been at war for nine days after Israel, claiming the Islamic republic was on the brink of acquiring a nuclear weapon, launched a massive wave of strikes on its arch-rival, triggering an immediate response from Tehran

Regional tensions, high-stakes defence deals, and new innovation-led collaborations defined the Middle East and North Africa landscape on Wednesday. Here’s your quick briefing:

Turkey's defence sector, including the famous Bayraktar drones, accounts for a significant share of the country's export revenues.

Trump, who wants a swift end to the three-year war, is "open" to a three-way summit "if it comes to that, but he wants both of these leaders and both sides to come to the table together", White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in Washington.

NATO member Turkey, which has strove to maintain relations with both Kyiv and Moscow, has become a key mediator amid US President Donald Trump's push for a deal to end the over three-year war.

The agreement was sealed at the presidential palace in Damascus in the presence of interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa and US ambassador Thomas Barrack. It aims to generate 5,000 megawatts. Syrian Energy Minister Mohammad al-Bashir called it a "historic moment" and a "turning point" for the country's shattered infrastructure.

Round and flat like a pancake, 12 centimeters (five inches) in diameter, the bread was discovered during excavations at Kulluoba, a site near the central Anatolian city of Eskisehir.

"When you try and explain peace to people, there is a very serious lack of trust," said Yuksel Genc, a former fighter with the PKK, which recently ended its decades-long armed struggle against the Turkish state.

Syria's interim leader met with Turkey's president in Istanbul on Saturday, in an unannounced visit amid efforts by the new rulers in Damascus to rebuild the war-torn country.

Damascus, Syria -- Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said Thursday in Damascus that his country would ramp up energy exports to Syria to help boost electricity supplies as its neighbor seeks to recover after years of war. "We want to triple our current electricity exports to meet Syria's electricity needs,...