Middle East

Sana’a says it is waiting for a positive response from the United Nations and its new special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, to an initiative put forward by the Houthi Ansarullah resistance movement aimed at helping end the war in Yemen. The Yemeni Supreme Political Council, in a statement published …

Just outside a new capital in the desert east of Cairo, the Egyptian government has been racing to ready new homes for thousands of mid-level civil servants who are expected to move to the city. Egypt turned to private developers to build pricier residential districts within the grandiose new capital, …

Hezbollah says it will surely take action to import gasoline from Iran as means of countering Lebanon’s dire fuel shortage, a product of the country’s worsening economic situation. “We will definitely import gasoline and fuel residue from Iran,” the Lebanese resistance movement’s Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Sunday, Lebanon’s …

Turkey’s Defense Ministry says three Turkish soldiers have been killed in an explosion in northern Iraq. The ministry said on Monday that an improvised explosive device planted by militants went off on Sunday in a region where Turkey was conducting a cross-border operation against militants from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party …

Woman says she was held for days at a Chinese-run secret detention facility in Dubai along with at least two Uighurs. A young Chinese woman says she was held for eight days at a Chinese-run secret detention facility in Dubai along with at least two Uighurs, in what may be …

Thousands of Israelis have been forced to evacuate six settlements outside al-Quds amid a raging wildfire. A large blaze broke out about 13 kilometers (8 miles) west of al-Quds on Sunday, blanketing the city in smoke. Israelis in Beit Meir, Ksalon, Shoresh, Sho’eva, Ramat Raziel and Givat Ye’arim were asked …

Palestinian local officials said at least four Palestinians were killed, as Israeli forces raid the occupied West Bank Monday The incident occurred in the city of Jenin, where, Israeli police said in a statement, special forces disguised as Palestinians came under heavy fire from “a large number” of attackers while …

Flash floods that swept through towns in Turkish Black Sea provinces have killed 70 people and emergency workers continue to search for 47 missing people, authorities said on Monday. The floods last week brought chaos as torrents of water tossed dozens of cars and heaps of debris along streets, destroyed …

As the Taliban continues to gain territory in Afghanistan, nations are quickly mobilizing to evacuate diplomatic staff in Kabul, fearing an eventual attack on the capital. President Biden announced on Saturday that approximately 5,000 U.S. troops will be deployed to Kabul to oversee the evacuation of U.S. diplomats as the …

The United States is reportedly removing all of its staff from the embassy in Kabul in the next 72 hours and closing the embassy as the Taliban appear to capture the seat of the central government. American sources who are privy to the matter told CNN on Sunday the embassy’s …

President Ashraf Ghani fled Afghanistan on Sunday, a top official said, effectively ceding power to the Taliban as they reached the capital Kabul to seal a nationwide military victory in just 10 days. “The former Afghan President has left the nation, leaving the people to this situation,” Abdullah Abdullah, who …

Flash floods that have swept through towns in the Turkish Black Sea region have killed 58 people, authorities said on Sunday, in the second natural disaster to strike Turkey this month. The floods brought chaos to northern provinces just as authorities were declaring wildfires had been brought under control after …

At least 22 people were killed and 79 injured when a fuel tank exploded in northern Lebanon early on Sunday, the health minister said. Military and security sources said that the army had seized a fuel storage tank hidden by black marketeers and was in the midst of handing out …

A water-dropping plane with seven people on board crashed today in southern Turkey, where it was battling a wildfire. Russia’s defence ministry said five Russian servicemen and three Turkish nationals were killed in the crash, news agencies reported. State news agency Anadolu reported that rescuers had rushed to the scene …

Yemeni forces have shot down a US-built ScanEagle spy drone flying over the central province of Ma’rib which is the center of fierce clashes with Saudi-backed militants. Spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, tweeted Saturday that the Yemeni air defense forces and their allies used a domestically-developed surface-to-air …

The US embassy in Afghanistan’s capital has directed its staff to destroy sensitive documents and computers as well as other material that could be used against the United States, according to American media outlets. The directive was given in a memo written for staff at the US embassy in Kabul …

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says the US-led military alliance would support the Afghan government in the face of the Taliban offensive, warning the militants against taking the country by force. NATO Allies met in the North Atlantic Council on Friday after three major cities in western and southern Afghanistan …

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on Taliban to “immediately halt” their military campaign against government troops and return to the negotiating table in good faith “in the interest of Afghanistan, and its people.” The Taliban group significantly increased their attacks to seize more territories from government forces after the withdrawal of …

Environmental groups worry about the risk supertankers might pose to Eilat’s fragile coral ecosystems. The Red Sea reefs off the Israeli resort of Eilat host some of the greatest coral diversity on the planet. A symphony in splendid technicolor, the reefs are among the world’s most resilient coral colonies against …

Iran is to impose a one-week lockdown and a ban on road travel amid a fifth COVID-19 surge in the worst-hit country in the Middle East, state television reported on Saturday. All non-essential businesses and offices will have to close under the nationwide lockdown from Monday to Aug. 21, in …