Arab News
12 more killed in latest wave of airstrikes on southern Lebanon
Israel killed 12 more people in Lebanon on Thursday in the latest of a wave of airstrikes on the south of the country. Eight people died in attacks on the town of Tayr Dibba, and another four in strikes on Deir Qanun Al-Nahr. There was also an Israeli...
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Israel and Iran trade fire in new threat to ceasefire deal
Israeli airstrikes damaged the Mahshahr petrochemical complex that produces raw materials for Iran’s ballistic missiles, and there were explosions in Tehran, where air defenses shot down an Israeli drone. Israel also targeted truckbased Iranian missile...
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Israel strikes Beirut’s southern suburbs despite ceasefire deal
Israel struck Beirut’s southern suburbs without warning on Sunday, days after a ceasefire agreement in Washington went into effect and despite a US request not to attack Lebanon’s capital. The strike hit a residential building, damaging four of its...
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Two army officers, soldier among nine killed in Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon
Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon on Saturday killed nine people, including three members of the Lebanese military, days after the two sides reached a new ceasefire deal. An airstrike on a vehicle on a road linking Nabatieh with the town of...
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Get your hands off our country, Lebanon’s leaders tell Tehran
Lebanon’s leaders told Iran on Friday to stop interfering in their country as Israel and Hezbollah again exchanged fire in the south. “Have mercy on our south, stop treating it and its people as merely a bargaining chip to improve the terms of your...
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Five more killed in Lebanon as Hezbollah rejects latest truce
Five more people including a UN peacekeeper died in Lebanon on Thursday as Hezbollah rejected the latest ceasefire described by President Joseph Aoun as the “last chance” for peace. The Serbian peacekeeper died and two others were injured in a mortar...
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Gulf, Arab countries condemn Iran strikes on Kuwait, Bahrain
Saudi Arabia reiterated its “categorical rejection of these assaults that undermine the sovereignty of the sisterly states, which constitute a clear violation of international law and the UN Charter.” Bader Al-Asaker, head of the office of Crown...
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Iran fears social unrest as inflation hits record high
Fears are growing of renewed social unrest in Iran after annual consumer price inflation hit its highest since the Second World War and the national currency continued to plunge in value. Iran’s Central Bank said the consumer price index, which...
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France urges urgent UN meeting on Lebanon
France has requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council after Israeli forces seized the medieval Beaufort Castle in Lebanon, the French foreign minister said Sunday. “I have requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security...
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‘Scorched-earth policy’ will not ensure Israel’s security, says Lebanon premier
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam denounced on Saturday “a dangerous Israeli escalation” in the south, urging an immediate ceasefire and insisting that a “scorched-earth policy” would not ensure Israel’s security. In a televised address, Salam also...
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Throngs of pilgrims begin departure from Makkah after final rituals of Hajj
Thousands of pilgrims began to leave the holy city of Makkah on Friday after completing the Hajj. More than 1.7 million people from 165 countries took part this year. “I can’t believe I completed the Hajj,” said Ahmed Mamdouh, 37, from Egypt, who...
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Hajj reaches final stage
As Hajj 2026 reaches its final stage, the Grand Mosque in Makkah is packed with pilgrims circumambulating the Holy Kaaba on Thursday.
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Pilgrims take part in symbolic ‘stoning of the devil’ in final major ritual of Hajj
Pilgrims took part in the last major ritual of the Hajj on Wednesday, symbolically stoning the devil, as Muslims worldwide began celebrating Eid Al-Adha. Crowds of the faithful gathered from dawn in the valley of Mina, southeast of Makkah, to throw...
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Mount of Faith
Pilgrims gathered at Arafat on Tuesday for the most sacred and spiritually defining stage of the Hajj. The plain 20 km southeast of Makkah is dominated by Jabal Al-Rahmah, the Mount of Mercy, where pilgrims gather for prayer and reflection. The Arafat...
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1.6 million Muslim pilgrims begin the spiritual journey of a lifetime
More than 1.6 million Muslim pilgrims filled a vast tent city in the holy city of Makkah on Monday as the annual Hajj pilgrimage began. The white-robed pilgrims arrived by bus or on foot at the sprawling encampment in Mina after walking seven times...
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Six women, child among 11 killed in Israeli onslaught on south Lebanon
Israeli strikes hit south and east Lebanon on Sunday, a day after 11 people were killed in a single raid on the south despite a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war. Saturday’s strike in Sir Al-Gharbiyeh “resulted in a massacre whose final toll is 11...
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Israel warns of imminent strikes on 10 Lebanese villages, hits army barracks
Israel warned the residents of 10 villages in southern Lebanon to evacuate their homes immediately to avoid planned airstrikes against alleged Hezbollah targets. The communities listed by Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee in a post covered a...
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Israel ‘has wiped whole towns off map’ to occupy southern Lebanon
Israeli forces have wiped whole towns off the map in southern Lebanon to create an army occupation zone extending 10 km north of the border, displaced civilians said on Friday. Thousands of homes, schools and churches have been bulldozed since the...
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Anger as Gaza aid flotilla activists deported
Israel on Thursday deported hundreds of activists seized from a Gaza-bound aid flotilla amid an international outcry over their treatment in custody. Far-right extremist Israeli government minister Itamar Ben-Gvir sparked widespread condemnation and a...
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Gaza farmers’ hard work pays off
Gaza farmers harvest wheat amid Israeli attacks and the ongoing blockade. Despite limited farmland and difficult conditions, farmers continued working on their crops using traditional methods. During Israel’s two-year offensive, the territory has...
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Damascus car bomb kills soldier
A bomb exploded outside a Defense Ministry building in Damascus on Tuesday, killing one Syrian soldier and wounding about a dozen other people. Soldiers discovered a bomb that was ready to be detonated in the Bab Sharqi district. As they were...
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UN accuses Israel of war crimes and atrocities against Palestinians
The UN accused Israel on Monday of ethnic cleansing, war crimes and other atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. In its latest damning report, the UN rights office said Israel’s actions in Gaza since the start of the war...
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Israel bombs Lebanese villages despite truce
Israel struck eastern and southern Lebanon on Sunday, state media reported, despite a fragile ceasefire. Two Israeli strikes hit the town of Sohmor in eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, the National News Agency said, adding that others took place across...
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Israel kills 17 in Lebanon drone, air attacks
Three Israeli drone strikes on vehicles just south of Beirut on Saturday killed four people while a series of airstrikes on southern Lebanon killed at least 13, including a man and his 12-yearold daughter, state media and the Health Ministry said. The...
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Israel bombs Lebanon before US talks
Israel carried out new strikes in southern Lebanon on Friday, hours before the two countries’ envoys were set to meet for a second day of peace talks in Washington.
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Chinese leader ‘offers Beijing’s help to reopen Strait of Hormuz’
Xi Jinping on Thursday offered China’s help in reopening the Strait of Hormuz, Donald Trump said after a historic summit in Beijing. The two presidents called for free navigation in the vital waterway to support global energy needs as tension...
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Trump arrives in China
US President Donald Trump arrived in Beijing on Wednesday for his hotly anticipated talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the Iran war, trade and US arms sales to Taiwan. He was received by Vice President Han Zheng.
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Israeli bombs kill 6 in Lebanon
Israeli strikes on a town in southern Lebanon killed six people and wounded seven others on Tuesday despite an April 17 ceasefire agreement aimed to halt the fighting.
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Lebanon urges US envoy to halt strikes by Israel
Lebanon on Monday urged the US ambassador to Beirut to pressure Israel into halting its attacks. President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam met envoy Michel Issa before a third meeting between the countries in Washington this week. A truce...
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2 Hezbollah men killed in Israeli attack
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said two paramedics from the Hezbollah-affiliated health committee were killed and five others wounded on Sunday in Israeli strikes on the country’s south despite a ceasefire. A ministry statement said that Israel “directly...
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Tehran could withstand naval blockade for months, CIA says
A US intelligence analysis has concluded Tehran could withstand a naval blockade for months. A CIA assessment indicated that Iran would not suffer severe economic pressure from a US blockade of Iranian ports for about another four months, suggesting...
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Iran and US forces in new exchange of fire in Gulf
Renewed fighting erupted in the Gulf on Friday as the US awaited a response from Iran to its latest peace plan. US military forces disabled two Iranian tankers that were trying to breach an American blockade on Iran’s ports, and posted video footage...
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Rubio mends fences with pope
Pope Leo and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed efforts to achieve peace in the Middle East at a papal audience in Rome on Thursday, amid a spat between the Vatican and the White House over the war.
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Iran under pressure to accept new 14-point plan to end war
Iran came under mounting pressure on Wednesday to accept a new 14-point plan for ending the Middle East war. The proposal would not initially require concessions from either Tehran or Washington. It would bring an immediate halt to hostilities,...
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Iran’s nuclear program unscathed by war, US intelligence chiefs say
The time Tehran needs to build a nuclear weapon has not changed since last summer, when US-Israeli strikes extended it to a year, security sources told the Reuters news agency. The nuclear assessments remain unchanged after two months of a war that US...
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The battle of Hormuz
A battle for control over the Strait of Hormuz erupted on Monday, the first day of the US “Project Freedom” to escort commercial vessels through the waterway. Iran’s chokehold on the strait has proved a strategic advantage in the war, allowing Tehran...
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Trump expresses doubts as Iran offers 30-day deal to end war
Iran has delivered a new 14-point proposal to the US aimed at resolving longstanding disputes within 30 days and fully ending the ongoing war, rather than merely extending a ceasefire, according to Iranian state-linked media. President Donald Trump...
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Israel kills 7 in southern Lebanon and razes Catholic convent despite ceasefire
Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon killed at least seven people and wounded others on Saturday while the Israeli military demolished parts of a Catholic convent in a border village, officials said. Israel’s military on Saturday issued a new...
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Turkish police fire tear gas and arrest hundreds at May Day demo in Istanbul
Turkish police fired tear gas and arrested at least 370 people on Friday during May Day demonstrations in Istanbul. Protesters tried to march to the city’s Taksim Square, which police had sealed off. “You can’t close off a square to the workers of...
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Five women, two children killed in new Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon
Five women and two children were among nine people killed on Thursday in Israeli airstrikes on three villages in southern Lebanon. Israel has continued its attacks despite a ceasefire after US-brokered talks two weeks ago between the Lebanese and...
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‘No more Mr Nice Guy’
Donald Trump issued a new warning to Iran on Wednesday over stalled talks to end the Middle East war. “Iran can’t get their act together. They don’t know how to sign a nonnuclear deal. They better get smart soon!” the US president wrote on his Truth...
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Iran ‘in a state of collapse’
Iran has told the US it is in a “state of collapse,” President Donald Trump claimed yesterday amid receding prospects of talks to end the Middle East war. “They want us to open the Hormuz Strait as soon as possible, as they try to figure out their...
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Vision 2030 ‘transforming KSA’
Vision 2030 had already transformed Saudi Arabia and would continue to do so for the next four years and beyond, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said on Monday. The project was launched in April 2016 to reduce the Kingdom’s dependence on oil...
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Araghchi back in Pakistan for US-Iran ceasefire talks
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Islamabad again on Sunday as Pakistan’s political and military leadership scrambled to reignite ceasefire negotiations between Tehran and Washington, but President Donald Trump said they could talk by...
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Trump cancels Kushner, Witkoff trips as Araghchi leaves Pakistan
The latest ceasefire talks between the US and Iran appeared to fail on Saturday before they began, as Tehran’s top diplomat left Pakistan and President Donald Trump soon afterward said he had told envoys not to travel to Islamabad. However, Trump...
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Iran-backed militias in Iraq attack Kuwait with drones
Two drones launched by Iranbacked militias in Iraq on Friday struck the northern border in Kuwait. The attacks caused “material damage but ... no human casualties,” the Kuwaiti military said. After the Middle East war began on Feb. 28, pro-Iran armed...
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US forces board tanker loaded with Iranian oil bound for China
US troops on Thursday boarded and seized a tanker loaded with Iranian oil bound for China. The Pentagon published dramatic footage of soldiers descending from helicopters on to the deck of the Guinea-flagged Majestic X. “We will continue global...
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Standoff in Hormuz
Competing naval blockades created a standoff in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday amid continuing uncertainty over US-Iran peace talks. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards attacked three container ships attempting to pass through the vital waterway, and US...
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No more bombs for now, but pessimism stalks Tehran streets
The bombs have stopped falling for now, but the mood among Iranians on the streets of Tehran on Tuesday remained darkly pessimistic. “I think at the end of the day, there will be no agreement achieved. Probably, there will be war again,” said Babak...
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Sudan leader visits Jeddah
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman received Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, chairman of Sudan’s Transitional Sovereignty Council, in Jeddah on Monday.
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Trump says peace talks to resume
President Donald Trump said US negotiators will head to Pakistan on Monday for another round of talks with Iran, raising hopes of extending a fragile ceasefire set to expire by Wednesday, even as Washington and Tehran remain in a standoff over the...
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KSA condemns French soldier’s killing in Lebanon; Macron blames Hezbollah
Saudi Arabia on Saturday strongly condemned an attack targeting a French contingent of the UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon that left a French soldier dead and three others injured. Both President Emmanual Macron and the UN interim force...
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Iran reopens Strait of Hormuz but Trump says US blockade remains
Iran on Friday ended its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which has caused global economic chaos since the start of the Middle East war at the end of February. The strategic waterway would be open “for all commercial vessels” for the duration of the...
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Lebanon and Israel have agreed to 10-day ceasefire, US president says
Israel and Lebanon have agreed to a 10-day ceasefire, US President Donald Trump said on Thursday after speaking by phone with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Joseph Aoun. Crucially, since the two countries are not actually fighting each...
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Iran issues new threat to attack shipping in Red Sea
Iran threatened on Wednesday to attack Red Sea shipping, amid a flurry of diplomatic activity aimed at extending a ceasefire and ending the Middle East war. The new US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz was “a prelude to violating the ceasefire,” said...
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Pressure mounts on US and Iran for new Middle East peace talks
Renewed Middle East peace talks could begin as soon as Thursday as the US and Iran face growing pressure to resume negotiations that collapsed last week in Islamabad. Pakistan again offered itself as host, China floated a peace proposal, France urged...
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Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters clash in key Lebanese border town
Fierce clashes erupted again on Monday between Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters in the key town of Bint Jbeil, ahead of peace talks between the two countries due to begin on Tuesday in Washington. The Israeli military said its troops had...
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Pope Leo says he is ‘closer than ever’ to Lebanese people
Pope Leo XIV expressed his closeness to the people of Lebanon on Sunday, saying there was a “moral obligation” to protect them while calling on warring parties to seek peace. “I am closer than ever, in these days of sorrow, fear, and unconquerable hope...
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Tributes paid to Saudi officer who lost his life in attacks
Jarrah bin Mohammed Al-Khaldi, a Saudi victim of attacks on energy facilities, was laid to rest in Dammam on Tuesday. Funeral prayers were held for Al-Khaldi, 44, at Al-Furqan Mosque. His passing drew widespread public attention online. Saudis,...
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Hormuz and Lebanon emerge as twin threats to fragile ceasefire
Israeli attacks killed at least seven people in southern Lebanon a day after hundreds died in the largest attack since the war began. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to a Lebanese request for direct negotiations “as soon as possible,”...
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Hundreds killed in Israel’s biggest wave of strikes in war on Lebanon
At least 254 people were killed on Wednesday in an unprecedented wave of Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon after Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu said the new Middle East ceasefire did not apply there. The US president said Lebanon was not included...
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World holds its breath
Donald Trump issued an apocalyptic warning to Iran on Tuesday as his deadline neared for Tehran to reach a peace agreement and reopen the blockaded Strait of Hormuz. The US president gave Iran’s leaders until 8 p.m. in Washington (3 a.m. Saudi time)...
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New Israeli strike hits Iran’s largest petrochemical plant
Israeli airstrikes hit Iran’s largest petrochemical complex on Monday amid a wave of attacks by the US and Israel that killed more than 30 people. The giant plant at Asaluyeh in Iran’s southern Bushehr province services the South Pars natural gas...
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Lebanon president calls for talks to prevent Gaza-style destruction
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun reiterated on Sunday a call for negotiations with Israel, saying he wanted to spare his country’s south from destruction on the scale seen in Gaza. “It is true that Israel might want to do in southern Lebanon what it did...
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Niece of ex-IRGC’s chief to be deported from US
The niece and grand-niece of former Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps chief Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US airstrike in 2020, was arrested late on Friday after their green cards were revoked. ‘Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her daughter are now...
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Italy PM visits KSA
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman holds talks with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who arrived in Jeddah on Friday to discuss energy security affected by the Middle East war.
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Iran is ‘holding world economy hostage’ with Hormuz blockade
The UK accused Iran on Thursday of holding the world’s economy hostage by blocking the Strait of Hormuz as diplomats from more than 40 countries held talks on ways to reopen it. The meeting showed “the strength of our international determination,”...
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Teenagers with machineguns in reign of fear on Tehran streets
Teenagers and boys even younger are patrolling the streets of Tehran armed with machineguns in a new reign of fear. They have set up checkpoints around the Iranian capital, with traffic cones and barriers blocking the roads. One Tehran resident, a...
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‘Go get your own oil,’ Trump tells allies who won’t join war
A frustrated Donald Trump on Tuesday told US allies reluctant to join the war against Iran to go to the Strait of Hormuz and retrieve their blockaded oil. Iran has imposed a chokehold on the strategically vital strait since the US and Israel began the...
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High level Jeddah talks
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman held talks in Jeddah on Monday with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani and King Abdullah of Jordan. They discussed the Middle East war and its risks to freedom of navigation and the security of energy...
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Saudi Arabia, Pakistan call for dialogue to end Iran conflict
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have emphasized the urgent need for dialogue and diplomacy to deescalate rising tensions in the Middle East, the Pakistani Foreign Office stated on Sunday. This came as Islamabad hosted quadrilateral talks involving the...
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Lebanon president calls Israeli strike that killed 3 journalists ‘blatant crime’
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned the Israeli strike that killed three journalists in southern Lebanon on Saturday. “Once again, the Israeli aggression violates the most basic rules of international law, international humanitarian law and the...
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Iran threatens to attack Saudi port of Yanbu on Red Sea coast
The Revolutionary Guards also warned civilians across the Middle East to stay away from areas near US forces and avoid hotels that accommodated US military personnel. Accusing US-Israeli forces of using non-combatants as human shields, the Guards told...
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