Tehran agreed to allow United Nations inspectors access to two sites where it is suspected of carrying out illicit nuclear-weapons work in the past, bowing to months of pressure in a bid to salvage backing for the 2015 nuclear deal.
Middle East
The kingdom is moving forward with multibillion-dollar plans to build cities despite the Covid-19 pandemic and depressed oil prices, betting that projects closely associated with the crown prince will kick-start its economic recovery.
As Beirut reels from the blast that killed more than 180 people and damaged thousands of homes in prime areas of the city, some buyers and real-estate brokers are seeking to exploit the devastation with cut-rate offers to buy property from distressed owners—deals that could ultimately reshape Beirut’s historic neighborhoods.
The Trump administration is urging Iraq to proceed with a project to connect its power grid with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, among steps to reduce Baghdad’s dependency on Iranian energy, U.S. and Arab officials said.
Investors in Israel and the United Arab Emirates are moving to strike deals in a business environment transformed by a diplomatic breakthrough between the two countries.
Donors say aid will be delivered directly to the people, bypassing the country’s political leadership. But it remains to be seen how successful local groups will be in dealing with such a widespread catastrophe.
Libya’s two rival governments declared a cease-fire in the country’s civil war on Friday, easing months of tensions that threatened to draw forces from Turkey, Egypt, Russia and other regional powers into a wider conflict.
Talks between the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates on a potential sale of advanced F-35 jets are raising thorny questions for Israel’s security in the Middle East.
The display of new missiles adds to a buildup of regional animosity after the U.A.E. and Israel last week said they were forging diplomatic relations.
Israel and Sudan said that they are working on an agreement to formalize relations, in the latest sign of warmer ties between Arab nations and a former enemy.
An international tribunal convicted a member of Hezbollah of terrorism and homicide over the assassination of Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005 but acquitted three others and found no evidence the group’s leadership was involved in the plot.
Lebanon’s health-care system was dealt a severe blow by this month’s explosion in Beirut, which badly damaged six of the city’s hospitals and flooded the rest with casualties. Now, coronavirus cases are surging.
Iran unleashed an angry broadside against the establishment of formal diplomatic relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, a deal signaling deeper cooperation between the Jewish state and Gulf Arabs to counter Tehran as it vies for regional influence.
In the wake of the massive blast that destroyed the grain silos storing most of the country’s wheat supplies and badly damaged the sea port through which 85% of its food imports arrive, a critical food shortage is bearing down.
The diplomatic breakthrough caps more than a quarter-century of deepening—but secret—business and security ties between the two countries that signals a major shift in the geopolitics of the Middle East.
The surprise move of the United Arab Emirates to normalize ties with Israel piles pressure on Saudi Arabia to follow suit—at the risk of inflaming public sentiment and breaking from the monarchy’s track record of promoting the Palestinian cause.
Israel and the United Arab Emirates moved to establish formal diplomatic ties after Israel agreed to suspend a plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, in a dramatic U.S.-backed shift that signaled Israel’s warming ties with Gulf Arab states.
The pact grew out of rounds of secret talks that began in 2019 among the two Middle Eastern states and the U.S. in Abu Dhabi, Israel, Warsaw and Washington.
The Iranian ally has become a target of public resistance, particularly from a new generation of Lebanese less concerned with the conflicts of the past than the deep-rooted problems of the present.
Here’s a look at what is involved in the two nations’ agreement to establish formal diplomatic ties and what the pact might mean for the broader Middle East.
