Iran gave its most explicit rejection yet of talks with the United States yesterday, and accused Washington of an "addiction to

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) likes to do things big and bold.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey's partnership with the United States may be in jeopardy as ties strain, warning Ankara

The Saudi-led coalition yesterday announced a probe into an air strike on a bus that killed at least 29 children in Yemen where it is fighting Huthi rebels.

The Israel-Gaza border was quiet yesterday after an Egyptian-brokered truce ended a surge in violence that had shaken southern Israel and the Gaza Strip for two days.

At least 28 Islamic State group jihadists were killed Monday in coordinated strikes by the US-led coalition and allied fighters in eastern Syria's Deir Ezzor province, a monitoring group said. IS, which once controlled swathes of Syria and Iraq, has been pounded by multiple offensives and today controls less than three percent of Syria's territory.

An Israeli strike yesterday killed two militants of the Gaza Strip's ruling Hamas movement after shots were fired at soldiers, Gazan and Israeli officials said. Palestinian sources said that the Israeli attack was in the north of the strip but they said it was a drone strike, while the Israeli statement said that it was tank fire.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani says that Washington's call for new nuclear negotiations at the same time as it reimposes crippling sanctions "doesn't make sense" and is an attempt at "psychological warfare".

An Iraqi court yesterday sentenced a French man and a German woman to life in prison in the latest punishments handed down for

Iran said yesterday the United States was "isolated" in its hostility to the Islamic republic, as it braced for the return of sanctions against a backdrop of political turmoil inside the country.

A member of the political wing of Yemen's Huthi rebels yesterday said the insurgents were willing to attend UN-brokered talks, although

Hundreds of mourners yesterday buried the victims of a twin suicide attack on a Shia mosque in eastern Afghanistan, as the death toll rose to 35, officials said.

At least 55 people, including women and children, have been killed in Yemen's Red Sea port city of Hodeidah in air raids carried out by a Saudi and UAE alliance battling Houthi rebels, the rebel-run health ministry said.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu yesterday said he told US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that threats and sanctions will not work, after Washington targeted Turkish ministers over the detention of an American pastor.

Thirty-nine people are killed in a suicide bombing of a Shi'ite mosque in eastern Afghanistan, and the death toll may climb further, police and government officials say.

Afghan police in Kabul yesterday recovered the bodies of three foreign nationals who they said had been abducted and killed, in the latest incident targeting foreigners in the war-torn capital.

Gains by President Bashar al-Assad's forces in the Syrian civil war present advantages for Israel even though the two countries remain technically at war, Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said yesterday.

Israel reimposed a blockade on fuel deliveries to Gaza yesterday citing a resurgence in kites carrying firebombs over the border and signalling a brief pause in tensions may be ending.

Iranian lawmakers have given President Hassan Rouhani one month to appear before parliament to answer questions on his government's handling of Iran's economic struggles, state media reported yesterday.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad yesterday told his troops they were close to winning the country's seven-year civil war after inflicting a succession of defeats on rebels.