Both Tehran and Washington are conducting military operations and threatening escalation to enhance their strategic leverage in negotiations to end the conflict. The brinkmanship renders a restart of major conflict as likely as an agreement that would resolve the major outstanding issues, including a full reopening of the Strait of …

As Israel entrenches its occupation of south Lebanon behind a so-called ‘yellow line’, villages are being systematically erased, and residents displaced Qlayaa, Lebanon – The birds are still singing in south Lebanon, but they are faintly heard over a soundscape that – after two and a half years of war …

Despite Washington’s push to reach a broader peace arrangement between Beirut and Tel Aviv, it has apparently failed to restrain its ally, Israel. Hours after the US announced a 45-day extension to the Lebanon-Israel ceasefire, Israeli strikes once again pounded southern Lebanon. The US hosted two days of direct talks …

US prosecutors say Mohammad Al-Saadi, a Kataeb Hezbollah member and IRGC operative, coordinated close to 20 recent attacks in Western countries claimed by Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya The US Justice Department on Friday announced the arrest of a senior Iraqi militia commander for terrorism against Jewish targets on behalf of …

Security official indicates Gaza City airstrike eliminated terror group’s chief; former hostages hail reports of death of the man responsible for their abduction and captivity Israel said that it had targeted Izz al-Din al-Haddad, the Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip and the head of the terror group’s military wing, …

Europe’s greatest strategic failure was not that it misread Russia. It was that it forgot geography. Russia is not some sort of theoretical adversary conjured up by this paper. Russia is Europe’s permanent neighbour. It is a continental, cultural, energy, military and civilizational fact. Russia cannot be sanctioned out of …

China-linked ships were permitted through the Strait of Hormuz by Iranian forces as Trump and Xi held what the US president described as “extremely positive”. Iranian media reported that Tehran allowed Chinese vessels to pass through the Strait of Hormuz as US President Donald Trump praised “extremely positive” talks with …

The UAE and Israel are making conflicting claims about an alleged visit by Israeli PM Netanyahu to the Gulf state – what do we know so far? Benjamin Netanyahu was reportedly greeted in the UAE ‘with the honour of kings’ [Getty] Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Wednesday …

The first gathering in a decade by the Palestinian Authority’s dominant party will cast light on a post-Abbas future and governance in Gaza, among other issues. On May 14, Fatah launched its eighth General Conference, which will culminate in the election of officials to lead its various governing bodies. Because …

The Russian man was waiting for someone he was supposed to meet in a park in the Budapest area. Neither his appearance nor his behavior were out of place. As he walked among the trees, everything looked as ordinary as possible. Some passers-by were enjoying the scenery while a couple …