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.

Dozens of Islamic State group fighters were cornered in a pocket of Syria's Daraa yesterday after losing all other territory there to a Russian-backed regime assault, a monitor said.

Palestinian teenager Ahed Tamimi said Monday she was deeply changed by her eight-month sentence in an Israeli jail for slapping two soldiers, but does not regret any of her actions.

The Islamic State group kidnapped dozens of Druze women and children when it attacked their villages last week in Syria's southern

Israel's military has arrested four Palestinians in the occupied West Bank from a television station close to Hamas, officials said yesterday,

Saudi Arabia has reassured Arab allies it will not endorse any Middle East peace plan that fails to address Jerusalem's status or refugees' right of return, easing their concerns that the kingdom might back a nascent US deal which aligns with Israel on key issues.

Iran's top security body has approved the release of opposition figures Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, under house arrest for seven years for leading mass protests in 2009, a family member told local media. Mousavi, 76, and Karroubi, 80, who were candidates of the 2013 polls, lead a mass protest claiming the vote was rigged.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi yesterday sacked his minister of electricity after three weeks of protests against corruption and chronic power cuts in the energy-rich country. Iraq has been gripped by three weeks of protests over power outages, unemployment, state mismanagement and a lack of clean water.

A Palestinian teenager released by Israel yesterday after completing a prison term for kicking and slapping an Israeli soldier urged continued struggle against Israeli occupation of the West Bank, a call echoed by the Palestinian president.

An hours-long militant attack on a midwife training centre in eastern Afghanistan yesterday killed at least two people and wounded five,

A powerful commander of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards said on Thursday that Donald Trump should address any threats against Tehran directly to him, and mocked the US president as using the language of "night clubs and gambling halls".

The top US envoy for South Asia has met with Taliban officials for peace talks in Qatar, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.

Three Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip yesterday, the enclave's health ministry announced, as Israel's army said it was hitting Hamas after its soldiers came under fire.

US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Tuesday criticized Middle Eastern countries for not doing enough to help Palestinians and move the peace process forward, saying that they need to "step up."

Islamic State militants kills scores of people in a series of attacks on government-held parts of southwestern Syria, including multiple suicide blasts in Sweida city, official sources says.

Israel will partially reopen its only goods crossing with the blockaded Gaza Strip yesterday, a minister said, after closing it July 9 over

At least three people were wounded after five rockets were fired into Kabul yesterday, police said, but there was no immediate claim of