Iranian authorities have introduced defence systems in 51 cities to counter “biological, radiological and chemical threats”, deputy defence minister Mehdi Farahi has announced.

Palestinians fired on an Israeli bus on a desert highway in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, Israeli military authorities and medics said, wounding five soldiers and the driver in an attack that suggested violence may be spiralling anew.

Two Palestinians were killed early yesterday in separate clashes with the Israeli army in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said.

A months-long political crisis in Iraq showed little sign of abating yesterday despite a fresh push for negotiations after nearly 24 hours of deadly violence between rival Shia factions ended.

Iran needs stronger guarantees from Washington for the revival of a 2015 nuclear deal, its foreign minister said in Moscow yesterday, adding that the UN atomic watchdog should drop its “politically motivated probes” of Tehran’s nuclear work.

A Saudi Arabian court has sentenced a woman to 45 years in prison for social media posts, a rights group said, in the latest example of a crackdown on women activists that followed a visit by U.S. President Joe Biden to the kingdom.

An influential Shiite cleric announced Monday that he would resign from Iraqi politics, prompting hundreds of his angry followers to storm the government palace and sparking clashes with security forces. At least 15 protesters were killed.

The Iranian president yesterday said reviving a 2015 deal with world powers will be pointless unless the UN nuclear watchdog puts an end to its probe of undeclared sites in the country.

Turkey yesterday alleged fellow Nato member Greece has used a Russian-made air defence system to harass Turkish jets on a reconnaissance mission, calling it a “hostile action”.

The Kuwaiti government yesterday called a legislative election for September 29, the state news agency said, two months after parliament was dissolved amid simmering political tensions.

Iran says its review of the United States’s response to a European-Union drafted text to restore their 2015 nuclear deal will take several more days as Qatar continues to mediate between the sides.

Serbia and Kosovo have agreed on an arrangement for free movement between their countries, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell announced yesterday.

Flights resumed and shops re-opened in Libya’s capital Tripoli yesterday after clashes between backers of rival governments killed at least 32 people and sparked fears of major new conflict.

Militias patrolled nearly deserted streets in Libya’s capital Sunday, a day after clashes killed over 30 people and ended Tripoli’s monthslong stretch of relative calm.

Rival armed groups exchanged gunfire in the Libyan capital yesterday, killing at least one person and raising fears of all-out conflict in a country embroiled in a grave political crisis.

Iran has received Washington’s response to an EU-drafted final offer for saving Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with major powers, Iran’s foreign ministry said late on Wednesday, giving no firm indication of how close they are to narrowing remaining gaps.

Aisha al-Mansoori, an Etihad pilot, became UAE’s first female Emirati commercial captain after earning her stripes, reports Al Arabiya.

Israeli archaeologists unveiled a 1,200 year-old mansion on Tuesday, broadening knowledge of the southern desert region where a mosque was recently discovered.

Iran has dropped some of its main demands on resurrecting a deal to rein in Tehran’s nuclear program, including its insistence that international inspectors close some probes of its atomic program, bringing the possibility of an agreement closer, a senior US official told Reuters.

The attack on eminent writer Salman Rushdie in New York was “a crime that Islam does not accept”, said Secretary-General of the Muslim World League Muhammad bin Abdul Karim al-Issa in an interview with Saudi news outlet Arab News.