Al-Monitor

The three-way summit in Cairo follows electricity and gas deals between the three countries as Egypt addresses its gas production struggles.

TEL AVIV, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Tuesday said that it was closing Britain's consulate in East Jerusalem, accredited to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, after London announced it was imposing sanctions on goods from Israeli settlements.

A drone strike blamed on Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces killed 13 people outside a courthouse in the army-held central town of Umm Rawaba on Tuesday, a medical source and witnesses told AFP. The attack is the latest in an escalating wave of drone attacks by both the RSF and the Sudanese army, which have been at war since April 2023. "There are now 13 killed and 22 injured being treated at the hospital," a medical source at the local hospital told AFP, revis

TUNIS, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Tunisian journalists protested on Tuesday to demand the release of prominent journalist Mohamed Yousfi, whose arrest has become a new flashpoint amid accusations that President Kais Saied is cracking down on the country's remaining independent voices.The protesters, who also included activists, gathered outside a court where a judge was questioning Yousfi over illicit enrichment and money laundering charges, which critics say were fabricated to punish him for his outspo

Sept 8 (Reuters) - South Korea has sent an inspection team to assess the security situation in the Strait of Hormuz but no decision has been taken on sending troops, the defence ministry said on Tuesday.The announcement follows a decision by U.S. President Donald Trump in August to scale back U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises, in part because South Korea had declined to help Washington in the U.S.-Iran war.

Fourteen people suspected of links to trafficking networks went on trial in France on Tuesday over the loss of at least 31 people including a seven-year-old child in the Channel in 2021, the deadliest accident involving asylum seekers trying to reach the English coast. The defendants are accused of playing a role in the sinking in which 27 people were confirmed to have died when their inflatable dinghy sank in the early hours of November 24, 2021. Four others are still unaccounted

The targets include Iranian airlines and operators in Malaysia, Turkey, Kazakhstan and the United Arab Emirates, including Mahan Air.

By Maayan LubellJERUSALEM, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking to consolidate Israel's fractious right-wing parties ahead of a Tuesday deadline in order to avoid an election loss forecast by opinion polls.Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister, is seeking a record seventh term in the October 27 election, but he has faced pressure over the Hamas-led 2023 attack on Israel and subsequent wars in Gaza, Iran and Lebanon, and surveys have for months been pointin

By Olivia Le PoidevinGENEVA, Sept 8 (Reuters) - A U.N. commission investigating Syria said on Tuesday it was deeply alarmed over Israel's military activity inside Syrian territory, warning that some actions including the detention of civilians could amount to war crimes.Presenting an update to the U.N. Human Rights Council, Commissioner Fionnuala Ní Aoláin said Israeli military operations in southern Syria had become "increasingly sustained and entrenched", with recurring ground incursions, patr

Ankara is expected to secure easier access to Russian fertilizer exports as the Iran war disrupts supplies from key Gulf producers.

By John IrishPARIS, Sept 8 (Reuters) - France will launch a process to ban products from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on Tuesday, amid rising settler violence that has further undermined prospects for a two-state solution with the Palestinians."France is going to put an end to its commerce with Israeli settlements in Palestine, along with 11 other countries which have also undertaken similar engagements," Barrot wrote on X.

The United States said it struck and destroyed three Iranian oil tankers on Saturday in response to attempted missile attacks on naval vessels, in the latest exchange of fire since renewed hostilities flared between the foes. The new clashes, which began with US raids last week, come with both sides deadlocked in the six-month war as Iran keeps a stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz and Washington presses its counter-blockade of Iranian ports.

The US ambassador to Israel said Saturday that the Israeli government bore responsibility for West Bank Palestinians' safety and should impose "severe consequences" over violence, as he visited families after a surge in settler attacks. Mike Huckabee, long known as a staunch supporter of Israel and settlers, visited a Palestinian-American's home in the West Bank that has been repeatedly targeted by settlers and said he wanted to hear the community's "legitimate grievances".

TURMUS AYYA, West Bank, Sept 4 (Reuters) - U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Saturday said there was no plan to force Palestinians to leave Gaza after two Israeli ministers this week floated proposals for the mass removal of Palestinians from the coastal territory.• "I can tell you categorically there is no plan of the Israelis to displace people out of Gaza against their will," Huckabee told reporters in Turmus Ayya, a Palestinian town in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

By Ali Sawafta and Alexander CornwellTURMUS AYYA, West Bank, Sept 5 (Reuters) - U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Saturday met with Palestinian Americans, including relatives of U.S. citizens killed by Israeli settlers, in a Palestinian town in the occupied West Bank that has been the target ofsettler attacks.The visit comes as settler violence, and what is widely perceived as the Israeli government's inaction, has increasingly drawn international condemnation, including from U.S. allie

DUBAI, Sept 5 (Reuters) - U.S. forces struck three Iranian oil tankerson Saturday, U.S. Central Command said, including one off the coast of Kharg Island, near Iran's key oil exporthub.The strikes were carried out after Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched ballistic missilesat two U.S. Navy ships,Central Command said. “Let the message to theIRGC be clear: If you shoot at two of our ships, we will impose an even higher economic cost — taking out three of yours," said Admiral Brad Coo

President Donald Trump said Friday that the Iran war was "small potatoes" for the United States, in his administration's latest bid to play down the conflict ahead of crucial midterm elections. Trump's comments came a day after Vice President JD Vance said that "I wouldn't call it a war" despite an upsurge in clashes between Iran and the United States over the Strait of Hormuz.

WASHINGTON, Sept 4 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters on Friday that the United States may hit Iran's Pickaxe Mountain very soon.Pickaxe Mountain, located ​near Iran's heavily damaged Natanz uranium enrichment facility, is ​a heavily fortified site that hosts two deeply buried tunnel complexes. (Reporting by Gram Slattery and Steve Holland;Editing by David Ljunggren)

Sept 4 (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department said on Friday it had approved the potential sale of Joint Direct Attack Munitions-Extend Range to Saudi Arabia for an estimated $5 billion.The principal contractor is Boeing, the state department said.The State Department also said it had approved a possible sale of AGT-1500 engines to Saudi Arabia for an estimated $750 million. The principal contractor for sale of the engines is Honeywell, the department said. (Reporting by Ismail Shakil and Christi

By Alvaro MurilloSAN JOSE, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Costa Rican President Laura Fernandez said on Friday that U.S. ground operations could strengthen national security in the Central American nation, while emphasizing that nothing concrete was in the works with Washington and any such move would require legislative approval.