US President Joe Biden plans to withdraw the remaining 2,500 US troops from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021, 20 years to the day after the al Qaeda attacks that triggered America’s longest war.

The Tarabi prayers, this Ramadan, at the Grand Mosque in Makkah and the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah will be shortened to 10 raka’ts from 20 by order of the custodian of the two holy mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia.

Jordan’s King Abdullah and former crown prince and half-brother Prince Hamza made their first joint appearance since a rift shook the country, attending a ceremony on Sunday marking 100 years of independence.

A problem with the electrical distribution grid of Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility caused an incident at the site on Sunday, Iranian Press TV reported, a day after Tehran launched new advanced uranium enrichment centrifuges at the site.

The coronavirus variant discovered in South Africa can “break through” Pfizer/BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine to some extent, a real-world data study found.

US and Iranian officials clashed over what sanctions the United States should lift to resume compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal, with Washington predicting an impasse if Tehran sticks to a demand that all sanctions since 2017 be removed.

Israeli strikes overnight targeting Syrian regime military positions and a weapons depot near Damascus killed three Iran-backed militia fighters, a Britain-based war monitor said yesterday.

The United Nations on Wednesday called for “maximum restraint” in the Middle East after an explosion on an Iranian ship in the Red Sea that reports suggested may have been carried out by Israel.

The Biden administration announced it would provide $235 million in US aid to the Palestinians, restarting funding for the United Nations agency supporting refugees and restoring other assistance cut off by then-President Donald Trump.

Diplomats from major powers met separately with Iran and the United States to discuss how to bring both back into compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal that Washington abandoned three years ago.

Iran and world powers held what they described as “constructive” talks and agreed to form working groups to discuss the sanctions Washington might lift and the nuclear curbs Tehran might observe as they try to revive the 2015 nuclear deal.

Lebanon’s vaccine rollout is at risk of marginalising refugees and migrant workers who make up a third of the crisis-hit country’s population, Human Rights Watch warned yesterday.

A top former Jordanian royal aide was among several suspects arrested Saturday in a security sweep, as the army cautioned a half-brother of King Abdullah II against damaging the country's security.

The mummified remains of 22 Egyptian pharaohs, including the most powerful ancient queen, were scheduled to be paraded through the streets of Cairo yesterday, in a procession to a new resting place.

Efforts to sketch out initial US and Iranian steps to resume compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal have stalled and Western officials believe Iran may now wish to discuss a wider road map to revive the pact, something Washington is willing to do.

The European Union is set to agree to sanction several Iranian individuals today for human rights abuses, the first such measures since 2013, three EU diplomats said.

The United Nations will urge international donors to pledge up to $10 billion to help Syrians fleeing a decade of civil war in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, saying that the need for humanitarian support has never been so great.

A Saudi man has been sentenced to death by a court in the kingdom for killing a Bangladeshi expatriate in Dammam 15 years ago.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived in Iran for a visit that Iranian state media said would see the signing of a 25-year cooperation agreement between the two countries, which are both under US sanctions.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s prospects for retaining power were uncertain after exit polls in the country’s fourth national election in two years projected yet another stalemate.