Saudi Arabia, the world’s top crude exporter, announced Sunday the launch of an eco-city “with zero cars, zero streets and zero carbon emissions” at its futuristic NEOM mega development.

Encroaching sands have left little evidence that the Omani village of Wadi al-Murr ever existed, but former inhabitants and curious visitors are coming to rediscover the hamlet engulfed by the desert.

Iran will expel United Nations nuclear watchdog inspectors unless sanctions are lifted by a Feb. 21 deadline set by the hardline-dominated parliament, a lawmaker said today.

A Saudi court has rejected the bail petitions of three accused arrested in a case filed for the murder of a Bangladeshi domestic worker in Saudi Arabia two years ago.

Embracing Qatar’s ruler, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince pushed a deal to end a bitter row with Doha at a Gulf Arab summit to try to shore up an anti-Iran front, although a final declaration contained only a general pledge of solidarity.

Saudi Arabia will reopen its borders and airspace to Qatar, US and Kuwaiti officials said Monday, a major step towards ending a diplomatic rift that has seen Riyadh lead an alliance isolating Doha.

A breakthrough has been reached in Qatar’s three-year-old dispute with Saudi Arabia and three other Arab countries and an agreement to end their rift is to be signed in Saudi Arabia, a senior Trump administration official said.

An Israeli official has dismissed as “nonsense” an allegation by the Iranian foreign minister that Israel was trying to trick the United States into waging war on Iran.

Saudi Arabia has announced to resume all international flights from 11:00 am today, amid strict precautions against the new Covid-19 strain.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif urged US President Donald Trump not to be “trapped” by an alleged Israeli plan to provoke a war through attacks on US forces in Iraq.

A car bomb near a vegetable market in northeastern Syria killed five people including children yesterday in the Turkish-held border town of Ras al-Ain, a war monitor said.

Iran has informed the International Atomic Energy Agency that it intends to produce uranium enriched to up to 20 percent purity, well beyond the threshold set by the 2015 Vienna accord, the UN nuclear watchdog said Friday.

Iran has told the United Nations nuclear watchdog it plans to enrich uranium to up to 20% purity, a level it achieved before its 2015 accord, at its Fordow site buried inside a mountain, the agency said.

Iran’s judiciary chief yesterday warned that Qasem Soleimani’s killers will “not be safe on Earth”, as the Islamic republic began marking the first anniversary of the top general’s assassination in a US strike.

Members of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) yesterday detained two men for their alleged involvement with banned militant outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh.

The US killing of top general Qassem Soleimani will not deter Iranian resistance, a senior commander said today as tensions mounted in the build-up to the first anniversary of the drone strike.

At least five people have been killed and dozens more wounded in an attack on Aden airport, shortly after a plane carrying a newly formed government for Yemen arrived from Saudi Arabia.

A Saudi court sentenced prominent women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul to five years and eight months in prison in a trial that has drawn international condemnation as Riyadh faces renewed US scrutiny.

Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has received his first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, as part of a national Covid-19 vaccination plan being implemented by the ministry of health, according to state news agency SPA.

Israel is working towards formalising relations with a fifth Muslim country, possibly in Asia, during US President Donald Trump’s term, an Israeli cabinet minister has said.