Spotlight
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Middle East
Netanyahu threatens 'very heavy price' if any side behind flydubai incident
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Friday that Israel would impose a "very heavy price" on any power behind the flydubai incident, wi...
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Lebanon
Salam visits Nabatieh, says scale of war recovery beyond state capacity
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said Friday that rebuilding regions destroyed in the latest Israel-Hezbollah war is beyond the state's capacity, calling...
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Middle East
Trump vows to hit Iran 'very hard' if linked to flydubai attack
U.S. President Donald Trump warned on Thursday that Iran will be "hit very hard" if it is found to be linked to a pilot's attack on a flydubai ...
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Israel's opposition chief early Wednesday accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of fear-mongering after he alleged that enemies may attack before October 27 elections.
Netanyahu, who polls show is in a close race to hold on to power, has issued warnings in recent weeks to Iran, the militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah and even the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, vowing retaliation in case of an attack.
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Hezbollah denied on Wednesday any connection to a cell that Syrian authorities said they had dismantled in the country's south and which they accused of being affiliated with the Lebanese group.
A statement from the Iran-backed group's media office said it "categorically denies any relationship or connection between Hezbollah and the alleged cell" and emphasized that "it has no presence whatsoever on Syrian territory and has no involvement in any security or military activity there."
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said there were "indications" that Israel's enemies could try to attack ahead of elections scheduled for the end of October, without giving details.
"We have indications that ahead of the elections our enemies will try to attack us. So... I am sending you a message: Don't mess with us, not now and not ever. Our long arm will reach you anywhere, anytime," Netanyahu said at an air force base, according to a video published by his office.
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The United States has granted Iraqi airlines a sanctions waiver allowing them to fly Iranian pilgrims in and out of the Iraqi city of Najaf, holy to Shia Muslims, an Iraqi government official and an airport source told AFP.
The Iraqi government had on Saturday said it was in talks with the U.S. to seek such an exemption after sanctions on Iran's aviation sector took effect.
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More than 100 Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank early Tuesday, drawing rare Israeli government condemnation after they injured three members of the security forces.
The raid, along with another attack on a different West Bank village on Tuesday, comes amid mounting international criticism of settler violence, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu downplayed in an address last week to the United Nations.
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Syria early on Tuesday said an explosion caused by sabotage on an eastern gas pipeline the night before halted the flow of gas to power stations.
"A fire broke out Monday evening in a gas pipeline between the Al-Shoula area and Deir Ezzor due to the explosion of a sectional valve caused by sabotage," the official SANA news agency said.
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Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he expected a formal answer on Tuesday from the United States to Tehran's proposal to open the Strait of Hormuz, state media reported.
Qatari intermediaries "presented ideas, and we discussed them; they are set to raise the matter with the American side once more, after which the final U.S. response will be conveyed to us", Araghchi said late Monday.
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The UAE's vice president will visit Saudi Arabia on Tuesday following an invitation from the defense minister, state media said, for a rare high-level meeting amid a months-long rift over Yemen.
In July, top officials and ministers from both countries began posting messages on social media about friendship and unity, signaling a rapprochement months after a public fallout over the UAE's role in Yemen.
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Iran's chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Tuesday that if his country's security was not guaranteed, no infrastructure in the region would be safe from attack, state media reported.
"In a region where we cannot sell oil, no one else will sell oil either; or if our security is not guaranteed, no infrastructure will remain safe," said Ghalibaf, who is also Iran's parliament speaker, according to video released by state TV.
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The Israeli military set off on Monday significant explosions in the southern Lebanese villages of Mansouri, Zawtar al-Sharqiyeh and Aitaroun, while Israeli artillery shelled Baraashit and Mayfadoun.
"A massive explosion rocked the town of Mansouri in the Tyre district a short while ago. The explosion was carried out by Israeli occupation forces," Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported Monday.
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