Spotlight
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Middle East
Israel's Netanyahu agrees to join Trump's Board of Peace
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said Wednesday he had agreed to join U.S. President Donald Trump's Board of Peace, after his office ear...
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Middle East
Syrian defense ministry announces four-day ceasefire with Kurds
Syria's defense ministry announced a four-day ceasefire with Kurdish forces on Tuesday, after an understanding was reached between the two sides ...
Sudan's army has received and is considering a new proposal from the United States and Saudi Arabia for a truce with its rival paramilitary, a government source told AFP on Wednesday.
The Security and Defense Council -- a high-level body that includes officials from the army and the allied government -- "is holding a meeting today to discuss the U.S.-Saudi initiative for a humanitarian truce and a ceasefire", the source said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.
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An Iranian Kurdish opposition party headquartered in Iraq accused Iran on Wednesday of conducting a rocket and drone attack on its premises, killing one of its members and wounding two others.
"At dawn today, the occupying Iranian state... targeted one of the Kurdistan National Army's headquarters" using missiles and drones, said the Kurdistan Freedom Party, referring to an armed group that operates under its authority.
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A senior official in Syria's Kurdish administration said Tuesday that the Kurds were in contact with Israel and were open to support from "any source", amid tensions with Damascus despite a recent deal.
"There are certain figures from the side of the Israeli state engaged in communications with our side... and if this conversation leads to support, we would be open to support... from any source," Elham Ahmad told reporters in an online event, according to the English translation of her remarks in Kurdish.
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India and the UAE finalised a series of agreements on Monday, hoping to double bilateral trade to $200 billion by 2032.
The United Arab Emirates president, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, met with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the national capital as part of a visit aimed at bolstering bilateral and strategic partnership.
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Syria's ministry of interior said Tuesday that 120 Islamic State members escaped from a prison in northeast Syria a day earlier, amid clashes between government forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which guards the prison.
Security forces recaptured 81 of the escapees, "while intensive security efforts continue to pursue the remaining fugitives and take the necessary legal measures against them," the statement said.
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Negotiations between Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Mazloum Abdi, the head of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, have collapsed, a Kurdish official told AFP on Tuesday.
"The negotiations held yesterday in Damascus between General Mazloum and Mr Al‑Sharaa have collapsed entirely," the official said, blaming the central government for the breakdown.
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Violent scuffles erupted on Tuesday between Turkish police and pro-Kurdish protesters at the border with Syria, where Damascus has launched an offensive against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an AFP reporter said.
Police fired tear gas and water cannon at the protesters and stopped them from crossing the border. The demonstrators hurled stones at the police.
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Israeli crews on Tuesday started bulldozing the Jerusalem headquarters of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, pushing forward with its crackdown against an organization tasked with delivering humanitarian services to millions of people across the region.
Israel has long accused the United Nations Relief and Works Agency of collaborating with Hamas — a charge it denies — and last year banned it from operating on its territory. But Tuesday's demolition marked Israel's latest and most dramatic step against UNRWA.
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Over the past decade, the religiously and ethnically mixed Syrian Democratic Forces had been the most effective force in the battle against the Islamic State group in Syria. The Kurdish-led force is now set to merge into the Syrian army after suffering major setbacks over the past weeks.
The SDF suffered a major defeat over the weekend when Syrian government forces captured wide areas in a territory under the group's control in the country's northeast following deadly clashes.
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Yemeni politicians have met in Saudi Arabia's capital in their first public gathering since a southern separatist group backed by the United Arab Emirates was disbanded following weeks of clashes.
The meeting in Riyadh discussed the future of southern Yemen ahead of a Saudi-sponsored conference, the dates of which haven't been announced yet.
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