Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has confirmed he will run for a new term in elections scheduled for December, entering the race as the clear favorite and as his government wrestles with rising inflation and mounting debt.

Egypt will hold a presidential election over three days on December 10-12, with a runoff on Jan. 8-10 if no candidate secures more than 50% of the vote.

A Saudi football team refused to play a match in Iran on Monday because of the presence of busts of a slain Iranian general placed on the sidelines, Saudi state media reported.

The Saudi Al Ittihad club was scheduled to play Iran's Sepahan in the the Asian Champions League, one of several matches made possible by a recent diplomatic rapprochement between the longtime Mideast rivals that has recently come under strain.

Syrian state media said Tuesday that the Israeli military carried out airstrikes in a strategic eastern province wounding two soldiers and causing material damage. There was no comment from Israel on the reported strikes.

Syria's state news agency, SANA, quoted an unnamed military official as saying the airstrikes late Monday targeted military positions in Deir el-Zour.

A decorated Israeli veteran of tank battles on the Syrian front in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, Avigdor Kahalani remembers the conflict, despite its heavy toll, as a "slap in the face" Israel needed.

The twin attack by Egypt and Syria on October 6 caught Israel by surprise on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar -- Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement -- when the nation comes to a virtual standstill.

Christian religious leaders in northern Iraq called for an international investigation Monday into a deadly wedding fire that killed more than 100 people last week and slammed the government's probe, which had blamed the blaze on negligence and lack of precautionary measures.

An Iraqi Syriac Catholic priest, meanwhile, said widespread corruption in the country and the influence of armed militias on the government was one of the factors that enabled the fire.

The Emirati president-designate of the upcoming United Nations COP28 climate talks called on oil and gas companies on Monday to be "central to the solution" to fighting climate change, even as the industry boosts its production to enjoy rising global energy prices.

The call by Sultan al-Jaber highlights the gap between climate activists suspicious of his industry ties and his calls to drastically slash the world's emissions by nearly half in seven years to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) compared with pre-industrial times.

Turkish jets launched air strikes inside Iraqi Kurdistan late Sunday, after a blast earlier the same day injured two police officers near the parliament building in Ankara.

In the hours following the bombing, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had already vowed that "terrorists" would never achieve their aims.

A huge fire broke out at a police headquarters in the Egyptian city of Ismailia on Monday, injuring at least 38 people before it was put out, according to the health ministry.

No fatalities were immediately reported but the building was fully staffed with policemen when the fire broke out before dawn.

The central banks of the United Arab Emirates and Egypt have agreed to a currency exchange deal, which could bolster the struggling Egyptian economy.

A joint news release said the agreement would allow the two central banks to exchange up to 5 billion Emirati dirhams and 42 billion Egyptian pounds, or roughly the equivalent of $1.36 billion.

Germany and Israel have signed an agreement for Berlin to buy the sophisticated Arrow 3 missile defense system, designed to intercept long-range ballistic missiles. The development is the latest step in Berlin's bid to strengthen its air defenses following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Germany aims to integrate the system into wider NATO air defense efforts. Last year, Berlin launched the European Sky Shield Initiative, which now includes 19 countries.