Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan voiced optimism Thursday that relations between Riyadh and Washington will be "excellent" under new U.S. President Joe Biden.

The appointments made by Biden for his new administration "showed (an) understanding of the common issues," Prince Faisal told Al-Arabiya television, without elaborating.

Tunisian security forces have arrested at least 1,000 people during six nights of urban unrest between disaffected youths and riot police, human rights and other non-government groups said Thursday.

Pope Francis, who hopes to visit Iraq in March, on Thursday deplored as a "senseless act of brutality" a suicide bombing in Baghdad that left at least 32 people dead.

Frantically dashing between hospital beds, Baghdad residents tried to track down relatives who may have died Thursday in a twin suicide blast -- the deadliest attack in years.

Grieving mothers, hysterical brothers and wailing children packed the halls at the Sheikh Zayed hospital, less than three kilometers (two miles) away from Tayaran Square.

Newspapers in Arab states of the Gulf on Thursday gave a cautious welcome to new US President Joe Biden, amid uncertainty over whether he will seek to re-engage with regional rival Iran. 

A rare twin suicide bombing killed 32 people and wounded 110 at a crowded market in central Baghdad on Thursday, Iraq's health ministry said, the city's deadliest attack in three years.

The Arab Spring a decade ago gave Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood a brief shot at power, but today many of its followers are dead, in jail or in exile.

The government of Dubai on Wednesday ordered all hospitals to cancel nonessential surgeries for the next month as coronavirus infections surge to unprecedented heights in the United Arab Emirates.

In a circular sent to government-run and private health centers across the emirate, Dubai's Health Authority announced that starting Thursday medical operations "may be allowed to continue only per medical urgency" as the city tries to keep its hospitals from becoming overrun.

Libyan envoys at U.N.-backed talks in Egypt agreed Wednesday to hold a constitutional referendum before planned elections in the war-torn country later this year, Egypt's foreign ministry said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday urged incoming U.S. President Joe Biden to "strengthen" a long-standing alliance between the two countries, partly to confront the "threat" posed by Iran.

"I look forward to working with you to further strengthen the U.S.-Israel alliance, to continue expanding peace between Israel and the Arab world and to confront common challenges, chief among them the threat posed by Iran," Netanyahu said.