Israel's prime minister has criticized an emerging deal over Iran's nuclear program, saying it would be weaker than a previous agreement and would create a "more violent, more volatile Middle East."

World powers have been negotiating in Vienna in a bid to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, which was left in tatters after the Trump administration, goaded by Israel, withdrew.

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi arrived in Qatar on his first visit to a Gulf Arab state Monday for a major gas summit that will be dominated by tensions over Ukraine.

The United Arab Emirates warned Sunday of the rising threat of drone attacks, such as those launched against it by Yemen's Huthi rebels, at a defense industry conference on unmanned systems. 

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Sunday that Iran may "shortly" agree a new nuclear deal with major powers but warned it will be weaker than the original 2015 agreement.

Israel has formally announced it would not cooperate with a special commission formed by the United Nations' top human rights body to investigate alleged abuses against Palestinians, saying the probe and its chairwoman were unfairly biased against Israel.

The decision, delivered in a scathing letter to the commission's head, Navi Pillay, further strained what already is a tense relationship between Israel and the U.N.-backed Human Rights Council in Geneva.

A year ago, Libya looked to be on a fragile path toward democracy, after more than a decade of civil war. Now, it appears to be sliding back toward strife and division.

After tentative steps towards unity, the country is once again being pulled apart, with two rival prime ministers claiming power.

The Jordanian military says a crackdown on drug smugglers along the Syrian border is delivering results.

During a media tour along the Syrian border on Thursday, Col. Mustafa al-Hiyari said the military was forced into action in response to increased smuggling activity and violence. In January, an army officer was killed in a shootout with smugglers.

Saudi Arabia is signaling it isn't willing to pump more oil and won't push for changes to an agreement with Russia and other producers that has kept a lid on oil production levels.

This has Washington concerned as gasoline prices rise and tensions with Russia over Ukraine fuel market uncertainty.

A Syrian military helicopter crash-landed in a rugged mountainous area during a training mission in the country's northwest on Thursday, leaving two of the five crew members dead.

State media quoted an unnamed military official as saying that the helicopter faced technical problems while flying over the coastal province of Latakia and crash-landed in a mountainous area.

It was night when Zakia Kachar heard the sounds of footsteps approach her tent in a detention camp for foreigners affiliated with Islamic State group extremists. With rocks in their hands, the wives of IS fighters had come for her.

She fled with her children to another area of the Roj Camp in northeast Syria. "They wanted to kill me," she said.