Israel considers Iran an "existential threat" but the two countries were once long-time allies under the shah.

Anyier sits at the side of the road gasping for breath as the beating sun and 3,700-meter (12,000-foot) altitude take their toll.

Syria's complex battle ground includes tens of thousands of fighters from several nationalities trained and armed by regime ally Iran, a deployment that has worried the United States and Israel.

Iran will vote in June for a successor to President Hassan Rouhani and his moderate-reformist government, but politics in the country is dominated by the nuclear issue and no frontrunner has emerged. 

A German court on Wednesday jailed a former Syrian intelligence agent for complicity in crimes against humanity in the world's first prosecution over state-sponsored torture by the Syrian government.

Renewed rocket attacks on US targets in Iraq show Iran-aligned factions are heaping pressure on the government while Tehran may be seeking leverage over America's new administration, analysts say.

Libyans marked the 10th anniversary Wednesday of the start of the uprising that toppled longtime ruler Moamer Kadhafi, ending decades of dictatorship but throwing the country into violent chaos.

In western Libya, festive crowds gathered in public squares to watch anniversary fireworks and military parades, but in the east, which has had a separate government for years, the mood was more sombre.

After 20 years of military engagement and billions of dollars spent, NATO and the United States still grapple with the same, seemingly intractable conundrum — how to withdraw troops from Afghanistan without abandoning the country to even more mayhem.

An accelerated U.S. drawdown over the past few months, led by the previous U.S. administration, has signaled what may be in store for long-suffering Afghans.

The World Health Organization expert mission to China ended this week without finding the source of the coronavirus that has killed over 2.3 million worldwide.

Lebanese intellectual Lokman Slim, found shot dead Thursday at age 58, was an outspoken critic of Iran-backed Hizbullah and an advocate for preserving the memory of his country's civil war.

The son of a prominent lawyer and an Egyptian mother, Slim was an activist, writer, publisher and filmmaker, and a leading secular voice in the Shiite Muslim community.