BAGHDAD (AP) — The Christmas tree in the middle of a central Baghdad plaza occupied by anti-government protesters is bare, save for portraits of those killed under fire from security forces. A tribute, the demonstrators explained, to a recent decision by Iraq's Christians to call off seasonal festivities...
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran said American authorities are holding about 20 Iranian nationals in jail, its official news agency reported Tuesday, a day after Tehran said it was ready for more prisoner swaps with the U.S. A prisoner exchange over the weekend saw Iran free a Chinese-American scholar from...
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Arab Gulf leaders gathered in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for an annual summit that was intended to showcase their unity in the face of shared threats. But looming over the meeting were their frayed ties and heightened worries about Iran. For all their diverging views and...
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Russia's challenge to NATO and democratic nations, as well as Iran's influence on the wider Middle East, remain two of the top threats to world peace, two former White House advisers to presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump said Tuesday. The comments by the two...
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran is ready for more prisoner swaps with the United States, the Cabinet spokesman said Monday even as he reiterated the Iranian leadership's stance that there will be no other negotiations between Tehran and Washington. The remarks by the spokesman, Ali Rabiei, were the first after a...
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Monday his country is arranging a visit by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani because it wants to play a greater role in resolving a nuclear impasse between Tehran and Washington and in relieving tensions in the Middle East, the source of more than 80% of...
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Former Vice President Dick Cheney warned Monday that “American disengagement” in the Middle East will benefit only Iran and Russia, indirectly criticizing President Donald Trump's pledges to pull forces out of the region. While stressing that he's no longer...
BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi security forces on Sunday set up checkpoints and manned them alongside unarmed members of a militia group, Iraqi police officials said, to protect anti-government protesters in central Baghdad plazas, two days after a deadly attack by unknown gunmen. The militia group, Saraya Salam or...
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's president said on Sunday his country will depend less on oil revenue next year, in a new budget that is designed to resist crippling U.S. trade embargoes. Iran is in the grip of an economic crisis. The U.S. re-imposed sanctions that block Iran from selling its crude oil abroad,...
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump said Saturday that Israel has never had a better friend in the White House than him because, unlike his predecessors, “I kept my promises." Trump energized an audience that numbered in the hundreds at the Israeli American Council National Summit in...