Senior Iranian figures said yesterday that Syria was a top foreign policy priority and American troops should withdraw, as planned by US President Donald Trump. "Whether they want to or not, the Americans must leave Syria," Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was reported as saying.

The Republican-led US Senate backed largely symbolic legislation on Monday that broke with President Donald Trump by opposing

Pope Francis yesterday rejected "hatred and violence" in the name of God, on the first visit by the head of the Catholic church to the Muslim-majority Arabian Peninsula.

The deputy chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guards has warned Europe against forcing the Islamic Republic into boosting the range of its missiles by trying to halt their development.

Thirty-two Palestinians were shot and wounded by Israeli troops in renewed clashes along the Gaza border Friday, the health ministry in

Egyptian archaeologists uncovered a Pharaonic tomb containing 50 mummies dating back to the Ptolemaic era, in Minya, south of Cairo,

France, Germany and Britain have set up a mechanism for non-dollar trade with Iran to avert US sanctions, although diplomats acknowledge it is unlikely to free up the big transactions that Tehran says it needs to keep a nuclear deal afloat.

The cold has killed close to 30 children in two months among the civilians who have been fleeing the last jihadist pocket in eastern Syria, the United Nations said yesterday.

Saudi Arabia has ended a sweeping crackdown on corruption ordered by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that it said had recovered more than $106 billion through settlements with scores of senior princes, ministers and top businessmen.

The Kabul government is steadily losing its grip over parts of Afghanistan even as American forces intensify their air campaign against insurgent groups, a US government watchdog said yesterday.

US security aid for the Palestinian Authority is set to dry up today after it declined the money over concerns it could increase its exposure to US anti-terrorism lawsuits.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani slammed his critics yesterday, defending the political achievements of a landmark 2015 nuclear deal and calling the US an "oath-breaker".

A UN judicial expert tasked with investigating the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi said yesterday she would present her report by the end of May.

Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Al-Hamdallah has tendered his resignation and that of his unity government to President Mahmoud Abbas, he said yesterday, dealing a blow to faltering reconciliation efforts with Gaza's Islamist Hamas rulers.

The Islamic State group's once-sprawling "caliphate" has been reduced to a four-square-kilometre pocket of territory in eastern Syria, a senior Kurdish commander said yesterday.

The European Commission has added Saudi Arabia to an EU draft list of countries that pose a threat to the bloc because of lax controls against terrorism financing and money laundering, two sources told Reuters on Friday.

Facebook Inc's WhatsApp is limiting worldwide the number of times a user can forward a message to five, starting on Monday, as the

Halima Akhter was so traumatised and physically weak that she was struggling to walk after landing at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Sunday night. Neither was there any relative to welcome her at the airport.

Arab states at an economic summit in Lebanon on Sunday urged world powers to step up efforts to enable refugees, particularly Syrians, to return home and to ease the burden on host countries.

The Taliban said it met with US officials in Qatar yesterday, in the latest round of talks between the insurgents and Washington aimed at bringing an end to the 17-year war.