Two tankers have been damaged by explosions in the Gulf of Oman, a strategic waterway crucial to global energy supplies. It is the second time in the past few weeks that tankers appear to have been attacked in the region and comes amid escalating tension between Iran and the United States. US Secretary of State […]

LONDON — Apparent attacks on two tankers in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday forced their crews to abandon ship and left one vessel ablaze, a month after four tankers were damaged in the same area. The United States blamed Iran, escalating tensions in a vital passageway for much of the world’s petroleum. Hours after […]

Warning from UN comes as global concern grows over reported attacks on tankers near the Strait of Hormuz. The United Nations has warned the world cannot afford “a major confrontation in the Gulf” as international concern grew over suspected attacks on commercial ships near the Strait of Hormuz. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres denounced Thursday’s incidents […]

Two oil tankers were attacked in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday, leaving one ablaze and both adrift, shipping firms said, driving oil prices as much as 4pc higher over worries about Middle East supplies. The Front Altair, carrying petrochemical feedstock, was on fire in waters between Gulf Arab states and Iran after an explosion […]

BEIRUT, Lebanon — A cease-fire negotiated between Syrian rebels and government forces in the country’s war-battered northwest was on shaky ground after intermittent bombing and shelling resumed overnight Thursday in Idlib Province, the country’s last piece of rebel-held territory. Russia and Turkey, two of the dominant foreign powers in the area, negotiated what Russian state […]

Officials say Arab countries’ presence in Bahrain would ‘carry wrong message’, announce parallel conference in Beirut. Palestinians have urged Egypt and Jordan to reconsider their reported attendance at an upcoming United States-led conference in Bahrain, saying it would weaken any Arab opposition to Washington’s plan to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The appeal on Wednesday came after unnamed […]

A landmark nuclear deal between Iran and world powers appears close to collapse. Here’s an overview of the tensions and mistrust. What is the essence of the deal? Suspicions that Iran was using its nuclear energy programme as cover to develop a nuclear bomb prompted the UN, US and EU to impose sanctions with the […]

Ever since the upsurge of popular unrest – the so-called “Arab Spring” – erupted in the Middle East just over eight years ago, the region has undergone profound change. In many cases authoritarian rule was never seriously challenged. In other places it was restored quickly, as in the case of Egypt, or more slowly and […]

ALMATY (AFP) – Kazakhstan on Sunday (June 9) elected the hand-picked successor of former president Nursultan Nazarbayev with 70 per cent of the vote, exit polls showed, as police arrested hundreds of opposition protesters. The victory of career diplomat Kassym Jomart-Tokayev was never in doubt after he received the blessing of powerful Nazarbayev, who had […]

A Saudi teenager held for more than four years without charge faces possible execution for acts he is accused of having committed when he was as young as 10, according to human rights groups tracking his case. A death sentence for the teenager, Murtaja Qureiris, now 18, would be what the groups called one of […]