Mena Today

From five-year-old karting talents to Formula 1 junior programmes, Abu Dhabi's iconic circuit is laying the foundations for Emirati motorsport's future.

Militants staged attacks in Mali's capital Bamako and in several locations in the interior of the country on Saturday morning, the Mali army said, in an apparently coordinated assault involving multiple groups.

U.S. negotiators are scheduled to leave for Pakistan on Saturday, but Iran said its officials did not plan to meet the Americans to discuss ending the war that has killed thousands and roiled global markets.

Palestinians were voting in local elections on Saturday that include Gaza for the first time in two decades and will gauge the political mood at a time when Israel's government is seeking to destroy any future for a Palestinian state.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said that Turkey could consider taking part in demining operations in the Strait of Hormuz following a possible peace agreement between Iran and the United States.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi was expected in the Pakistani capital Islamabad on Friday to discuss proposals for restarting peace talks with the United States, but Pakistani sources said he was not due to meet U.S. negotiators there.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday visited Saudi Arabia for the second time in a month, as Kyiv seeks to bolster security co-operation and advertise its battle-tested technology in the Middle East amid the Iran war. 

Ahmad al-Sharaa was received in Cyprus alongside Arab leaders as Brussels prepares to open a new chapter with Damascus. His trajectory from rebel commander to statesman remains deeply uncomfortable for many.

Lebanon's Hezbollah said a U.S.-mediated ceasefire in the war with Israel was meaningless a day after it was extended for three weeks, as Lebanese authorities reported two people killed by an Israeli strike and Hezbollah downed an Israeli drone.

Speaking at the World Policy Conference in Chantilly, the UAE's top diplomatic adviser delivered a blunt verdict on Tehran, and a striking signal of shifting regional allegiances.

EU leaders have asked officials to prepare a blueprint for how the bloc's previously obscure mutual assistance clause would work, host Cyprus said at a summit on Friday, amid doubts over the U.S. commitment to the NATO military alliance.

Syria's Interior Ministry said on Friday it had arrested the main suspect in the 2013 Tadamon massacre, one of the worst acts of violence attributed to the former government of Bashar al-Assad, in which 288 civilians were killed.