Mena Today

Algeria marks its independence day on July 5, 64 years since the end of French colonial rule and the birth of a nation that promised its people dignity, freedom and prosperity. 

French President Emmanuel Macron is set to visit Syria, the Syrian presidency announced Sunday, without specifying a date. The visit would make him the first Western head of state to travel to Damascus since President Ahmad al-Sharaa came to power in late 2024.

Maronite Patriarch Béchara Raï welcomed Sunday the framework agreement signed in Washington between Lebanon and Israel, while delivering a pointed warning that Lebanon must never become a bargaining chip in regional or international negotiations.

Qatar said on Sunday that maritime activities would resume with immediate effect, according to a Transport Ministry statement posted on X.

Behind Morocco's stunning rise in world football lies an unlikely financial engine: phosphate. 

The Tour de France has kicked off with its opening stages in Spain, and as the peloton winds its way from Barcelona toward Paris, one thing is immediately apparent: the Gulf states have made themselves very much at home in cycling's greatest race.

Three sons of slain Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei prayed beside his coffin and those of four other family members on Sunday, but Mojtaba, the son who has succeeded him as Iran's supreme leader, did not make an appearance.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan used a joint appearance with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Istanbul on Saturday to deliver his latest broadside against Israel, warning that the "war-addicted Israeli government must not be allowed to drown our geography in the smell of gunpowder and blood again" and accusing Jerusalem of trying to "dynamite" the US-Iran peace deal.

Tens of thousands filled Tehran's Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla on Saturday to view the coffins of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and family members killed alongside him in the February airstrikes that opened the US-Israeli war on Iran. 

Money is on its way to Cairo. Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty confirmed Saturday that a €1.5 billion tranche from the European Union's macro-financial assistance package will arrive within days, the first of two remaining instalments from a €5 billion facility that forms the centrepiece of a broader EU-Egypt financial partnership.

Yemen's Houthi rebels have threatened to strike Saudi airports and vital assets in response to what they described as a Saudi military intrusion into their airspace, in the latest display of aggression from one of Iran's most powerful regional proxy forces.

Mourners thronged a vast prayer complex in Tehran on Saturday as the week-long funeral ceremonies of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei began with the national anthem, religious eulogies and readings from the Koran.