Mena Today

The US State Department announced Wednesday it had approved a potential $1.96 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia, as hostilities intensify across the Middle East.

Recent waves of U.S. strikes on Iran aimed at forcing open the Strait of Hormuz are also targeting Iranian military capabilities the U.S. would want to destroy before executing more complex operations against Iran, three U.S. officials said.

Iran summoned Britain's ambassador to Tehran on Wednesday after London designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) under the UK's Countering State Threats Act, warning the move would "not go unanswered," the Iranian foreign ministry said in a statement carried by Tasnim news agency.

Zambia's former Vice President Guy Scott, who in 2014 became Africa's first white head of state in two decades when he briefly served as acting president, has died at the age of 82, the government said on Wednesday.

The U.S. struck Iran's coastal defenses and missile sites on Wednesday after reimposing a naval blockade of its ports, while Iran threatened to shut off more regional energy exports, saying it was engaged in an "existential war" with America.

The Syrian Liberal Party has called the passage of a modern Political Parties Law an urgent constitutional necessity, arguing it can no longer be treated as ordinary legislation but as a precondition for completing Syria's transitional phase.

A Moroccan prosecutor said on Wednesday he had ordered the release of veteran journalist and political commentator Ali Lmrabet after questioning him, although an investigation continues following allegations of defamation and libel.

Iran has warned that its campaign to throttle global energy markets could be expanded from the Strait of Hormuz to the vital Red Sea route if U.S. attacks continue, a threat that depends on its Houthi allies in Yemen.

Israeli leaders describe the territory now occupied in Lebanon as a war gain, but some military veterans see the so-called "buffer zone" as a deadly replay of a doomed strategy they experienced first-hand.

Four Kuwaiti soldiers were wounded Tuesday when an Iranian navy vessel was struck during a barrage of missiles and drones targeting the emirate, which intercepted around 40 projectiles, the army said in a statement.

G7 foreign ministers and the European Union's foreign policy chief on Wednesday urged Sudan's Rapid Support Forces and allied armed groups to stop all actions that could lead to further atrocities or endanger civilians in El-Obeid.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has threatened to close "all other export corridors that benefit the U.S. and its allies", Iranian media reported, after Iran shut the Strait of Hormuz and the U.S. reimposed a naval blockade of Iranian ports.