Mena Today

Benjamin Netanyahu will seek re-election this year, his party announced on Wednesday, after U.S. President Donald Trump said he wasn't sure if the Israeli prime minister would stand again.

Saudi Arabia launched Riyadh Air on Wednesday, with its inaugural flight departing King Khalid International Airport at 2:35am bound for London Heathrow, marking the culmination of more than four years of preparation and a bold challenge to Gulf aviation giants Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had carried out missile and drone attacks on U.S. military bases in Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain on Wednesday in retaliation for American strikes on Iranian targets around the Strait of Hormuz.

The United States on Tuesday launched strikes against Iran after President Donald Trump said Tehran had shot down a U.S. Apache helicopter in the Strait of Hormuz, deepening doubts about prospects for peace between the two countries. 

Iran's national football team will travel to the United States by charter flight on June 14 — just one day before their opening World Cup match against New Zealand in Los Angeles, the Iranian Football Federation confirmed Tuesday.

The ousted head of Turkey's main opposition party on Tuesday urged lawmakers to resist what he called a bid to eliminate it, while its court-appointed new leader pledged at a rival meeting to "cleanse the party of dirt", deepening an opposition crisis.

Peru's presidential race tightened overnight with candidates now separated by less than 0.1% as overseas ballots are swinging the race back to conservative Keiko Fujimori, giving markets an early boost on Tuesday.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday Iran had shot down a U.S. Apache helicopter that was patrolling the Strait of Hormuz overnight and vowed to respond, but gave no other details.

The rescue of two U.S. Army helicopter crew members by a Navy drone has spotlighted Task Force 59, the U.S. Navy's first dedicated unmanned systems unit, based in Bahrain and part of Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT), which oversees U.S. naval operations in the Middle East. 

Israel struck the historic port city of Tyre in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, killing at least eight people, in an escalation that adds strain to efforts to broker a peace deal to end the wider Middle East war.

President Donald Trump declared early Tuesday that US diplomacy was in the "final efforts" of securing a deal with Iran to end the conflict in the Gulf, suggesting an agreement could be reached within days.

Tehran will turn the naval blockade established by the United States into another defeat for the "enemy", Iran's top negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said in a message posted on his Telegram channel on Monday.