Mena Today

Syria's transitional President Ahmed al-Sharaa met Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh on Sunday in his first foreign trip as Syrian leader, Saudi state news agency SPA reported.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepared to leave Israel on Sunday for a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, looking to strengthen ties with Washington after tensions with the previous White House administration over the war in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will start negotiations on the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire when he meets with U.S. President Donald Trump's Middle East Envoy, Steve Witkoff, on Monday in Washington, Netanyahu's office said late on Saturday.

Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed on the need to consolidate the Gaza ceasefire deal in a phone call on Saturday, the Egyptian presidency said, but it was unclear if they discussed Trump's call for the transfer of Palestinians to Egypt and Jordan.

There were 773 bodies in hospital morgues in and around the eastern Congolese city of Goma as of Jan. 30 following this week's offensive by Rwanda-backed M23 rebels, the Democratic Republic of Congo's health ministry said on Saturday.

The family of Israeli hostage Yarden Bibas expressed relief on Saturday after he was released along with two other hostages by Hamas but said that the family's home remained incomplete.

Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Badr Abdelatty met with his Jordanian counterpart, Ayman Safadi, in Cairo on Saturday to discuss ongoing coordination and consultation between their two nations, as well as bilateral relations and regional developments.

The European Union has restarted its civilian mission to monitor the border crossing between Gaza and Egypt at Rafah, a key entry and exit point for the Palestinian territory, the bloc's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Friday.

At least 54 people were killed and 158 wounded on Saturday in a strike by Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on a popular market in the city of Omdurman, the health ministry said in a statement.

Arab foreign ministers on Saturday rejected the transfer of Palestinians from their land under any circumstances, presenting a unified stance against U.S. President Donald Trump's call for Egypt and Jordan to take in residents of the Gaza Strip.

Washington is pressuring top Lebanese officials not to allow Hezbollah or its allies to nominate the country's next finance minister, five people with knowledge of the matter said, in an attempt to limit the Iran-backed group's sway over the state.

Iran will respond immediately and decisively if its nuclear sites are attacked which would lead to an "all-out war in the region," Tehran's foreign minister told Al Jazeera TV in an interview aired on Friday.