Mena Today

The United Arab Emirates and Ukraine have completed negotiations for a bilateral trade deal, according to a joint statement released on Monday, ahead of its formal signing.

French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said on Monday talks on a ceasefire in Gaza were progressing as he joined U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Saudi Arabia on a diplomatic push to ease the war between Israel and Hamas.

French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné has modified the proposal for a settlement between Israel and Hezbollah.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Saudi Arabia on Monday, the first stop in a broader trip to the Middle East to discuss issues including the governance of Gaza once the war with Israel ends.

Burkina Faso has suspended a number of Western and African media over their coverage of a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report accusing the army of extrajudicial killings, its communications authority said on Sunday.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will expand his trip to the Middle East and continue onto Jordan and Israel after visiting Saudi Arabia, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Sunday.

Pro-Palestinian protests at U.S. universities showed no sign of slowing as they spread coast-to-coast over the weekend and police crackdowns and arrests continued into another week while students vowed to stay in tent encampments until their demands are met.

Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rai criticized Lebanese officials on Sunday, saying they should have been "more dedicated to securing the public good and to restoring to the state its effective and legitimate constitutional institutions, starting with the election of a president."

NEOM, a unit of the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, secured a new revolving credit facility (RCF) worth 10 billion riyals ($2.67 billion) from local lenders, according to a NEOM statement seen by Reuters on Sunday.

Saudi Arabia is committed to sourcing lithium from overseas as it looks to produce EV batteries and invest in the electric vehicle sector, a senior minister said in an interview, noting attempts to secure domestic supplies were at an early stage.

The amount of humanitarian aid going into the Gaza Strip will be ramped up in the coming days, Israel's military said on Sunday.

President Macron of France must be commended for having pointed to Iran as a direct threat to European security. He did this Wednesday in his speech at the Sorbonne at Paris. Europe, he warned, is equally threatened by nuclear Russia and “near nuclear” Iran. It should, he reckons, unite to address both menaces.