Politics

JEDDAH / Reuters Arab countries and Qatar should enter into direct talks to solve a diplomatic dispute, Russia’s foreign minister said on a trip to Saudi Arabia on Sunday, urging all parties to restore regional unity. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt severed ties with Qatar on June 5, accusing it of supporting terrorist groups – a ...

BEIRUT / Reuters A rocket-bearing Iranian military vessel confronted an American battleship in the Gulf and warned it to stay away from a damaged Iranian fishing boat, Tasnim news agency reported on Sunday, but the US Navy denied any direct contact with Iranian forces. The American battleship turned away after the warning from the Iranian vessel, which belonged to the ...

Bloomberg Russia is testing the West by conducting war games on NATO’s eastern flank in its biggest military exercise in four years, UK Defense Secretary Michael Fallon said. “This is designed to provoke us, it’s designed to test our defenses, and that’s why we have to be strong,” Fallon said on the BBC’s “The Andrew Marr Show” on Sunday. “Russia ...

Bloomberg US President Donald Trump and Turkey’s Tayyip Erdogan spoke and agreed to continue to work toward stronger ties and regional security, Erdogan’s office said, a day after he lashed out at US authorities for indicting one of his ex-ministers. Ties between the United States and its NATO ally have been strained by Washington’s support for the YPG Kurdish fighters ...

Bloomberg UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s closest advisers froze out Chancellor Philip Hammond as they drew up their plans for June’s election, according to a new book revealing the rift that developed between the two most senior teams in the British government. May herself raised her eyebrows at the mention of Hammond’s name in meetings, while his relations with her ...

Bloomberg German Chancellor Angela Merkel called anti-immigration demonstrators “rowdies” driven by intolerance, her strongest reaction yet to protests that have disrupted many of her election rallies this summer. Just over two weeks before the German ballot, Merkel addressed her increasingly aggressive enemies from the Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, and the far-right National Democratic Party, head-on. A day earlier, ...

Bloomberg The US said it would seek a vote on Monday on a draft United Nations Security Council resolution on North Korea, as it pushes for fresh sanctions against the regime after its recent nuclear test. The US informed the Security Council of its plan to call the vote, the State Department said in a brief statement, adding it would ...

TALLINN / Reuters Turkey said the European Union was making a “child’s game” out of its membership talks, wrangling over threats to end them, and reminded the bloc of its strategic importance abutting Middle Eastern conflict zones. After trading bitter barbs for months with President Tayyip Erdogan, largely over Turkey’s human rights record, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said it was ...

DUBAI / Reuters Saudi Arabia on Saturday suspended any dialogue with Qatar, accusing it of “distorting facts”, just after a report of a phone call between the leaders of both countries suggested a breakthrough in the Gulf dispute. Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman spoke by the telephone with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani when they discussed ...

BEIRUT / Reuters US-backed militias and the Syrian army advanced in separate offensives against IS in eastern Syria on Saturday, piling pressure on shrinking territory the group still holds in oil-rich areas near the Iraqi border. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed alliance of mostly Arab and Kurdish fighters, launched a new operation against the extremists in the north ...