Tel Aviv / Bloomberg Israel’s natural gas companies and Noble Energy Inc. have signed the first contract to supply natural gas from the Leviathan site offshore Israel. Partners in Leviathan, Israel’s largest field, will supply 6 billion cubic meters of gas over 18 years to two power stations owned by local electricity producer Edeltech Group. Leviathan will be developed by …

Qamishli / AFP A delegation including senior US diplomat Brett McGurk met with members of a Kurd-Arab alliance fighting the IS extremist group inside Syria on Saturday, Kurdish sources said on Sunday. The visit appeared to be the first by a senior US government official inside Syrian territory. McGurk, who is US President Barack Obama’s envoy to an international coalition …

Riyadh / AFP Saudi authorities have arrested nine American citizens among 33 “terror” suspects rounded up over the past days, the Saudi Gazette newspaper reported on Sunday. Four Americans were arrested on Monday and five others over the past four days, the paper reported citing an unidentified source. The arrests also included 14 Saudis, three Yemenis, two Syrians, an Indonesian, …