An Emirati soldier has been killed in southern Saudi Arabia while taking part in the Saudi-led campaign against Yemen's Huthi rebels, the United Arab Emirates military said.

Qatar has signed 36 worker protection agreements with countries that provide much of its labour force, state media reported on Wednesday, weeks before the International Labour Organisation is to decide whether to investigate it for worker abuse.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi held talks with key ally Iran on Thursday as his forces launched an offensive against the Islamic State group's last bastion in the country.

Iran’s defense capabilities are not negotiable, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday in remarks made previously but which now come amid increased pressure from the U.S. government over Tehran’s ballistic missile program.

Neutral Switzerland’s embassies in Riyadh and Tehran have signed agreements to represent Iranian interests in Saudi Arabia and Saudi interests in Iran, the Swiss government said on Wednesday.

Iraqi forces are about to launch an offensive to recapture the last patch of Iraqi territory still in the hands of Islamic State, the military said on Wednesday.

Kurdish authorities in Iraq offered on Wednesday (October 25, 2017) to put an independence drive on hold, stepping up efforts to resolve a crisis in relations with Baghdad via dialogue rather than military means.

Saudi Arabia announced on Tuesday a $500 billion plan to create a business and industrial zone extending across its borders into Jordan and Egypt, the biggest project yet in a series of efforts to free the kingdom of its dependence on oil exports.

The Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah warned of the serious consequences and risks of escalation of the Gulf crisis.

Iraqi forces are deploying tanks and artillery near a Kurdish-held area of northern Iraq where a section of a Kurdish oil export pipeline is located, as well as land crossings to Turkey and Syria, security sources said on Monday.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi defended the role of an Iranian-backed paramilitary force at a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Monday in Baghdad.

Saudi Arabia and Iraq convened a new joint body to coordinate their fight against Islamic State and on rebuilding Iraqi territory wrested from the group, the Saudi King Salman and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said in Riyadh on Sunday.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrived in Riyadh on Saturday to attend a landmark meeting between officials from Saudi Arabia and Iraq aimed at improving relations between the two countries and countering Iran’s growing regional influence.

Iraqi forces on Friday took control of the last district in the oil-rich province of Kirkuk still in the hands of Kurdish Peshmerga fighters following a three-hour battle, security sources said.

Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates have agreed to lift a ban on imports of Egyptian agricultural products, Egypt said on Sunday.

Iraqi forces on Friday took control of the last district in the oil-rich province of Kirkuk still in the hands of Kurdish Peshmerga fighters following a three-hour battle, security sources said.

A senior Iranian military commander repeatedly warned Kurdish leaders in northern Iraq to withdraw from the oil city of Kirkuk or face an onslaught by Iraqi forces and allied Iranian-backed fighters, Kurdish officials briefed on the meetings said.

The U.S. State Department on Friday urged the Baghdad government to avoid clashes in northern Iraq by limiting the movement of federal troops in disputed areas to those coordinated with the Kurdistan Regional Government.

The U.N. atomic watchdog chief said on Thursday his inspectors had yet to encounter problems with Iran a week after U.S. President Donald Trump refused to certify that Tehran was complying with a 2015 nuclear deal.

European Union leaders on Thursday reaffirmed their full commitment to the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, hoping that the U.S. Congress would not let it collapse despite relentless criticism by President Donald Trump.