Turkey said on Monday it would close its air space to Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region and work to hand control of the main border crossing into the region to the central Iraqi government.

Iraqi government forces captured the major Kurdish-held oil city of Kirkuk on Monday, responding to a Kurdish referendum on independence with a bold lightning strike that transforms the balance of power in the country.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s hardened stance towards Iran evoked a mixture of indifference and national pride among Iranians on Saturday but many were concerned about economic hardship should a multinational nuclear deal unravel.

Senior Trump administration officials said on Sunday that the United States was committed to remaining part of the Iran nuclear accord for now, despite President Donald Trump’s criticisms of the deal and his warnings that he might pull out.

Iraqi forces captured several positions south of Kirkuk from Kurdish fighters on Monday in their bid to regain control of the oil-rich city, which is part of a region that declared itself independent at a referendum last month.

Iran on Sunday shut its border crossings with Iraq’s Kurdistan in support of measures taken by the Iraqi government to isolate the Kurdish region, the Iraqi foreign ministry said.

A rebel former governor of Aden who is leading a movement for southern Yemen’s secession has said an independence referendum would be announced soon and a parliamentary body set up to administer the territory.

A controversial member of Qatar's royal family said Saturday that Qatari authorities have frozen his bank accounts over his role in Doha's crisis with its neighbours.

Tension flared on Saturday in the ethnically mixed Iraqi town of Tuz Khurmatu after a clash between Kurdish and Shi‘ite Turkmen political parties divided over the independence of the Kurdistan region, security sources said on Saturday.

Israel and Saudi Arabia showed their support to US President Donald Trump on Friday after he refused to certify the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal signed P5+1 in 2015.

Iraqi forces Friday retook positions controlled by Kurdish peshmerga fighters since 2014 in the oil-rich province of Kirkuk amid a bitter row with the Kurds over a vote for independence last month.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced that it strongly supports US President Donald Trump's new strategy to address the full range of Iran's destructive actions.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani denounced on Friday (October 13, 2017) what he described as “baseless accusations” in response to his US counterpart Donald Trump’s speech and the United States’ aggressive new strategy towards Iran.

US President Donald Trump refused on Friday (October 13, 2017) to certify the nuclear agreement with Iran.

The UN special envoy for Yemen accused the country's warring leaders on Tuesday of refusing to end the fighting and liberate the people "from the scourge of famine and conflict" because they stand to lose wealth and power.

Saudi Arabia plans to award a construction contract for its first nuclear reactors by the end of 2018, a senior government official said on Tuesday.

A senior United Arab Emirates official said Qatar's hosting of the 2022 World Cup should depend on it rejecting "extremism and terrorism", in comments that drew the soccer tournament into the diplomatic row among rich Gulf monarchies.

Iran said Tuesday that the United States would be siding with the Islamic State group if it designated the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organisation.

U.S. President Donald Trump will make an announcement this week on an "overall Iran strategy," including whether to decertify the international deal curbing Tehran's nuclear program, the White House said on Tuesday.

Germany is worried that U.S. President Donald Trump will decide this week that Iran is not respecting a two-year-old deal to curb its nuclear programme and fears such a step will worsen the security situation in the Middle East.