Qatar accused Bahrain on Tuesday of abusing a routine fisheries enforcement case to deepen a three-month diplomatic crisis between the emirate and its Gulf neighbours.

Iraqi security forces and paramilitary units have launched a dawn assault against one of Daesh’s last bastions in the vast western province of Anbar bordering Syria.

The fate of the nuclear agreement with Iran is dominating this week’s United Nations General Assembly as European officials will attempt to persuade US President Donald Trump to maintain the agreement.

Saudi Arabia arrested two rights campaigners, an international human-rights group said on Monday, in what it called a drive by the kingdom's rulers to crush the country's human rights movement.

Qatar's defense minister has signed a letter of intent to purchase 24 Typhoon jets from British defense group BAE Systems, in a move that could anger other Gulf countries boycotting Doha.

A British website stated that Snapchat has blocked Al-Jazeera's Discover publisher channel in Saudi Arabia because the authorities claimed it violated local laws.

Saudi Arabia's Shura Council, an influential advisory body to the government, will vote on a proposal to merge the religious police into the ministry of Islamic affairs, local media reported, further curbing the force's authority.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Saturday that Kurdish plans to hold a referendum on independence was like "playing with fire", according to a local media website.

Iran warned on Sunday that independence for Iraqi Kurdistan would mean an end to all border and security arrangements with the regional government.

Iraqi vice president warned on Sunday that Baghdad would not tolerate the creation of “a second Israel” after the Jewish state became the only country to support a planned Kurdish independence referendum in northern Iraq.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan will meet Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi this week to discuss their concerns about an independence referendum in Iraq’s Kurdish region.

Iraqi armed forces on Saturday dislodged Islamic State from a natural gas-rich border area with Syria, according to the military.

The campaign group Human Rights Watch on Friday condemned the arrest by Saudi authorities of some 30 clerics, intellectuals and activists this week as a "coordinated crackdown on dissent", and Amnesty International echoed the sentiment.

China signaled on Wednesday it was willing to back an international inquiry into atrocities in Yemen, as demanded by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, but Saudi Arabia and the United States said they did not support the idea.

A panel set up by the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen to investigate civilian casualties found a series of deadly air strikes largely justified, citing the presence of armed militiamen at the homes, schools and clinics that were targeted.

Qatar is ready to sit at the negotiating table to try to end a dispute with its Gulf Arab neighbors, Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani said on Friday in Berlin.

Saudi authorities have arrested dozens of people, including prominent clerics, in what appears to be a coordinated crackdown on dissent, Human Rights Watch said today. The campaign comes three months after Mohammed bin Salman became crown prince in June 2017.

Human Rights Watch on Friday condemned a "coordinated crackdown on dissent" by Saudi authorities who have arrested dozens of people including prominent clerics in the ultra-conservative kingdom.

United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is expected to hold a firstmeeting on the Iran nuclear deal with Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and other parties to the agreement next week at the United Nations, diplomats said on Thursday.

Qatar Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani on Thursday held talks in Turkey with the emirate's chief ally President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in his first visit abroad since the start of a diplomatic crisis with Saudi Arabia.