Twelve prison guards in Bahrain have been charged with physically assaulting inmates, the authorities said Wednesday, a rare move in the kingdom which has witnessed sporadic unrest since 2011.

Qatar accused the United Arab Emirates Wednesday of a "campaign of violence and hatred" against its citizens, urging the International Court of Justice to quash a case brought by Abu Dhabi.

The Gulf states are locked in a battle at the UN's top court, where the UAE on Tuesday asked judges to stop Qatar "severely aggravating" a two-year-old crisis between Doha and other countries in the oil-rich region.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Wednesday not to allow Iran to acquire nuclear arms after the Islamic republic said it would abandon limits on its nuclear activities agreed in a 2015 deal.

The French government confirmed Wednesday that a new shipment of weapons will head for Saudi Arabia, despite claims Riyadh is using the arms in the Yemen war.

Iraq has promised to guarantee the safety of US interests from Iran, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday as he paid a surprise trip to Baghdad where he accused Tehran of planning "imminent" attacks.

Violence in the northwestern Syrian region of Idlib has displaced more than 150,000 people in the past week, the U.N. said Tuesday, as the regime and Russia upped deadly bombardment of the jihadist bastion.

The Palestinians are asking the European Union to pick up the mantle in defense of the two-state solution if the upcoming U.S. peace plan ditches Palestinian statehood, their U.N. envoy said Tuesday.

Troops loyal to military strongman Khalifa Haftar said Tuesday they shot down a warplane of rival forces of Libya's unity government near Tripoli and captured its foreign "mercenary" pilot.

After a weekend of deadly Palestinian fire on the Israeli city of Ashkelon, the underground bunker where public officials studied CCTV and incoming rockets from Gaza was hushed Monday after a tentative ceasefire.

Two Saudi sisters who fled to Georgia saying they feared being killed if they returned home posted on social media Tuesday that they have now obtained Georgian passports and are moving to a third country.