Middle East
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3 Palestinian militants killed in attack on Israeli troops

Israeli forces have shot and killed three Palestinian militants who opened fire on troops in the occupied West Bank, the military said, the latest bloodshed in a year-long wave of violence in the region.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an armed offshoot of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, claimed the men killed as members.

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Iran says deal with Saudi Arabia will help end Yemen's war

Iran's mission to the United Nations says a breakthrough agreement with Saudi Arabia restoring bilateral relations will help bring a political settlement to Yemen's yearslong war, Iranian state media reported.

Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed Friday to reestablish diplomatic relations and reopen their embassies after seven years of tensions that brought the two regional powerhouses to the brink of conflict and fueled tensions across the region.

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Israel to weigh action after Silicon Valley Bank collapse

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that the government would assess the effect of Silicon Valley Bank's collapse on Israeli companies and determine whether or not to assist them.

Israel is home to a vibrant high-tech industry, and local media said Sunday that hundreds of local firms could be exposed to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.

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Report: Qatar spied on Swiss prosecutor, FIFA boss meeting

A spying operation on behalf of World Cup host Qatar bugged a 2017 hotel meeting between FIFA president Gianni Infantino and Switzerland's then-attorney general during an investigation of soccer officials, Swiss daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung said.

The report said intelligence operatives linked to a former CIA officer wiretapped a meeting involving Infantino and Swiss federal prosecutor Michael Lauber at a Qatari-owned hotel in Bern, which also then housed the emirate's embassy.

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Israeli strikes on Syria kill two pro-Iran fighters

Israeli airstrikes targeting a weapons depot in Syria on Sunday killed two pro-Iran fighters and wounded three soldiers, a war monitor said.

"Israeli strikes targeted a weapons depot belonging to pro-Iran forces located... between Tartus and Hama provinces," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

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Saudi deal with Iran worries Israel, shakes up Middle East

News of the rapprochement between long-time regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran has sent shockwaves through the Middle East and dealt a symbolic blow to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has made the threat posed by Tehran a public diplomacy priority and personal crusade.

The breakthrough — a culmination of more than a year of negotiations in Baghdad and more recent talks in China — also became ensnared in Israel's internal politics, reflecting the country's divisions at a moment of national turmoil.

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Iran: KSA deal a political earthquake that spells end of US hegemony

A senior military advisor to Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei said Sunday that the reconciliation agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia will put an end to the United States’ “hegemony” in the West Asia region.

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Israel opposition sees Saudi-Iran deal as Netanyahu failure

Restoration of diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran represents a failure of foreign policy by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his opponents said.

They said he has neglected the country's external relations to focus on domestic judicial reform, a project which has split the country and brought tens of thousands of protesters into the streets against what they see as a threat to democracy.

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Iran, KSA to restore ties in major step for Middle East

Regional powerhouses Iran and Saudi Arabia have agreed to restore ties and reopen diplomatic missions in a surprise, Chinese-brokered announcement that could have wide-ranging implications across the Middle East.

In a trilateral statement, Shiite-majority Iran and mainly Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia said they would reopen embassies and missions within two months and implement security and economic cooperation deals signed more than 20 years ago.

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Saudi-Iran breakthrough adds new twist to Israel's Arab outreach

Saudi Arabia's surprise move to restore ties with Iran adds a new, complicated layer to its delicate diplomatic dance with Israel, which craves a breakthrough normalization deal of its own, analysts said.

Riyadh and Tehran announced on Friday that after seven years of severed ties they would reopen embassies and missions within two months and implement security and economic cooperation agreements signed more than 20 years ago.

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