German Chancellor Angela Merkel will host Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani for talks on September 15, in what will be his first trip to a western capital since his country sank into crisis.

Israel's attorney general took a step Friday toward indicting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's wife for corruption in a scandal that deepened the mounting legal problems of Israel's first family.

Attorney General Avichai Mandleblit announced he is considering charging Sara Netanyahu with graft, fraud and breach of trust for alleged overspending of over $100,000 in public funds on private meals at the prime minister's official residence.

Human Rights Watch said on Friday that Egypt blocked its website after it released a report on alleged torture by security services, joining a growing list of inaccessible sites in the country.

President Donald Trump on Thursday hailed efforts by the leader of Kuwait, a staunch American ally, to mediate a festering diplomatic crisis involving Qatar and its Arab neighbors that could have implications for the U.S. military presence in the region.

However, the quartet of Arab nations now boycotting Doha issued a strongly worded statement early Friday morning dismissing some of Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah's comments, signaling the diplomatic crisis roiling the Gulf is far from over.

Russia claimed Friday to have killed several top commanders of the Islamic State group in an airstrike in Syria, including the so-called Emir of Deir Ezzor and the "Minister of War".

"As a result of a precision airstrike of the Russian air forces in the vicinity of Deir Ezzor city, a command post, communication centre and some 40 ISIS fighters have been killed," the Russian defence ministry said in a statement on Facebook.

U.S. President Donald Trump offered on Thursday to mediate in the crisis between Qatar and its Arab neighbors and said he believed the dispute could be solved "fairly easily."

"I would be willing to be the mediator," Trump told reporters at a joint press conference with Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah. "I think it's something that's going to get solved fairly easily."

Israel's defense minister on Thursday issued a veiled warning to Syria, without confirming or denying what Damascus said was an Israeli air strike on its territory.

President Donald Trump said Thursday that he believes there is a "chance" for a Middle East peace settlement, long one of the most elusive goals of U.S. diplomacy.

"I think we have a chance of doing it," he told reporters during a White House news conference with Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah.

Israel is believed to have carried out several raids inside Syria since 2013, mostly targeting its Lebanese arch-foe Hizbullah, a key ally of the Syrian government.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has personally intervened to bar an Al-Jazeera journalist from a government conference on press freedoms that uses the pan-Arab broadcaster as a case study.

Bureau chief Walid Omary's exclusion from attending a seminar titled "Limits of free expression: the dilemma between national security and freedom of the press — Al Jazeera as a case study," comes a month after Netanyahu threatened to shut the Qatar-based outlet's Israel offices.