Middle East News

As negotiations with Iran over the Islamic republic's nuclear program entered its second day on Sunday, President Barack Obama remained under fire by key senators from both parties for ignoring prior legislation on Iranian sanctions.

Munich - Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, has confirmed the next round of talks on Iran’s nuclear program will start in Vienna, Austria, on Feb. 18.

Cairo - With at least 49 dead, and hundreds injured in clashes between protesters and security forces, possibly the last thing stability in Egypt needs is tension with Libya, after five Egyptian diplomats are reportedly kidnapped in Tripoli.

Davos Platz - Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal said that he had hoped the the U.S. would have invaded Syria by now. In Davos, he complained that U.S. foreign policy is increasingly disengaged from the region and also lacks direction.

The luxury car manufacturer Rolls-Royce has just released figures showing that 2013 was a record breaking year for the company. The two biggest growth markets were in China and the Middle East.

Washington - Secretary of State John Kerry appeared before the House Foreign Relations Committee, Tuesday, calling for Congress to give diplomacy a chance and hold off from imposing any new sanctions against Iran.

An Israeli plan to remove tens of thousands of Palestinian Bedouin populations from their existing land and resettle them elsewhere was met with broad protest, including from well-known musician Peter Gabriel.

Geneva - The long-promised peace conference aimed at resolving the Syrian crisis has been given a start date of January 22. The conference will be held in Geneva and will be the first talks to include representatives of the regime and the opposition.

Speaking from Jerusalem just hours after Western powers struck a deal with Iran over its nuclear ambitions, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his stark disagreement with the deal.

Former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat may have died from polonium-210 poisoning, according to test results from Swiss scientists.