Five Emirati humanitarian workers were killed in a bomb attack in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) official news agency reported on Wednesday.

Iraqi forces pushed Islamic State fighters back further in Mosul on Tuesday in a renewed effort to seize the northern city and deal a decisive blow to the militant group, though progress was slow in some districts, the army said.

An Iranian official confirmed on Monday that Saudi Arabia had invited Tehran to discuss arrangements for the annual Muslim haj, which Iran boycotted last year after hundreds died in a crush at the 2015 pilgrimage.

Five Gulf states sent condolences on Monday for former Iranian president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, signaling appreciation for a pragmatist who sought regional detente, but there was no immediate word from Riyadh, Tehran's main Gulf Arab adversary.

Head of Iran's Expediency Council and two-time president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani died on Sunday (January 8, 2017) due to heart attack.

Dozens of foreign workers have reportedly been sentenced to flogging and jail in Saudi Arabia for unrest which erupted after wages went unpaid by the Binladin Group, AFP reported.

ISIS attacked an Iraqi police checkpoint near the southern city of Najaf Sunday, killing seven policemen as government forces in the north made more gains against the militants in Mosul, their last major stronghold in the country.

Kuwaiti First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah confirmed during his visit to Baghdad Wednesday, his country’s support to Iraq’s anti-terrorism efforts.

More than 2,000 Saudis are fighting abroad with jihadist groups, with over 70 percent of them in Syria, the kingdom's interior ministry was reported as saying Monday.

An Omani appeals court on Monday cancelled an order to close down a newspaper that had reported on alleged corruption within the judiciary.

Iraqi security forces on Thursday began the second phase of their offensive against Islamic State militants in Mosul, pushing into some eastern districts where the battle has been in deadlock for nearly a month.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Tuesday it would take three months to remove Islamic State from Iraq, as U.S.-backed forces battle to dislodge the militants from Mosul, their last major stronghold in the country

Saudi Arabia should not be allowed to take part in the Syrian peace process, Iranian Defence Minister Hossein Dehghan told Russia's state-backed RT TV station in an interview, according to the RIA news agency on Tuesday.

Oman, which has traditionally resisted Gulf Arab states' efforts to close ranks against Iran, has joined a Saudi-led coalition of Muslim countries to fight terrorism, Saudi and Gulf sources said on Wednesday.

Kuwait is set to begin importing up to 200 million cubic feet of gas daily from neighboring Iraq, oil ministers from the two Arab nations said after talks Wednesday.

A Kuwaiti appeals court overturned (Thursday December 22, 2016) a first instance verdict ruling the innocence of former Kuwaiti Member of Parliament, and prominent human rights activist, Dr. Abdulhameed Dashti.

Saudi Arabia, at war in Yemen and competing for regional influence with arch-rival Iran, projects a 6.7 percent rise in defence spending in 2017 to 191 billion riyals ($50.8 billion), according to official budget figures released on Thursday.

Saudi Arabia reported major progress on Thursday in cutting a huge state budget deficit caused by low oil prices, and said it would increase government spending next year to boost flagging economic growth.

Professor at the government-own University of Qatar said that the killer of Russian Ambassador in Turkey is a “martyr”.

Member of the Qatari Al-Jazeera New Network said that killing the Russian Ambassador in Turkey Andrey Karlov in a shooting inside an art gallery in Ankara is a “humane reflex”.