Iraq’s parliament voted on Thursday to remove the governor of Kirkuk from office following a request from Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, according to several lawmakers who attended the vote.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guards arrested a member of Islamic State and foiled a plan for suicide attacks, a Guards commander said on Wednesday.

Yemen’s Houthi leader Abdel-Malek al-Houthi said on Thursday his group could target Saudi oil tankers should Saudi Arabia attack Yemen’s main port at Hodeidah.

The United States on Thursday extended some sanctions relief for Iran under the 2015 nuclear deal but said it has yet to decide whether to preserve the deal itself, the State Department said.

Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani will hold talks in Ankara on Thursday with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, an ally of Doha in its dispute with Gulf Arab neighbors.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi described the Kurdistan region’s planned referendum on independence as “unconstitutional” on Tuesday, hours after parliament voted against the regional plebiscite.

Diplomats from Qatar and the four states boycotting it exchanged heated words at an Arab League meeting on Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia has urged its people to report subversive comments spotted on social media via a phone app, a move denounced by a human rights watchdog as “Orwellian”.

Saudi Arabia is planning a worldwide communications campaign to counter its negative press coverage and is in the market for PR firms eager to handle the effort, according to the Financial Times.

Saudi Arabia’s school religious studies curriculum contains hateful and incendiary language toward religions and Islamic traditions that do not adhere to its interpretation of Sunni Islam, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday.

Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi confirmed the news stating that he was suspended from writing for Al-Hayat newspaper, based on a decision by Al-Hayat publisher Khalid bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, and the recommendation of Fahd bin Khalid Al Saud.

Several prominent Saudi clerics have been detained in an apparent crackdown on potential opponents of the conservative kingdom’s absolute rulers amid widespread speculation that King Salman intends to abdicate in favor of his son.

A Saudi court ratified on Monday (September 11, 2017) a death sentence issued against youth Abdulkareem Al-Hawaj, from Al-Qala’a village situated in the Qatif region of the Eastern Province.

Human Rights Watch accused the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen of war crimes on Tuesday, saying its air strikes killed 39 civilians including 26 children in two months.

Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday it foiled an Islamic State plot to bomb its defense ministry headquarters and also said it had arrested several people suspected of carrying out espionage in the kingdom on behalf of foreign powers.

The United Nations has verified 5,144 civilian deaths in the war in Yemen, mainly from air strikes by a Saudi-led coalition, and an international investigation is urgently needed, U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein said on Monday.

Iran will reach an oil production rate of 4.5 million barrels per day (bpd) within five years, Ali Kardor, the managing director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), said Sunday according to the oil ministry news site SHANA.

Saudi Arabia said Sunday it would keep pressuring Qatar until demands by a bloc of Arab states are met, dampening hopes for a US-mediated resolution to a diplomatic crisis.

Saudi Arabia's government assured investors on Saturday that its Vision 2030 economic reform program, including the sale of a stake in national oil giant Saudi Aramco, was on track despite plans to adjust part of it.

A rocket-bearing Iranian military vessel confronted an American battleship in the Gulf and warned it to stay away from a damaged Iranian fishing boat, the Tasnim news agency reported Sunday.