Saudi Arabia

Iran has suspended pilgrimages to the Muslim holy places in Saudi Arabia in protest at an alleged sexual assault attempt against two teenage Iranian boys, the culture minister said on April 13.

Another 10 Romanian citizens and a family member were evacuated on Sunday from Yemen, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed in a release to AGERPRES.

Photo credit: (c) Liviu SOVA / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

World military spending was largely unchanged in 2014 as lower spending in the United States and Western Europe was matched by increases elsewhere, prompted by conflicts in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Africa, an arms watchdog said April 13.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said total global arms expenditure was down 0.4 percent at $1.8 trillion.

Turkey and Saudi Arabia are in high-level talks with the goal of forming a military alliance to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad, according to sources speaking to the Huffington Post.

Saudi-led air strikes hit a rebel base in central Yemen on April 12 and clashes raged in southern city Aden as France's top diplomat voiced Western support for the air campaign in Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia's King Salman has relieved Health Minister Ahmed al-Khatib of his post, removing a second minister handling social welfare issues in the space of a month as he reshapes the cabinet soon after coming to the throne. 

President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an?s visit to Iran this week carried meanings and created results beyond Turkey-Iran relations. In Tehran, Ankara gave clues about its new, emerging regional policy.

Öztürk Y?lmaz, the former Turkish consul general to Mosul, who was taken hostage last year along with 48 others by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants for 101 days, has been appointed as an ambassador to Tajikistan's capital of Dushanbe.

Pakistan's parliament voted on April 10 to stay out of the conflict in Yemen, rejecting Saudi demands for Islamabad to join its military coalition against Shiite Houthi rebels, while international organizations and Turkey have called for a "humanitarian cease-fire." 

Turkey has hosted a working group of the coalition to counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levent (ISIL), during which further measures to stem the flow of foreign fighters across the border were discussed.