Yemen

Iran and the European Union have agreed to start talks on issues including confronting terrorism, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told a news conference with the EU's chief diplomat in Tehran on July 28.

Human Rights Watch condemned as an "apparent war crime" on July 28 a Saudi-led air raid in Yemen last week that it said killed at least 65 civilians in residential compounds.

Yemen's Huthi rebels pounded an area in the southern province of Taez shortly after the start early on July 27 of a humanitarian truce declared by the Saudi-led coalition bombing the Iran-backed insurgents.

Saudi Arabia's leaders sought assurances on July 22 that the United States stands firmly against Iranian "interference" in the Middle East, during a visit by U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will seek to reassure Gulf Arab officials at a meeting in Qatar soon that Washington will work with them to "push back" against Iranian influence in the region, he told the pan-Arab newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat.

A car bombing claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group killed four people near a Shiite mosque in the rebel-controlled Yemeni capital Sanaa, the Shiite rebels said.

Only a few days after Iran and the P5+1 group of world powers announced their historic deal on the former?s nuclear program, a top Hamas delegation went to Saudi Arabia to hold talks with new King Salman for the first meeting between the two sides in years. 

Yemen's exiled Vice President Khaled Bahah announced online July 17 the "liberation" of second city Aden after four months of devastating fighting between loyalist forces and Iran-backed rebels.

Several ministers and top intelligence officials touched down in Yemen's war-torn southern city of Aden on July 16, Yemeni officials said, in the first visit by the exiled government based in Saudi Arabia in more than three months of war. 

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavu?o?lu has welcomed the lifting of sanctions on neighboring Iran after the recent nuclear deal, saying it will contribute to the regional economy and will have a direct positive impact on Turkey. 

However, Çavu?o?lu also called on Tehran to revise its regional policies and "abandon sectarian politics."