Middle East, Prime Minister | featured news

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Saturday his government would buy 36 F-16 fighters from the United States, doubling the number of aircraft it had initially planned to buy.

Turkey’s armed forced chief, Gen. Isik Kosaner, along with the heads of the army, navy and air force resigned Friday, Reuters reports. The reason for the generals' resignations was not immediately clear, but tensions between the military and the government of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan have been high in recent years, and a blow up was expected at a major meeting of the the Supreme Military Council next week.

Israel's prime minister promised to present his vision for an Israeli-Palestinian peace in a speech before U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday, but vowed his country would not return to mid-1967 borders that he termed "indefensible."

PM Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel's 1967 borders are "indefensible", rejecting US President Obama's suggestion they form the basis of a future Palestinian state.

The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, accused France of seeing Libya as a source of 'oil, gold mines and underground treasures'.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel presented to his cabinet a a plan to freeze West Bank settlement construction with the hope of luring the Palestinians back to talks.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to resume direct talks in Washington on September 2 with an aim to reaching a peace deal within one year.

A coalition led by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was winning in the all-important capital and a Shiite province in the south, according to a partial tally of election results released Saturday.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Great Britain is visiting his nation’s troops in Afghanistan and promising them 200 new patrol vehicles that can resist roadside bombs more effectively.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki may ask the U.S. to extend deadlines for withdrawing troops, depending on the security situation in Iraq.