By MARGHERITA STANCATI and HABIB KHAN TOTAKHIL Taliban representatives launched a series of meetings with Afghan government officials in the Gulf emirate of Qatar on Saturday, even as insurgents press an offensive around the country. Taliban and Afghan officials said an eight-member Taliban delegation and some Afghan officials were attending a …

VERDA ÖZER On the one hand, violence is re-erupting in Bosnia. On the other hand, Albania and Serbia seem to be at odds. And Serbia still doesn’t accept Kosovo’s independence. What is happening in the Balkans? Are we on the brink of a new war in Bosnia and …

Tulu Gümüştekin The general elections will be held on June 7, the first weekend of the month. This is the second time that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will not be able to be a candidate in parliamentarian elections since 2002 because he was elected president in August 2014. …

Tim Mak The Middle East is on a knife’s edge, thanks to a lunatic ISIS and a rising Iran. For American arms-makers, that means only one thing: opportunity. War in Yemen. The continued threat of ISIS. Ongoing conflict in Iraq and Syria. Increasing Iranian influence. As America’s Middle …

The US is working with Saudi Arabia, UAE and the UN to start peace negotiations between Yemen’s government and the Houthis, said US Secretary of State John Kerry. Kerry said the US was working “very hard” to help negotiate a solution to the crisis in Yemen through the …

GHAZANFAR ALI KHAN Key regional issues including the continuing Yemen crisis figured prominently during talks between Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sissi here on Saturday. “The visit of El-Sissi, lasting less than two hours, focused on the restive regional scene, …

By JAY SOLOMON And CAROL E. LEE  Leading Persian Gulf states want major new weapons systems and security guarantees from the White House in exchange for backing a nuclear agreement with Iran, according to U.S. and Arab officials. The leaders of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, including Saudi Arabia, the …

HUNTER WALKER AND ANDY KIERSZ Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) isn’t just surging in the polls. Gamblers are also increasingly putting their money on him to win the 2016 presidential race. Business Insider got updated odds on the election from Paddy Power, Ireland’s largest bookmaker, on Tuesday. As she was …

Alex Dick-Godfrey In the past five years, the Somali jihadist group al-Shabaab has lost most of its senior leadership, surrendered its control of southern Somalia, and seen its cash flow shrink. The group has certainly seen better times. But as the success of recent attacks in Kenya and Mogadishu indicate, the group is …