Middle East

Unsettling new details have emerged of the Omani co-pilot accused of a terrifying bid to plunge a passenger jet and all 174 on board into the Saudi desert.

Members of a prominent Australian family were reportedly passengers on board the international flight where an attempted hijacking took place on Wednesday.

AARON PATRICK: Flight 1703’s survival is a warning that security measures designed to defeat terrorism after the 9/11 attacks may need to be reconsidered.

Passengers have been hailed heroes after storming the cockpit and overpowering a pilot accused of stabbing his captain and trying to crash the jet.

Some Iraqis are celebrating the end of an American military presence that unleashed waves of bloodshed. Others fear what happens next for their country, trapped between Washington and Tehran.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi says indirect talks with the US over the Strait of Hormuz have become ‘more serious’ as the value of the rial drops.

Tehran has proposed an ‘off-ramp’ to Washington that would cease hostilities, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and open talks on Iran’s nuclear program.

To the grandees gathered in New York this week, America does not look like a solution to the Middle East’s woes: it is a source of them.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has condemned US attacks on what he described as civilian targets during the early stages of the Iran war.

Donald Trump has signalled a potential breakthrough in the Iran war as Tehran puts a major offer on the table to reopen a crucial global shipping route.

Houthi rebels are reportedly attempting to seize strategic heights in two provinces of Yemen amid fighting against government forces.

The Revolutionary Guard says Iran is ready to change its weapons, military tactics and targets if the conflict escalates as the US steps up economic measures.

Iran has issued a chilling warning to Washington, threatening sustained attacks on US bases and ships if a major new strike is launched.

THE NEW YORK TIMES: United Nations investigators said Thursday there were reasonable grounds to conclude that two US air strikes on Iran in February in which at least 178 civilians died had been indiscriminate.

The undated images - taken at a base in Saudi Arabia and two facilities in Kuwait - were provided to CBS by American personnel on condition of anonymity due to US military restrictions

Saudi Arabia accused Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels overnight of trying to attack Islam’s holiest city, prompting condemnation from countries in the region but no sign of military support

It comes as Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels launched a new wave of attacks on Saudi Arabia overnight after the kingdom’s 1200-kilometre east-west crude pipeline was damaged last week.

Iran has condemned the exclusion of the head of its atomic energy organisation from an annual gathering of the United Nations nuclear agency in Austria.