Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will on Friday participate with hundreds of people in the first Muslim prayers at Hagia Sophia since a top court revoked the Istanbul landmark's museum status.

UK Minister for the Middle East James Cleverly has reflected on his virtual visit to Lebanon on Thursday through an opinion piece.

Below is the full text of the opinion piece as received by Naharnet:

With monikers as divergent as the "Professor" and the "Destroyer", the Islamic State group's new head has a reputation for brutality, but otherwise remains largely an enigma.

Armenia and Azerbaijan, two ex-Soviet republics in the Caucasus, have been locked in a decades-long territorial dispute which frequently erupts into deadly fighting. 

A mysterious explosion and fire at Iran's main nuclear facility may have stopped Tehran from building advanced centrifuges, but it likely has not slowed the Islamic Republic in growing its ever-increasing stockpile of low-enriched uranium.

Limiting that stockpile represented one of the main tenets of the nuclear deal that world powers reached with Iran five years ago this week — an accord which now lies in tatters after President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from it two years ago.

The six-decade space race to explore Mars has led to some 40 missions, at least half of which have been successful, and still the Red Planet inspires new adventures.

The lines snaked around the block. Then they swelled to fill the whole street, before they turned into a raucous mob of men shoving to the front of the line. There at the exchange bureau, they could buy rationed dollars, the hottest commodity in Lebanon.

The small country's financial meltdown has thrown Lebanese into a frantic search for dollars as their local currency's value evaporates. To get the precious hard currency, they must navigate labyrinthine regulations, exploiting any loopholes they can to rescue their earnings.

The killing of jihadism expert Hisham al-Hashemi has stirred fears Iraq is entering a dark and violent phase, as boiling tensions between pro-Iran factions and the government reach new heights.

Masirah Saqer could barely open her eyes, as she struggled to swallow the milk her grandmother attempted to feed her with a syringe.

Although crude prices have rebounded from coronavirus crisis lows, oil execs and experts are starting to ask if the industry has crossed the Rubicon of peak demand.