US President Donald Trump has declared it is time to officially recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Muslim leaders have urged the faithful to keep up their prayer protests and avoid entering a contested Jerusalem shrine, even after Israel dismantled metal detectors which initially triggered the tensions.

Ireland is giving €200,000 to the disputed West Bank territory in the Middle East.

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits the White House, the Trump administration is going back and forth over whether its vision for Middle East peace includes a Palestinian state.

The ongoing building of illegal settlements is just one feature of a brutal occupation that foments Palestinian resentment, writes Political Correspondent Juno McEnroe

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas’s senior adviser has warned Israel that if it rejects a fresh initiative to restart the dormant peace talks, that a third intifada or uprising could erupt, reports Juno McEnroe of the Irish Examiner.

Ambassador Zeev Boker has a tough task appeasing sentiment here about Israeli activity in Gaza, but our countries have much in common, he tells Juno McEnroe

A new poll of Israelis and Palestinians found that a slim majority on both sides still favour a peace settlement establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel, despite years of conflict and deadlock in negotiations.

France’s president said yesterday that spiralling Middle East upheaval since the collapse of the round of Israel-Palestinian peace talks has complicated the process and makes it even more urgent to bring the two sides back to the table.

Donald Trump called off a planned December trip to Israel, shelving what was shaping up to be an awkward visit by the Republican presidential front-runner following comments that managed to offend Muslims and Jews alike.

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has sparked uproar after suggesting a Second World War-era Palestinian leader convinced the Nazis to adopt the “final solution” to exterminate European Jews.

Hillary Clinton and her aides at the US State Department were acutely aware of the need to protect sensitive information when discussing international affairs over email.

Check out our guide to the best shows to watch on the box tonight.

Israelis and Palestinians would gain billions of dollars from making peace with each other, while both would face daunting economic losses in case of other alternatives, particularly in case of a return to violence, according to a study.

Critics believe Iran will use the deal to boost its economy while continuing to try to build a bomb, but the agreement may be the best global powers could get, writes Dan Perry

Mahmoud Abbas has said the Palestinians will join the International Criminal Court – a move that sets the stage for filing a war crimes case against Israel.

An Israeli soldier has been stabbed in a Tel Aviv train station and police have arrested a Palestinian suspected of attacking him as part of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Obama is allowing himself to be drawn back into Iraq mostly because he doesn’t know what else to do, says Andrew J Bacevich

Hamas has signed a pledge to back any Palestinian bid to join the International Criminal Court, two senior officials in the group said today.

Malik, who was brought up a Muslim, posted the hashtag #freePalestine to his 13m followers yesterday, and it has already been shared more than 140,000 times.

The United States has suspended operations at its embassy in Libya and evacuated its diplomats to neighbouring Tunisia under US military escort amid a significant deterioration in security in Tripoli, the State Department said.

The UN secretary-general said it is his “hope and belief” that his emergency mission to the Middle East will lead to an end to the fighting between Hamas and Israel.

Israeli air strikes targeting Hamas in Gaza have hit a mosque as the Palestinian death toll topped 120 in an offensive that shows no signs of slowing down.

Hundreds of Israelis lined up outside Israel’s parliament building yesterday to pay their last respects to Ariel Sharon, the former prime minister and general who died over the weekend.

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has urged world leaders to stop fuelling the bloodshed in Syria with weapons and get both sides to the negotiating table to end the “biggest challenge to peace and security in the world”.

Israeli and Palestinian officials will meet soon in Washington to work out final details on relaunching Mideast peace negotiations for the first time in five years, US Secretary of State John Kerry said.

Israel has advanced the process of building 942 more settler homes in east Jerusalem under a new fast-track plan to tighten its grip on the territory, which the Palestinians claim as the capital of a future state.

FOR some time now, a certain strategic vision has been gaining traction: the United States is becoming energy independent, paving the way for its political retreat from the Middle East and justifying its strategic “pivot” toward Asia.

From his old school in Indonesia to a Japanese beach town that happens to share his name, people around the world have cheered Barack Obama’s re-election as US president today.

The Corona Cork Film Festival has adapted constantly to retain its position as one of the country’s top arts events, writes Carl Dixon

The US president will not succeed abroad by trying to avoid the worst rather than achieve the best, says Zaki Laidi

It is good to see that John McCarthy, who survived five years of brutal captivity in Lebanon at the hands of Islamic terrorists, has not been deterred from returning to the Middle East to expand his knowledge and understanding of that troubled region.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has urged Syria’s president to swiftly end his regime’s bloody crackdown and appealed to the divided UN Security Council to unite and help the country “pull back from the brink of a deeper catastrophe.”

Fourteen members of the United Nations Security Council pointed a collective finger at the United States for blocking condemnation of Israel’s stepped-up settlement programme in Palestinian territory.

A deeply divided United Nations Security Council failed to agree on a European and US-backed statement condemning Syrian violence against peaceful protesters.

EXHORTING world leaders to push past years of cynicism and pessimism, President Barack Obama challenged the countries of the United Nations yesterday to unite around peace efforts that he said could achieve agreement within a year to create an independent Palestine and a secure Israel.

US President Barack Obama is exhorting the world to unite around the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, challenging the United Nations to support an agreement that would create an independent Palestine and a secure Israel in a year's time.

CROWDS of Palestinian youths went on violent rampages in east Jerusalem yesterday, stoning buses, overturning cars and facing down Israeli riot police at the holy city’s most sensitive religious site following the shooting death of a local man.

Crowds of Palestinian youths went on the rampage in east Jerusalem today as a sudden burst of violence clouded fragile peace efforts.

EU foreign ministers urged Israel to lift the blockade on Gaza, now entering its fourth year, but put off concrete proposals until their next meeting next month.

ISRAEL has lifted its tight restrictions on Palestinian access to Jerusalem’s holiest shrine and called off an extended West Bank closure after days of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces.

The rift in US-Israel relations deepened today after American envoy George Mitchell cancelled a visit and Jerusalem insisted it would not back down over building plans at the heart of the row.

Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin will travel tomorrow evening to Cairo on a visit which will include meetings with his Egyptian counterpart Ahmed Aboul Gheit, it was announced this evening.

FORMER British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told the country’s Iraq Inquiry yesterday that he agonised over the decision to topple Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein with force, but feels officials made the best decision they could.