Lawyers

• Iran says U.S. has plan to divide Iraq, pleads with Iraqis to resist

  Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday accused the United States of trying to divide Iraq along sectarian and ethnic lines and urged Iraqis to withstand any such plans.

• Iraq using info from new intelligence center to bomb Islamic State: official

  Iraq has begun bombing Islamic State insurgents with help from a new intelligence center with staff from Russia, Iran and Syria, a senior parliamentary figure said on Tuesday about cooperation seen as a threat to U.S. interests in the region.

• Qatar says Putin's Syria plan ignores root cause of crisis

  Qatar's foreign minister said on Monday there was general international agreement with Russia on its call to fight Islamic State, but cautioned that it failed to tackle the root cause of the crisis in Syria, which was President Bashar al-Assad.

• Iran leader demands Saudi Arabia apologise for haj deaths

  Iran's supreme leader has said Saudi Arabia should apologise for a crush outside the Muslim holy city of Mecca that killed 769 worshippers performing the annual haj pilgrimage, Khamenei's website said on Sunday.

• Houthi rockets kill 14 civilians in Yemen's Taiz: residents

  Rockets fired by Houthi militiamen killed 14 civilians, most of them children, as fighting intensified for control of Yemen's third largest city, Taiz, residents said on Monday.

• Diplomats and U.N. staff flee Yemen as Houthis target Aden

  Saudi Arabia's navy evacuated dozens of diplomats from Yemen on Saturday and the United Nations pulled out international staff after a third night of Saudi-led air strikes trying to stem advances by Iranian-allied Houthi fighters.

• U.N. council demands Houthis withdraw, end Yemen violence

  The United Nations Security Council on Sunday demanded Iranian-backed Houthi militia in Yemen withdraw from government institutions, called for an end to foreign interference and threatened "further steps" if the violence does not stop.

• Thousands protest against Houthi rule in Yemen after embassies close

  Yemenis in the capital Sanaa and the central city of Taiz held the largest protests yet against a takeover by a Shi'ite Muslim militia group on Wednesday after the United States, Britain and France shut their embassies over security fears.

• Yemen crisis is first big test for Saudi Arabia's King Salman

  The turmoil hitting Saudi Arabia's neighbor Yemen will pose the first big test for King Salman, and provide a glimpse as to whether his approach to hotspots in a fragmenting region will differ from that of his late brother.