Larry Kaplow

Saeb Erekat, a tenacious negotiator who helped forge some of the few political gains for Palestinians over more than two decades of on-again, off-again talks with Israel but who was ultimately frustrated by the two sides' failure to achieve a final peace settlement, died Tuesday from complications of COVID-19.

Erekat, 65, was being treated in Hadassah University Hospital Ein Kerem, in Jerusalem. His death was announced by his family on Facebook, his Palestinian political party Fatah, and confirmed to NPR by his spokesman, Xavier Abu Eid.

When Westerners think of Beirut, they might rely on dated notions of the city: a 15-year civil war that ended in 1990; a war with Israel and sporadic airstrikes; bombings of the U.S. Marine barracks and the U.S. Embassy; an attack 15 years ago on the prime minister's convoy.

Updated on March 2 at 10:21 a.m. ET

After two failed tries, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is hoping to win another term on Monday in the country's unprecedented third election in less than a year.

Iraq has been dealing with widespread protests for months, but these demonstrations have been directed at the country's weak, faltering government — and not the U.S.

The Trump administration is swinging for a "home run" in the proposal it's crafting for peace between Israelis and Palestinians, but it isn't going to offer "goodies" to get the Palestinians to start negotiations, a key White House adviser told Ari Shapiro on NPR's All Things Considered.

Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt is an assistant to President Trump and has traveled to the Mideast repeatedly over the past two years as part of the peace plan effort by Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

Updated at 8:10 p.m. ET

President Trump came into office criticizing the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and promised he would try to avoid foreign military engagements. Yet this month the White House has been talking as if conflict with Iran is suddenly on the table. Trump tweeted over the weekend, "If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran."

This week's election victory for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues a long winning streak for Israel's right wing. You have to go back 20 years for the last time the country elected a prime minister from the left.

The 69-year-old Netanyahu won even though he has already been in office for 10 years straight, on top of serving an earlier term in the 1990s. And he won despite expectations that his own attorney general will indict him for alleged bribery and fraud.

Israel will hold parliamentary elections Tuesday that are largely a referendum on the leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The country has seen a decade under Netanyahu. It's been a time of dramatic economic growth, sporadic conflict with neighbors and the formation of what is probably the most solidly right-wing coalition in Israel's history.

Updated at 6:22 a.m. ET Saturday

U.S.-backed forces fighting ISIS remnants announced the capture of the last of the group's remaining territory Saturday.

The Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led group supported by the U.S., declared a "total elimination of so-called caliphate" and a complete "territorial defeat" of ISIS.

"This is a victory for not just us but the whole world," local SDF commander Adnan Afrin told NPR.

Roughly two days remain until the full measure of U.S. sanctions snap back into place against Iran. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters Friday that, come 12 a.m. ET Monday, the economic penalties leveled on the Iranian regime will return to levels unseen since the U.S. negotiated the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal.

For the second time this month the United Nations has blamed the Saudi-led forces fighting in Yemen's civil war for an airstrike that killed children.

The U.S. marks the opening of its embassy to Israel in Jerusalem with a large ceremony Monday. In physical terms, it's just a move of the ambassador and some staff from Tel Aviv to a large consular building that already exists.

But it carries political significance that's reverberating around an already-tense Middle East: After decades of U.S. policy saying the status of the disputed city should be settled in peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians, the Trump administration is now saying the city is Israel's capital.

President Trump has called it the "one of the worst deals" he has ever seen — but for now, he is keeping the U.S. in the nuclear deal with Iran.

The president decided Friday to continue waiving — that is, easing — some economic sanctions against Iran. That is part of the U.S. commitment in the 2015 nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Under the deal, Iran allows strict limits on its nuclear program in return for easing of economic sanctions.

President Trump's Iran address creates uncertainty about the long-term survival of the two-year-old nuclear deal. It opens the door to Congress to find ways out of it, even as he threatened — yet again — to use his power as president to break the deal himself.

But for now, the deal stands — with the administration itself acknowledging it's better to have it than to break it.

In 2015, world powers agreed to give Iran relief from some economic sanctions in return for inspections and limits on its nuclear program. Since the nuclear deal — formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — took effect in January 2016, Iran has allowed inspections and is seeing some economic payoff.

The Syrian civil war could be on the verge of its worst bloodshed yet — the wholesale destruction of the eastern side of Aleppo, one of the country's most important cities.

This is the warning the United Nations envoy, Staffan de Mistura, sounded in desperation this past week about Aleppo. Since the collapse of a ceasefire last month, the Syrian government and its Russian allies have stepped up attacks on the eastern side of the city, which is held by rebels.

The Islamic State's claim of responsibility for a trio of major attacks, including the assault on Paris, has led to a rapid reassessment of the extremist group and its aspirations.

Until a couple of weeks ago, ISIS appeared focused on building its self-declared caliphate, or Islamic empire, in its core areas of Syria and Iraq. But it now says it was behind attacks in France, Egypt and Lebanon that killed nearly 400 people in a two-week span.

Basic questions — like the group's goals or whether it's getting stronger or weaker — are being examined anew.