A spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry took to Twitter Tuesday to call out President Trump’s latest decision to impose additional sanctions, insisting that the move permanently ends any chance of diplomacy between countries. “Trump’s desperate administration is destroying the established international mechanisms for maintaining world peace and security,” the tweet from Abbas Mousavi reads.

The leader of Georgia's ruling party says the ex-Soviet nation will hold the next parliamentary election based entirely on a proportionate system, fulfilling a key demand of anti-government protesters, news wires reported. Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder of the Georgian Dream party, on Monday announced a "large-scale political reform". There will also be no threshold for parties to enter parliament, he said.

UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said on Monday that 55,000 captured Islamic State fighters, including foreigners, and their families detained in Syria and Iraq should face fair prosecution or be freed. States “must assume responsibility for their nationals” and should not inflict statelessness on fighters’ children who have already suffered so much, Bachelet also told the UN Human Rights Council as it opened a three-week session in Geneva.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suffered the biggest defeat of his political career on Sunday as his candidate for Istanbul mayor conceded defeat in a repeat election, with voters in Turkey's largest city rallying their support behind opposition Nation Alliance candidate Republican People's Party's (CHP) Ekrem Imamoglu instead.

Saudi Arabia launched on Sunday their new special residency scheme similar to green card systems applicable in other countries, aimed at attracting wealthy and high-skilled expats. Under the scheme two types of residencies would be offer. The first one would be permanent for 800,000 Saudi riyals ( around $213,000). The other one would be renewable one-year residency for 100,000 Saudi riyals ($26,665).

The White House presented on Saturday a $50bn Middle East economic plan that would create a global investment fund to lift the Palestinian and neighboring Arab state economies, and fund a $5bn transportation corridor to connect the West Bank and Gaza. The “peace to prosperity” plan, set to be fully unveiled by White House senior adviser Jared Kushner at an international conference in Bahrain next week, includes in particular 179 infrastructure and business projects, Reuters reports.

President Vladimir Putin has temporarily banned Georgian airlines from flying to Russia after anti-Russian protests flared in the former Soviet republic, rising tensions between the two countries. They were ignited on Thursday by the appearance of a Russian MP in the Georgia's parliament. According to the Friday decree, the flight ban will go in effect from 8 July and it would be accompanied by a repatriation of Russian citizens temporarily living in Georgia.

Millions of Istanbul residents are returning to the polls today to vote in a re-run of a mayoral election that has become a crucial referendum on President Tayyip Erdogan’s policies and a test of Turkey’s ailing democracy. Polling stations across the city opened at 8:00 a.m. local time with 10.56 million people registered to vote in a city which makes up nearly a fifth of Turkey’s 82 million population.

The US Commerce Department has banned five more Chinese entities from buying US components just a week ahead of a high-stakes meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the G-20 summit this month, where lingering trade differences are to be discussed.

Hong Kong protesters occupied the streets around government offices and police headquarters on Friday to show officials they were not backing down despite a series of concessions by Beijing-backed officials. Their outrage over a proposed extradition bill has now extended to the police's heavy-handed response to street demonstrations that has seen dozens of people injured due to tear gas and projectiles.