Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has visited Syria for talks with President Bashar al-Assad about military cooperation as well as counterterrorism.

The United States has abandoned a subsea pipeline designed to supply Europe with natural gas from the eastern Mediterranean, as tensions continue to grow between Greece and Turkey over gas reserves in the region.

Over 4,000 migrants died or disappeared trying to reach Spain by sea in 2021, twice as many as in the previous year, a migrant rights group says.

Iran’s first fuel tanker that set sail two weeks ago is en route to Lebanon.

Egypt has opened a strategic naval base on the Mediterranean Sea close to the border with Libya.

The UN has called on Libya and the EU to urgently reform their rescue operations in the Mediterranean Sea, saying the current practices fail to protect migrants’ lives and safety.

The US and Greece will likely update a bilateral security pact this summer in a bid to facilitate expanded American military operations in eastern Mediterranean amid strained ties with Turkey, Greek defense chief says.