TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iran’s Expediency Council Chairman Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani met with visiting Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Mualem here on Tuesday.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari praised Iran and Syria’s initiative for organizing a foreign ministerial meeting of Iraq’s neighboring states in Baghdad.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and his Syrian counterpart Walid Mualem discussed bilateral ties and exchanged views about regional issues in a meeting here on Monday.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Russia fulfilled a contract to sell air defense missiles to Iran, the head of the country’s state-run weapons exporter said on Tuesday.

BEIRUT (AP) — Opposition protesters burned tyres and cars in the streets and clashed with government supporters, paralysing Beirut and areas across Lebanon on Tuesday in the worst violence yet in the pro-Iranian Hizbollah’s campaign to topple US-backed Prime Minister Fuad Siniora.

AMMAN — Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday said he held talks with King Abdullah on the “urgency for a new strong initiative to effectively” address Mideast crises.

RAMALLAH — Fateh and Hamas met again in Gaza last night to discuss forming a unity government while a number of incidents across the occupied Palestinian territory provided ample evidence of the state of lawlessness Palestinians are struggling with.

US President George W. Bush prepared to urge opponents in Congress on Tuesday to back sending thousands more troops to Iraq, as the UN envoy in the country said it was “sliding into the abyss of sectarianism”. A day after bombers killed 88 people in Baghdad’s bloodiest attack this year, …

MOGADISHU (AP) — Ethiopian troops who helped Somalia’s government drive out Islamist fighters began withdrawing from this Horn of Africa nation on Tuesday in military trucks and tanks.

DUBAI (AFP) — Osama Ben Laden’s right-hand man Ayman Zawahiri on Tuesday mocked US President George W. Bush’s plan to send extra troops to Iraq, saying he should send his entire army to be annihilated.