TEHRAN (Fars News Agency) Iran’s first vice president and Libya’s prime minister Wednesday night attended in Tripoli the signing ceremony of 10 agreements in the fields of investment, marine wealth, customs, trade marine navigation, culture, higher education and tourism.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency) Former Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani on Wednesday called for setting up an Iran-Arab dialogue mechanism to improve relations and dissipate any misunderstanding between the two sides which share many denominators.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency) The Nabucco gas pipeline may transport gas from Iran from 2017, said Nabucco Gas Pipeline GmbH consortium head Reinhard Mitschek in an interview with Handelsblatt.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency) Strong bilateral ties were hailed as Bahraini leaders yesterday received visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency) Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki insisted on Wednesday that a 32-year-old territorial accord with Iraq remained in force.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency) Bahrain and Iran have targeted an annual trade exchange volume of $1 billion by next year.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency) Iran and Malaysia have signed an agreement worth USD16 billion to develop two Iranian gas fields.

Serbia said on Wednesday it would shun any offer of membership of the European Union or NATO if they recognized the breakaway province of Kosovo as an independent state.

Veteran liberal politician Boris Nemtsov withdrew from Russia’s presidential race on Wednesday, saying the opposition needed to put forward a single candidate in the March election to withstand the Kremlin’s “foul play”.

Hamas will not release a captured Israeli soldier unless Israel meets its demand to free nearly 1,400 Palestinian prisoners, including 350 with life sentences, a leader of the Islamist group in Gaza said on Wednesday.