Mud roads crisscross green hills between palm groves. Snowcapped mountains rise in the distance across the Iranian border. Donkeys stroll along footpaths, carrying the region’s harvest – land mines.

Syria is relatively hopeful an international meeting aimed at stabilising Iraq will succeed, but much depends on the attitude of the US, Vice-President Farouq al-Shara was quoted yesterday as saying.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, in hospital in Jordan suffering from exhaustion and dehydration, will be discharged in two or three days, Baghdad’s ambassador in Amman said yesterday.

BAGHDAD: Iraqi forces yesterday launched a mission to kill or capture the Al Qaeda insurgents who kidnapped 14 policemen, slit their throats and then boasted about it on the Internet.

Japan yesterday urged Iran to drop its uranium enrichment programme, warning it faced international isolation if it failed to do so. Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso told an Iranian envoy here Tehran must

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Mohammad Ali Hosseini said that the US officials in recent months have repeatedly called for talks with Iran about Iraqi issues, specially about security of that country.

If issues raised at Pakistan conference are those mentioned by Mr. Pervez Musharraf, then all of us and regional nations have many questions about the meeting, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told reporters before leaving Tehran for Riyadh on Saturday.

Heads of several Persian Gulf littoral states are scheduled to arrive here in Tehran in the near future to confer with senior Iranian officials about issues of the region, world of Islam and the international community.

An earthquake measuring 3.2 on the Richter scale jolted Shar-e Rey in the vicinity of Iran’s capital city of Tehran on Friday.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II said Friday that Israel must choose between the mentality of “Israel the fortress” or “peace and security with its neighbors.”