Iran

Afghanistan celebrated its independence from British rule yesterday with a military parade and a colorful display of the country’s national dresses, RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan reported.

Commander of the Islamic Republic’s air force General Ahmad Mighani here Sunday said that his country would soon test a domestically-manufactured training jet called “Ya Hossein”.

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei stressed that British, US and Zionist intelligence services are making maximum efforts to thwart unity among Muslims.

A senior military official said that the bandits who abducted 21 citizens on Chabahar-Iranshahr road in Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan and Balouchestan this morning are members of Abdul-Malik Rigi’s group.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to pay a visit to Tehran this fall to attend a summit of the Caspian Sea littoral states.

An Iranian military official said that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is vigilantly watchful of each and every move made by enemies in the Persian Gulf.

Armed bandits kidnapped 21 passengers, including an education ministry official, on Chabahar-Iranshahr road in Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan and Balouchestan on Sunday, an informed source said.

Resistance is the legal right of the Palestinian people, Iran’s Expediency Council Chairman Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said.

World and Olympic weightlifting gold medalist Hossein Reza-zadeh escaped unhurt from a car accident on the way to the weightlifting camp in northern Iran on Saturday.

Iranian and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) experts will a start a third round of talks in Tehran on Monday to resolve the remaining issues between the two sides.