Middle Orient

JERUSALEM, Sept 5, (Agencies): Ninety thousand Muslims attended the first prayers of Ramadan at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City on Friday amid tight security, police said. The Israeli authorities deployed thousands of police but reported no incidents in the Holy City.

GAZA, Egypt and the Arab League (AL) will not allow Palestinian political crisis to go on beyond October, Palestinian sources said on Saturday.

AVIGNON, France: France is looking at the possibility of sending a European Union (EU) mission to help security in the Palestinian territories, diplomats said yesterday before a meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers.

DAMASCUS, Syria – A Hamas official has confirmed that the Damascus-based leader of the militant Palestinian group has promised to deliver to captured Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit a letter from his father.

Iraq is to ask US officials for an explanation after a new book suggested the United States had been spying on senior members of the Iraqi government.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Emir of Qatar Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani said in Damascus quadripartite meeting that the problem between the United Arab Emirates and Iran on three Persian Gulf Islands should be solved peacefully.

Syria has sent a list of proposals to Israel aimed at laying the groundwork for direct peace talks between the two foes, President Bashar al-Assad says.

A UN peacekeeper in Lebanon has been killed in an explosion while clearing munitions left over from the 2006 conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was quoted as saying on Friday that he doubted a full peace deal with Israel could be reached this year and urged the next U.S. administration to continue negotiations.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Nigeria is keeping its options open on output quotas when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meets next week in the wake of falling oil prices, the country’s oil minister said on Thursday.