Middle Orient

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan flies to Brussels on Sunday for a visit aimed at boosting the Muslim country’s troubled bid for European Union accession. Erdogan’s trip, his first to Brussels in four years, comes as Ankara faces EU pressure to speed up reforms in a decisive …

GAZA (Reuters) – Israeli forces and Palestinian militants exchanged fire in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, hours after Israel declared a unilateral ceasefire, the Israeli military and Hamas sources said. “Gunmen fired at our forces in the northern Gaza Strip,” an Israeli military spokesman said. “They returned fire from the …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian First Lady Azam al-Sadat Farahi, in a letter to her Egyptian counterpart, asked for her help to facilitate aid delivery to Palestinians. “Witnessing the dead bodies of women and children is painful and even worse is that some governments in Arab and Islamic countries do not support …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki Sunday called for a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip, stressing that just ceasing fire by the Israeli military is not enough. “A mere halt of aerial, naval and ground attacks without a pull-out of the forces from the occupied …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Captain of Iranian cargo ship, carrying Iran’s aid to Gaza, stressed that his vessel will wait in international waters until its mission is accomplished. “We will be waiting until we accomplish the mission. Our objective is to deliver the cargo to the Gazans,” Goudarz Qaleh-Golab said. “We started …

TEHRAN (FNA)- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in a statement issued on Saturday in Beirut, expressed satisfaction over the decision to cease hostilities in the occupied lands. According to a press release issued by the UN Information Center (UNIC) in Tehran, the full text of the UN chief’s statement is as …

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – A warehouse in a U.N. compound in Gaza that came under Israeli fire on Thursday was apparently hit by white-phosphorus shells, U.N. humanitarian affairs chief John Holmes said. It was the first public allegation by a senior U.N. official echoing an accusation by Human Rights Watch …

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – An Egyptian proposal to end the war in Gaza centers on a phased-in ceasefire, starting with a lull to let in aid, followed by the pullout of Israeli forces and the reopening of border crossings, diplomats said. But Western and U.N. diplomats close to the negotiations said …

RIYADH (Reuters) – Gulf Arab leaders gathered in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Thursday for an emergency meeting on Israel’s offensive in Gaza that could help scupper an Arab summit proposed by regional maverick Qatar. King Abdullah called the meeting, pre-empting a bid by Qatar to stage an Arab summit …

DUBAI (Reuters) – Support has slipped for a special Arab summit on the Israeli offensive in Gaza proposed to be held in Qatar on Friday, with several countries dropping out after a tug-of-war highlighting Arab divisions. Qatar’s emir insists his invitation still stands, but Arab League official Hesham Youssef said …