Middle Orient

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s special envoy and Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Secretary, Saeed Jalili, arrived in Ankara yesterday to hold official talks. Jalili attended a meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and was later received by President Abdullah Gul. According to media reports, Jalili …

GAZA (Reuters) – Israeli troops backed by air strikes fought to seize ground from Hamas militants deep inside the Gaza Strip on Monday despite international calls for a ceasefire in a conflict that has killed more than 540 Palestinians in 10 days. More than 30 civilians, including children, were killed …

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – French President Nicolas Sarkozy began a peace-brokering tour of the Middle East by calling on Monday for a ceasefire between Israel’s army and Hamas Islamists, locked in combat in the Gaza Strip. In the first half of his two-day visit to the region, Sarkozy said Israel had …

LONDON (Reuters) – Iraq earned about $60 billion from average crude oil sales of 1.85 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2008, a top Iraqi oil official said on Monday. Shipments rose by about 200,000 bpd on the previous year and revenues were up about $20 billion, according to data …

DAMASCUS (Reuters) – Hamas is open to international initiatives for a truce in Gaza but insists any proposal must guarantee Israeli withdrawal and an end to the blockade on the besieged territory, an exiled Hamas leader said on Monday. Moussa Abu Marzouk vowed that the Palestinian Islamic group would keep …

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian police detained dozens of people including prominent members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood movement on Monday to prevent them demonstrating against Israel’s ground attack in the Gaza Strip. Riot police reached Tahrir Square in central Cairo early in the day to thwart the Brotherhood’s plans for …

GAZA (Reuters) – The three little children lying on the floor of the overcrowded morgue looked like sleeping dolls. “Get up, boy, get up” cried the weeping father, who lost a total of 13 close relatives when an Israeli shell hit his house east of Gaza City. “Please get up. …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Gaza will become Israel’s graveyard, Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said after the Zionist regime launched a ground offensive deep into the coastal Palestinian territory following eight days of deadly air and sea bombardments. “The Zionists faced the powerful resistance of the zealous Palestinians … the Zionists should …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) called on world Muslims to defend Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. In a statement released on Sunday, IRGC invited world Muslims to “defend the oppressed Palestinians in Gaza Strip” and urged “Muslims of the world should stay united against world arrogance, the …

GAZA (Reuters) – Israeli tanks, planes and ground forces pounded Gaza on Monday and the defense minister said the offensive against Hamas militants in the Palestinian enclave would go on until Israel was safe. International efforts to secure a ceasefire moved ahead with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Middle East …