Middle Orient

TEHRAN (FNA) – Iran’s budget for the next fiscal year shows a 20.8 percent increase compared to the current year’s, an Iranian lawmaker said.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Iran’s defense minister said the high quality of domestically-made defense equipment has rendered sanctions against the country ineffective.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Petroleum Ministers of India and Pakistan held discussions in London on a multi-billion-dollar gas pipeline project involving the two countries and Iran, with both sides expressing their keenness to put it on stream.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Iran on Sunday offered to help Egypt deal with growing chaos on its breached border with Gaza, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Iran began pumping natural gas to Turkey on Sunday after cutting supplies for three weeks.

GAZA – Hamas said on Sunday it received assurances from Egypt that Cairo has not reached an agreement with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s government that would exclude the Islamist group from running Gaza’s border.

DUBAI – An al Qaeda-linked group in Iraq issued an Internet video on Sunday showing what it said were two police officers repenting their past actions and handing over their weapons to insurgents.

BAGHDAD – Iraqi tanks and helicopters are being sent to the northern city of Mosul and troop reinforcements should arrive later on Sunday for a big offensive against al Qaeda militants, Iraqi security officials said.

RAMALLAH, West Bank – Egypt has agreed to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s plan to assume control of Gaza’s sole crossing with Egypt, excluding Hamas Islamists who rule the territory, Palestinian officials said on Sunday.

GAZA – The Gaza Strip’s Hamas rulers on Sunday rejected returning control of the territory’s sole border crossing with Egypt to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s government and said it was holding its own talks with Cairo.