Middle Orient

TEHRAN (FNA) – Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht said Iran plays a “quite constructive and significant” role in the Middle East region.

TEHRAN (FNA) – A Turkish official has refused a US request to scrutinize and then suspend the activities of the Turkey-based Iran’s Bank Mellat.

TEHRAN (FNA) – A top Iraqi diplomat said Wednesday his country’s relations with Iran were improving and downplayed the role of the US presidential election campaign on the timing and manner of the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Iranian Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari said on Thursday that oil markets were well supplied and he saw no need for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to boost production at its meeting on Friday.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Iran’s top legislative official who met Wednesday with Egypt’s president said the two countries could soon restore diplomatic relations severed nearly three decades ago.

TEHRAN (FNA) – A one month delay to consider a new UN Security Council draft resolution against Iran’s nuclear program would not be a disaster, a South African official said on Thursday.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr arrived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Thursday to attend the 10th summit of the African Union.

BAGHDAD – Iraq said on Wednesday it was determined to “cleanse” its northern city of Mosul of al Qaeda fighters but its U.S. backers said a planned operation might not deal the decisive blow that Baghdad wanted.

CAIRO – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday rejected demands by Hamas for control of the Gaza border and told the Islamist group to “end its coup in Gaza”.

A cameraman working for an Iraqi Shi’ite satellite television channel and his driver were killed by a roadside bomb attack north of Baghdad on Tuesday, an official from the channel said.