Middle Orient

JENIN, West Bank – Israeli troops shot dead a leader of the Islamic Jihad militant group in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, Palestinian hospital officials and witnesses said.

TEHRAN (FNA) Tehran said US President George Bush could be prosecuted for his belligerent and unreal statements against Iran, adding that the US president would be impeached for his irrational wording by his own party upon return to Washington from a tour of the Middle-East.

TEHRAN (FNA) The results of the visit to the region by US President George Bush manifested themselves in no time, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said during a phone conversation with a Hamas official in the wake of a massacre of Palestinians by the Israeli regime in Gaza.

TEHRAN (FNA) A visiting Afghan official Tuesday night described Iran’s investments in his country as vital.

TEHRAN (FNA) Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Muhammad al-Sabah al-Salim al-Sabah said relations between Iran and the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) states have entered a new era following presence by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the recent PGCC summit in Doha, Qatar.

TEHRAN (FNA) It appears to be business as usual for a raft of energy companies defying US sanctions against Iran. In particular, companies in Europe, Iran’s main trading partner, are leading the way, with deals on the table involving national giants Total, Eni, and others.

TEHRAN (FNA) Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari here Tuesday said all new memoranda and contracts on gas export Iran had signed would take effect as of 2011.

TEHRAN (FNA) India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) and the Hinduja Group will meet again with Iranian firms on developing oil field and a gas field in Iran and downstream projects in India a Hinduja Group official said.

TEHRAN (FNA) The National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) Managing Director Mohammad Suri said the value of products the four gas reserves of South Pars, North Pars, Golashan, and Ferdows produced a year would amount to 101 billion dollars.

TEHRAN (FNA) Hezbollah’s leader said Tuesday that any US attack on Iran would be “the biggest folly” in American history.