Middle Orient

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called on Tuesday for a U.S.-backed campaign to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions to continue despite a U.S. intelligence report that said Tehran had frozen its weapons program.

LAHORE (Reuters) – Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto is betraying Pakistan by not joining an election boycott that cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan said on Saturday was key to ousting President Pervez Musharraf.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Envoys of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf dismissed criticism of his political crackdown and appealed on Monday to the United States to back their country as an ally against Islamic extremism.

GAZA (Reuters) – An Israeli air strike killed three Hamas militants and wounded another in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, Palestinian medical workers and Hamas said.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq’s Interior Ministry will have the power to arrest foreign guards involved in shooting incidents if parliament approves a bill ending foreign security firms’ immunity from prosecution, the minister said on Monday.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – The Iraqi government announced on Monday it would put 12,000 neighborhood guards on its payroll, a move welcomed by U.S. forces promoting a program of raising mainly Sunni Arab “concerned local citizen” militia.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- A senior Iranian army official said cooperation among regional countries would secure peace and stability in the region, and described deployment of alien troops in the Middle-East as an insult to regional states.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- PTT will soon seek negotiations over contract details to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Iran’s Pars project after the operator reached a construction agreement.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is currently in Doha, Qatar to attend a summit of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council, proposed that the next PGCC summit be held in Tehran.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iran’s former nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said military operations against Iran would not deter the country’s nuclear progress.