Middle Orient

Ivory Coast’s foreign minister is scheduled to arrive here in Tehran Sunday night to attend the first meeting of the two countries’ joint economic commission.

 Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa is due to pay a visit to Iran on Monday.

55.5% of Iranians believe that the present parliament with a conservative majority has been more successful in solving people’s problems than the reformist parliament acting at the time of former President Khatami, results of a recent opinion poll suggested.

Iran does not support any special candidate in Lebanon and it stresses the need for a comprehensive agreement and consensus among Lebanese groups, tribes and figures, foreign ministry spokesman said.

Iran believes there is enough oil in the global market but is capable of pumping more into it if the figures warrant and if there is agreement by OPEC to do so, Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari said.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Taliban militants beheaded seven policemen Friday after overrunning their checkpoints in southern Afghanistan, officials said, while in a separate clash, an Australian soldier and three civilians were killed.

Lebanon’s outgoing President Emile Lahoud asked the army to take control of the country’s security on Friday, after rival leaders failed to agree on his successor, creating a vacuum in the presidency from midnight.

Lebanon’s parliament failed on Friday to grasp its last chance to elect a head of state before pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud leaves office at midnight, creating a vacuum that many fear could lead to violence.

Fear of violence looms over Lebanon after parliament failed to elect a new head of state on Friday, but analysts say blood will not flow just yet since rival political groups have too much to lose.

The portrait of Hussein Saleh al-Me’ari holding a slim iron key and the legend “We will return” hangs on a wall with peeling paint in a tiny room at the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon.