Middle Orient

An earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale jolted the town of Ghaleh Tal in Iran’s southwestern province of Khuzestan on Tuesday.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel met with his Syrian counterpart on the sidelines of the second General Assembly meeting of the Asian Parliaments Assembly (APA) here in Tehran on Tuesday.

An earthquake measuring 4.9 on the Richter scale jolted the town of Aradan in Iran’s northern province of Semnan Monday night.

National Iranian Central Oil Company (NICOC) Managing Director Alireza Zeighami yesterday announced that the development of 18 new oil and gas fields would be put out to international tender in the first phase.

Iran said on Tuesday it has agreed to a new round of talks with United States on improving security in Iraq.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on a visit to Tehran on Monday that the “empire of the dollar is crashing,” one day after his country and anti-US ally

United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) Force commander Major General Claudio Graziano said on Monday that Southerners and peacekeepers

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner warned Lebanon’s deadlocked political factions that they must either agree on a consensus president before

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert sought wide Arab support on Monday for a U.S.-led peace conference by agreeing to release 441 Palestinian prisoners and reaffirming a pledge not to build new Jewish settlements.

France’s foreign minister blamed unnamed parties on Monday for blocking a deal between feuding Lebanese leaders to agree on a compromise candidate for president, two days before a key parliamentary vote.