Middle Orient

Three American soldiers were killed in a suicide attack on Sunday during combat operations in the Iraqi city of Baqouba, north of Baghdad, the US military said.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas dispatched top aides to Washington on Sunday to try to narrow differences with Israel and ensure wide Arab participation in a US-led peace conference.

Key Arab governments will announce Friday if they will attend a US-backed Mideast peace conference aimed at relaunching the stalled Palestinian-Israeli peace talks, said an Arab League official Sunday.

After six years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, American soldiers are deserting their posts at the highest rate since 1980. The number of US army deserters this year shows an 80 per cent increase since the United States invaded Iraq in 2003.

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation Board of Governors is due to discuss a recent report by the IAEA Director General, Mohamed ElBaradei on Iran’s nuclear activities later this week, a spokesman of the UN nuclear watchdog agency said.

Iran’s Ambassador to Cambodia Seyed Javad Ghavam Shahidi voiced Tehran’s preparedness to assist Phnom Penh in developing and renovating the country, in oil, gas and petrochemical sectors in particular.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki will visit Doha later this week to discuss the nuclear issue with Qatari authorities, Iranian Ambassador Mohamed Taher Rabbani said on Sunday.

Proposed by foreign minister and approved by the president, Mohammad Reza Bakhtyari was appointed as Iran’s ambassador to South Korea.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki in an article published in the Thai paper ‘The Nation’ presented his country’s views about world peace and security, and further elaborated on Iran’s nuclear policies.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrived on a lightning visit to Iran on Monday, the latest evidence of the burgeoning ties between the two states.