Middle Orient

Vowing to go on fighting the “Zionist enemy”, Hamas called Mahmoud Abbas the worst leader in Palestinian history on Monday and said he had no right to make concessions to Israel at the Annapolis peace conference.

Israeli army reservist Haim Gottfried and Palestinian security officer Samir al-Shakhshir are committed to fighting for their people’s security but both long for the day they can lay down their arms.

Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa, heading a high-ranking delegation arrived here in Tehran on Monday.

Iranian Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari said that his country’s oil revenues are projected to hit US$60 billion this year.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Sunday that Tehran hopes to resolve a decades-old dispute with neighboring Kuwait over their maritime border before the end of the year.

British troops are facing “operational” defeat in Afghanistan because of years of government underfunding, a former head of the armed forces warned last night.

* Afghan Interior Ministry claims a group was killed smuggling weapons from Pakistan. KABUL/KHOST: Nearly 80 Taliban rebels were killed in a series of air raids by international military forces near Afghanistan’s eastern border with Pakistan, a provincial government spokesman said on Sunday.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The White House concluded in a recent secret report that the war effort in Afghanistan has not met strategic goals set this year, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

The United States will host a peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland on Tuesday aimed at relaunching talks on Palestinian statehood after a 7-year break.Here is a timeline of events in Middle East peacemaking.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group said on Sunday a U.S.-hosted Middle East peace conference this week was only a “media show” in support of Israel.