BAGHDAD (AFP) — Thousands of Shiites converged on Baghdad ahead of a major demonstration planned for Friday as British and US officials warned that Iraq’s bitter sectarian conflict could push the country into civil war. Shiite protesters were summoned to the capital by radical cleric Moqtada Sadr in order to …

TEHRAN (AFP) — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday the answer to the conflict in south Lebanon was the “elimination of the Zionist regime”, slamming Israel’s “war against humanity”. “The real cure for the conflict is elimination of the Zionist regime, but there should be first an immediate ceasefire,” the …

LONDON — The biggest obstacle to creating an international peacekeeping force in Lebanon is determining who will lead it, while questions remain over troops and transport, defence analysts said on Thursday. The two most likely and experienced candidates to lead the peacekeepers would be the European Union or France, with …