Iran and Pakistan on Monday started a new round of talks over finalizing a multi-billion dollar gas pipeline project with Pakistan, but in the absence of Indian officials.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Iran would not launch an attack on Israel or any other country, and he does not believe the US is preparing for war against Iran.

Iranian nuclear officials and a visiting team from the UN nuclear watchdog held talks to clarify outstanding questions about Iran’s atomic work.

Iran closed major border crossings with northeastern Iraq on Monday to protest the US detention of an Iranian trade official, a Kurdish official said.

Iranians are a peaceful nation, but they may not give up even an iota of their national interests, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in New York on Sunday.

The Germany-Iran parliamentary friendship group is due to pay a visit to Tehran in the near future, Berlin’s ambassador to Tehran said.

Iran is today viewed as a powerful and influential country on the international scene, Iran’s ambassador to Thailand said.

KABUL (Reuters) – Two Italian military intelligence officers kidnapped in Afghanistan were freed on Monday during a raid by NATO-led troops in which nine kidnappers and an Afghan hostage were killed, Italy’s defense minister said.The officers were wounded during the raid to free them in southwestern Farah province and were …

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday that key Arab nations, including Syria, would be invited to President Bush’s planned Mideast peace conference this fall and expressed hope they would attend. Formal invitations haven’t been issued yet but Rice said it “would be natural” for Syria, Saudi Arabia and 10 …

Anti-Syrian lawmakers rattled by last week’s assassination of one of their colleagues took refuge in a heavily guarded hotel Monday, a day before the deeply divided parliament convenes to elect a president.