KUALA LUMPUR: Lawmakers representing more than 40 Muslim countries will gather next week to discuss how to help resolve the conflicts in Iraq and Palestinian territories, the meeting’s host Malaysia said Friday.

After nearly four years of fruitless negotiations between the EU-3 (France, Germany, and the United Kingdom) and Iran over the nuclear issue, the U.N. Security Council on December 23 passed Resolution 1737.

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The new top U.S. commander in Iraq said Saturday that the stakes are high but the situation is “not hopeless” as American and Iraqi forces move to end the sectarian violence threatening to tear apart the country.