Middle Orient

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – More than a quarter of the 14,431 candidates registered for Iraq’s provincial council elections are women, but college student Fatma Imad sees few women’s faces on the posters plastered across her neighborhood. “Even if I want to choose a woman, where are these women? I don’t see …

VIENNA (Reuters) – The U.N.’s nuclear watchdog said Tuesday it would look into a claim by Vienna-based Arab ambassadors that Israel may have used ammunition containing depleted uranium in Gaza attacks. The International Atomic Energy Agency said the request was made in a letter addressed to Director General Mohammed ElBaradei …

GAZA (Reuters) – U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, voicing shock and anger at the “heartbreaking” devastation, visited the Gaza Strip on Tuesday to pledge aid for Palestinians after Israeli attacks killed 1,300 and made thousands homeless. Israel had withdrawn most of its force before U.S. President Barack Obama was inaugurated — …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Vice President Parviz Davoudi said in a meeting with Turkey’s Ambassador to Tehran Salim Kara Osmanoglu here on Tuesday that regional equations will change following the recent developments in Gaza. Noting that presentation of road maps and international solutions for managing affairs of different countries and the …

TEHRAN (FNA)- The issue of Palestine and Gaza is a proper test for Obama, Iranian Supreme Leader’s representative at the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Hassan Rouhani said here on Tuesday. “We should see what Obama does when declaring his policies and taking action. I think there is a test …

TEHRAN (FNA)- EU is ready to monitor implementation of ceasefire in Gaza, EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana said in a meeting with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mehdi Safari. At the meeting held in Brussels on Monday, the two diplomats discussed Gaza, Afghanistan, Caucasia and the Central Asia and other …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in separate letters to independent heads of state, praised them for boycotting Israel and supporting the oppressed people in Gaza. The Iranian president called cut of commercial and political ties with Israel a “revolutionary and valuable stance”. Ahmadinejad in his letters expressed his confidence …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Saudi Health Minister Hamad Al-Manea, in a meeting with Iran’s Ambassador to Riyadh Seyed Mohammad Hosseini, described Iran as a permanent supporter of oppressed nations. “Iran always assists the oppressed nations around the globe,” the minister said on Monday. “Iran as a powerful nation within the Islamic world …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iraqi National Security Adviser Muwafaq Al-Rubaie here in Tehran on Monday underlined his country’s decisiveness to implement an earlier decision for closing the headquarters of the anti-Iran terrorist group, the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), in Diyala province. “Iraq has made a decision for Ashraf camp and will implement …

GAZA (Reuters) – Hamas said on Sunday it would cease fire immediately along with its Islamist allies in the Gaza Strip and give Israel, which already declared a unilateral truce, a week to pull its troops out of the territory. A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in …