Middle Orient

TEHRAN (FNA)- He was not aware of the intricacies involved in the gas pipeline Iranian officials were in India to talk about. But, for 64-year-old Fathollah Abbasi, an artist, a pipeline that would open up exchange of art and culture was something necessary.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States plans to speed up assistance to Lebanon’s army but has no plans as yet to increase current military aid to deal with the latest crisis, the U.S. State Department said on Wednesday.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon’s cabinet is likely to cancel measures on Wednesday that angered the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement and triggered the worst internal conflict since the country’s civil war, political sources said.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki flew to the northern city of Mosul on Wednesday to oversee a big offensive against al Qaeda in what the U.S. military says is the group’s last major urban stronghold in Iraq.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Hezbollah’s humbling of Lebanon’s U.S.-backed government has dealt a further blow to American credibility in the region less than a year after Hamas Islamists seized Gaza from Palestinian leaders supported by Washington.

GAZA (Reuters) – The Israeli military killed two Hamas militants and two Palestinian civilians on Wednesday in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, medical workers said.

CAIRO (Reuters) – Palestinian militant groups will meet in Egypt next week to consider Israel’s response to a Hamas ceasefire offer in the Gaza Strip, Egyptian and Palestinian officials said on Wednesday.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Clashes between security forces and Shi’ite gunmen killed six people and wounded 28 in Baghdad overnight, Iraqi police said on Wednesday.

TEHRAN (FNA)- The US propaganda campaign against Iran’s role in Iraq is to prepare the grounds for a war on the country, a recent poll suggests.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Afghanistan’s envoy to Tehran thanked Iran for the interest it has shown in helping restore peace and security to his country.