TEHRAN  – More than 70,000 ethnic Oromo’s have been displaced from Ethiopia’s Somali regional state after a week of clashes with ethinic Somalis that left scores dead. A smaller number of ethnic Somalis numbering around 300 have also been displaced from Oromia regional state, Xinhua news agency reported. Speaking exclusively to Xinhua on Tuesday, Negeri […]

TEHRAN – The US will deploy more than 3,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, Defense Secretary James Mattis said. Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon on Monday that most of the new forces are already on their way to Afghanistan or have orders to deploy. “Frankly I haven’t signed the last of the orders right now. […]

TEHRAN  – Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi condemned all human rights violations on Tuesday and said anyone responsible for abuses in troubled Rakhine State would face the law, and she felt deeply for the suffering of everyone caught up in conflict there. In her first address to the nation since attacks by Rohingya Muslim […]

TEHRAN – A court in the Azerbaijan Republic sentenced Elchin Ismayilli, a prominent opposition journalist, to nine years in prison for extortion, in a case that his supporters say is totally fabricated. The court on Monday found Ismayilli guilty of trying to coerce money from a top Culture Ministry official. Ismayilli’s lawyer, Elchin Sadygov, dismissed […]

TEHRAN  – The IAEA’s 61st General Conference Monday approved by acclamation the appointment of Director General Yukiya Amano to a further four-year term of office, which will commence on December 1, 2017. After the General Conference approved the appointment, Conference President Maria Zeneida Angara Collinson, Ambassador of the Philippines, invited Mr. Amano to take the […]

NEW YORK – Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson discussed cooperation on the crisis in Syria and the implementation of agreements to bring peace to Ukraine in a meeting held in New York on Sunday, Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. Zakharova told reporters in a statement following the meeting that the meeting was on […]

TEHRAN  – Iraq’s President Fuad Masum and Leader of the Arab country’s National Alliance Ammar al-Hakim discussed the issue of the semi-autonomus Kurdistan Region’s independence referendum. According to a statement released by the Iraqi government, the two officials on Monday explored ways for reaching an understanding that could enhance Iraq’s unity and stability, the Baghdad […]

With a crackdown on dissenters and a charm offensive to woo the kingdom’s swelling youth population, Saudi Arabia’s king-in-waiting Mohammed bin Salman is cementing his grip on power, analysts say. The 32-year-old crown prince, often known as MBS, is set to be the first millennial to occupy the throne in a country where half the […]

TEHRAN  – A rights group has called for targeted sanctions and an arms embargo against the Myanmar military in response to an offensive that has sent 410,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing to Bangladesh to escape what the United Nations has branded ethnic cleansing. The latest spasm of violence in western Myanmar’s Rakhine State began on Aug. […]

TEHRAN  – The Trump administration is considering closing down the recently reopened US Embassy in Havana following a string of unexplained incidents harming the health of American diplomats in Cuba, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Sunday. Tillerson’s comments were the strongest indication to date that the United States might mount a major diplomatic response, […]