Paris, France | AFP | The world reacted with alarm on Friday after top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani was killed in a US strike in Iraq, with leaders appealing for restraint. The attack was praised by US President Donald Trump’s Republicans but elsewhere there were sharp warnings it could inflame regional …
Read More »Netanyahu hurries home after Hezbollah calls for revenge
Jerusalem, Undefined | AFP | Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cut short a visit to Greece and flew home Friday as Lebanon’s Hezbollah demanded revenge for the killing of a top Iranian commander in a US strike. A source in Netanyahu’s office said that the premier was returning from …
Read More »France says world ‘more dangerous’ after US killing of Iran general
Paris, France | AFP | The US killing of a top Iranian military commander has made the world “more dangerous,” France’s Europe minister said Friday, calling for efforts to de-escalate the deepening conflict in the Middle East. “We have woken up to a more dangerous world,” Amelie de Montchalin told …
Read More »ROUHANI: Iran and region’s ‘free nations’ to avenge general’s killing:
Tehran, Iran | AFP | Iran and the “free nations of the region” will take revenge on the United States for killing Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani on Friday, President Hasan Rouhani said. “There is no doubt that the great nation of Iran and the other free nations of the …
Read More »Iran supreme leader vows ‘revenge’ for Soleimani killing
Tehran, Iran | AFP | Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed “severe revenge” after the United States killed the commander of the Islamic republic’s Quds Force, General Qasem Soleimani, in Baghdad on Friday. “Martyrdom was the reward for his ceaseless efforts in all these years,” Khamenei said on his …
Read More »Trump expects Iraq to ‘use its forces’ to protect US embassy in Baghdad
Washington, United States | AFP | President Donald Trump said Tuesday he expects Iraq to “use its forces” to protect the US embassy in Baghdad after pro-Iran protesters breached the outer wall of the compound. “We expect Iraq to use its forces to protect the Embassy, and so notified!” Trump tweeted. …
Read More »Heat wave hits Iraq — and sparks begin to fly
Nasiriyah, Iraq | AFP | Hospital ventilators shut down, football matches with obligatory water breaks and food spoiling in fridges without power: Iraq’s notorious summer has arrived. As one of the hottest countries in the world with around half of its terrain covered in desert, Iraq is no stranger to …
Read More »Pope says wants to visit Iraq in 2020
Vatican City, Holy See | AFP | Pope Francis said Monday he wants to visit Iraq as early as next year in spite of the security conditions. “An insistent thought accompanies me when I think about Iraq, where I want to go next year, so that it can look to the …
Read More »Governments ponder what to do with returning jihadists
Paris, France | AFP | The imminent fall of the Islamic State’s caliphate in Iraq and Syria has left many countries grappling with what to do with jihadists who want to return. Several hundred foreign jihadists are being detained by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the main fighters on the …
Read More »Conditions for papal visit to Iraq ‘not yet met’: Vatican
Vatican City, Holy See | AFP | The conditions for a possible visit to Iraq by Pope Francis have not yet been met, the Vatican number two said on Wednesday, citing concerns about the possibility of a terrorist attack targeting the pontiff. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, …
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