Middle East

The ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has reportedly fled the northern Iraqi city of Mosul and abandoned his soldiers, “leaving them to die,” an Iraqi counter-terror official said.

The Vaghaye Ettefaghieh newspaper has, in an article, elaborated on Saudi Arabia’s stance on an upcoming trip to Riyadh by US President Donald Trump. Here is full text of the Farsi piece:

Head of Iran’s Basij Organisation has sharply criticized President Rouhani’s remarks against the anti-Israeli stances held by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, saying the IRGC will maintain its hostile stance towards the Zionist Regime.

An informed source at the Iranian Foreign Ministry says Turkey must keep Iran updated on any construction of a wall along the two countries’ border.

Iran’s defense minister says Saudi Arabia, which has a history of teaming up with other regimes against Tehran, has now become so miserable as to ally itself with Israel against the Islamic Republic.

A top Iranian general says any aggression on Iran’s territory will receive a crushing response in the form of attacks on targets the Islamic Republic determines.

A secret letter signed by the Saudi king shows the Arab country plans to spend as much as $68 million to welcome US President Donald Trump in his first foreign trip.

Iranian Defence Minister seriously warned Saudi Arabian rulers that if they do anything wrong, the Islamic Republic will hit back almost all areas in the Arab country, except for Mecca and Medina.

The Supreme Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK), which is Turkey’s top judicial body, has dismissed 107 more judges and prosecutors over alleged ties to the Gülen movement, which is accused by the government of masterminding a failed coup attempt on July 15.

Ismail Haniya has been elected as new leader of the political bureau of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas.

A senior adviser to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says Iran equates defending Syria and Iraq with defending itself.

Tehran says the recent anti-Iran remarks by the Saudi defense minister and deputy crown prince indicate Riyadh’s complicity in acts of terror and violence inside Iran.

Iran, Russia, and Turkey, the guarantor states of Syrian ceasefire, signed a document on creating four de-escalation zones in Syria at the conclusion of the fourth round of Astana talks held in the Kazakh capital on Thursday.

Top Iranian and Russian security officials discussed ways of boosting security and establishing a ceasefire in crisis-hit Syria.

A top Iranian MP says any deal to return to the 1967 borders in occupied Palestine amounts to a betrayal of the Palestinian cause, and will give Israel the green light for capital transfer.

A Jordanian man has reportedly divorced his wife after she stopped him from eating so that she could photograph the food and share it with friends.

An Iraqi official declared the Iranian and Iraqi capitals, Tehran and Baghdad, will soon sign a twinning agreement and become sister cities.

Speculations have increased after the owner of the Persian-language satellite channel GEM TV was shot dead in his car by unidentified people in Istanbul, Turkey, on Saturday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has called for friendship among Persian Gulf littoral states and highlighted the capability of regional countries to independently run their own affairs free from foreign interference.

Studies indicate that women are more receptive of ISIS’s rhetoric of incitement that it posts on various electronic platforms. In fact, ISIS has resorted to women in order to address the drop in the number of its fighters.

The IRGC Quds Force Commander in a letter to Iran’s minister of health appreciated the ministry’s efforts to provide medical assistance for the fighters of the resistance front.

Iran has signaled that Pakistan should deal with terrorists operating on its soil if it wants to maintain cordial relations with Tehran. But is Islamabad getting the message?

Turkey has reportedly blocked access to the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia in a move that will further worry rights groups and Turkey's Western allies, who say Ankara has sharply curtailed freedom of speech.

US President Donald Trump complained on Thursday that US ally Saudi Arabia does not treat the United States fairly and Washington is losing a “tremendous amount of money” defending the kingdom.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi strongly denounced the Israeli regime's repeated attacks on Syria, saying such raids are against all international laws and principles.