Middle East

Riyadh says it has executed top Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr and 47 others, defying international calls for the release of the jailed political dissidents.

Iranian Foreign Ministry has advised Bahrain to resume serious dialog with recognized leaders of popular movements to find a peaceful and political solution to the country’s crisis.

The deputy foreign minister said Iran’s policy is based on expansion of relations with the Persian Gulf littoral states and called on Tehran and Doha to continue talks with aimed at improving ties.

Iran’s top diplomat also described Hezbollah’s approaches, which involve boosting Lebanese people’s unity, as being in the interest of everyone.

Despite the unfriendly stance of some countries, Iran will continue to play a constructive role in easing tensions and defusing crises, the Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

If there is a difference among regional countries or Muslim states, it should be settled through dialog and we should not interfere in each other’s internal affairs, Velayati said.

Iranian deputy FM said the crisis in Syria will only be resolved through respecting the country’s sovereignty, independence, national unity and territorial integrity as well as the Syrian people’s will.

The diplomat pointed to threats posed by terrorist groups like Daesh and called for more security and defense cooperation among Iran and regional countries to confront terror threats.

For now, we should not pass an angry judgment about Russia's failure to respond, the editor-in-chief of Rai al-Youm, Abdel Bari Atwan, said in an opinion piece.

Socotra, an island in the Indian Ocean which is registered by UNESCO as a world heritage site.

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari on Sunday denounced assassination of Samir Qantar in the wake of air strike of the Zionist regime planes.

Iranian Muslims rush to the help of the environment and the wildlife, but ISIS terrorists seek to use birds as suicide bombers to advance their unholy agenda and spread the reign of terror in the world.

Supreme Leader’s advisor Ali Akbar Velayati says those who have formed Daesh Takfiri group must be tried in international courts as war criminals.

Foreign Minister Zarif urges the American candidates to wake up to the real world in an interview with the New Yorker.

He said the opposition group in Syria should have no link with terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda, Daesh, al-Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham.

Terrorists should never have been allowed to set the agenda, or dictate the response.

Amir-Abdollahian emphasized that Iran would certainly continue with investigations to determine the fate of the pilgrims still missing.

Turkey thinks that the presence of the Russian military alongside Syrian ground troops and resistance forces is tilting the balance in Assad's favor and this can pose threats to Turkey via its southern border.

The grave mistake of Turkey is that it thinks NATO would rush to its assistance against Russia in case something happens.

These female fighters of Christian faith are now battling Daesh terrorists alongside Kurdish Peshmerga and Yazidi fighters.

The Iranian deputy foreign minister for Arab and African affairs says both Iran and Russia “are seriously helping the Syrian army in fighting against terrorism”.

The Secretary of Iranian Expediency Council says Iran can presently use its active diplomacy to bring Turkey and Russia close to each other and temper tensions between them.

Iran emphasizes that interaction, respect for the country’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity and efforts to solve differences can lead to the establishment of sustainable peace and stability in the region.

Given previous revelations about Ankara's ties with and support for the Daesh terrorist grouping, Turkey's claim that it wants to take on the terrorist group sounds more like a joke than reality.

Turkey has problems with Iraq, Syria and Russia and wants to add Iran to the list of countries with which it has problem. This is a blame game bound to add to the problems of the Turkish government, Nobakht said.