Iran military warns US aircraft carrier away from Gulf

TEHRAN: A US aircraft carrier currently deployed in the Middle East should “not return” to its base in the Gulf, the head of Iran’s armed forces declared Tuesday, adding there would be no repeat warning. “We advise and insist that this warship not return to its former base in the Persian Gulf,” Brigadier General Ataollah Salehi told reporters, according to the armed forces website. “We don’t have the intention of repeating our warning, and we warn only once,” he was quoted as saying. The warning came just one day after Iran’s navy completed 10 days of manoeuvres at the entrance to the Gulf with the test-firing of three missiles designed to sink warships. The aircraft carrier Salehi was referring to was the USS John C. Stennis,...

Read more »

Posted in: INTERNATIONAL

Jordan hosts Israelis, Palestinians in rare meeting

AMMAN: Israeli and Palestinian negotiators gathered in the Jordanian capital Amman on Tuesday for their first face-to-face meeting in 16 months but both sides insisted full-blown talks remained some way off. Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh, who was to host the meeting between Israel’s chief negotiator Yitzhak Molcho and his Palestinian counterpart Saeb Erakat, said it was a “serious” bid to help relaunch moribund peace talks. Quartet envoy Tony Blair was also to attend the session, along with other officials of the grouping, made up of the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States. “It is a serious effort to find a common ground between the two sides and help restart direct peace talks,” said...

Read more »

Posted in: INTERNATIONAL