AFP, TEHRAN: Britain’s foreign secretary reopened his country’s embassy in Tehran yesterday in a long-awaited step signalling better relations four years after a mob stormed the compound, forcing its closure. Philip Hammond’s two-day trip comes five weeks after Britain and five other…

AFP, JERUSALEM: Israel’s former defence minister Ehud Barak has said in an interview that three Iran attack plans backed by both himself and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were blocked by the military. Barak, defence minister from 2009 to 2013 told the privately run television station Channel…

AFP, ATHENS: An unprecedented war of words has broken out between Greece’s outgoing government, the parliament chief and the president over early elections likely to be held on September 20. The government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has accused parliamentary speaker Zoe Constantopoulou of…

AFP, ISLAMABAD: Militants launched a cross-border attack on a Pakistani checkpoint in a restive tribal region yesterday, killing at least four soldiers and wounding four others, the military said. Rockets were fired from the Afghanistan side of the border into the Khyber region, one of the seven semi-autonomous…

AFP, RAMALLAH: Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas resigned Saturday as head of the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s Executive Committee in a bid to force new elections for the top body, an official said. Wassel Abu Yussef said that more than half of the 18-member committee had also stepped…