Middle East

Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab also turns to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon to launch an investigation and possibly help with the severe pollution.

Blinken says the United States is prepared to return to the accord “if Iran comes back into strict compliance” with it.

Iran's top diplomat says that if the US fails to lift all sanctions, Tehran will leave the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and continue to boost its nuclear program. "This is not a threat," Mohammad Javad Zarif says. "We are simply exercising the remedial measures foreseen in the JCPOA."

Foreign Minister Javad Zarif says Iranian parliament has passed a law not to hand over tapes of surveillance cameras to IAEA inspectors, and "we are supposed to implement the laws of the country."

Palestinian Minister of Civil Affairs Hussein al-Sheikh has reportedly informed US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Israeli and Palestinian Affairs Hady Amr that Hamas is "committed to a Palestinian state according to the 1967 lines."

The Gulf state wants to develop and manufacture more weapons and military systems domestically, aiming to spend 50% of the military budget locally by 2030.

IMPACT-se finds that an “exercise describes ‘pieces of corpses’ being dispersed throughout city streets to teach grade-nine spelling”; and Israel, a UN member state, “is solely referred to as ‘the Enemy’ or ‘the Occupation’ and is erased from maps of the region.”

The slayings in al-Hol camp, nearly triple the deaths in previous months, are largely believed to have been carried out by ISIS militants punishing perceived enemies and intimidating anyone who wavers from their extremist line.

The leaders describe the regime's recent decision to limit supervision of its nuclear sites a "dangerous step" and call on Tehran to weigh the consequences of such a decision, especially at a time of a renewed diplomatic opportunity.