BAGHDAD: The Iraqi cabinet has set November 11 as the date for a parliamentary election, it said on Wednesday.
Iraq sets November 11 for parliamentary election
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TEHRAN: Iran said Monday it had âno specific dateâ for a meeting with the United States on Tehranâs nuclear program, following a war with Israel that had derailed negotiations.
âFor now, no specific date, time or location has been determined regarding this matter,â said foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei of plans for a meeting between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US envoy Steve Witkoff.
Iran had been negotiating with the United States before Israel began strikes on its nuclear facilities last month, which Washington later joined.
Araghchi and Witkoff met five times, starting in April, without concluding a deal, before Israel launched surprise strikes on June 13, starting a 12-day war.
âWe have been serious in diplomacy and the negotiation process, we entered with good faith, but as everyone witnessed, before the sixth round the Zionist regime, in coordination with the United States, committed military aggression against Iran,â said Baqaei.
The United States launched its own set of strikes against Iranâs nuclear program on June 22, hitting the uranium enrichment facility at Fordo, in Qom province south of Tehran, as well as nuclear sites in Isfahan and Natanz.
The extent of the damage from the strikes remains unknown.
With its own strikes, numbering in the hundreds, Israel killed nuclear scientists and top-ranking military officers as well as hitting military, nuclear and other sites.
Iran responded with missile and drone attacks on Israel, while it attacked a US base in Qatar in retaliation for Washingtonâs strikes.
Israel and Western nations accuse Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran has consistently denied.
While it is the only non-nuclear power to enrich uranium to 60-percent purity, close to the level needed for a warhead, the UNâs atomic energy watchdog has said it had no indication that Iran was working to weaponize its stockpiles.
DUBAI: An explosion at a residential building injured seven people in the Pardisan neighborhood of Qom city, Iranâs semi-official Fars news agency reported, going on to quote an unnamed source saying it was not the result of any Israeli attack.
âFour residential units were damaged in the blast. Initial assessments show that the cause of the incident was a gas leak, and follow-ups are continuing in this regard,â the director of Qomâs fire department told Fars.
The agency said the residents of the building were ordinary citizens.
Iranâs regional arch-rival Israel has a record of assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists, whom it considers part of a program that directly threatens Israel. Tehran maintains its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes.
Since the end of a 12-day air war last month between Iran and Israel, in which Israel and the United States attacked Iranâs nuclear facilities, several explosions have occurred in Iran, but authorities have not blamed Israel.
âPeople should not worry about rumors (of Israeli attacks). If a hostile action occurs in the country, the news will immediately reach the people and alarm bells will simultaneously be activated in the Occupied Territories,â Fars quoted an unnamed Iranian source as saying following the blast in Qom.
AL-MAZRAâA ASH-SHARQIYA, West Bank: Frustration among Palestinians grew toward the United States on Sunday as mourners packed the roads to a cemetery in the Israeli-occupied West Bank town of Al-Mazrâa Ash-Sharqiya for the burial of two men, one of them a Palestinian American, killed by settlers.
Palestinian health authorities and witnesses said Sayfollah Musallet, 21, was beaten to death, and Hussein Al-Shalabi, 23, was shot in the chest by settlers during a confrontation on Friday night.
Most of the small townâs roughly 3,000 residents share family ties to the United States and many hold citizenship, including Musallet, who was killed weeks after flying to visit his mother in Al-Mazrâa Ash-Sharqiya, where he traveled most summers from Tampa, Florida.
âThereâs no accountability,â said his father Kamel Musallet, who flew from the United States to bury his son.
âWe demand the United States government do something about it ... I donât want his death to go in vain.â
Israeli killings of US citizens in the West Bank in recent years include those of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, Palestinian American teenager Omar Mohammad Rabea and Turkish American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi.
A US State Department spokesperson said on Friday it was aware of the latest death, but that the department had no further comment âout of respect for the privacy of the family and loved onesâ of the victim.
Many family and community members said they expected more, including that the United States would spearhead an investigation into who was responsible.
A US State Department spokesperson on Sunday referred questions on an investigation to the Israeli government and said it âhas no higher priority than the safety and security of US citizens overseas.â
The Israeli military had earlier said Israel was probing the incident. It said confrontations between Palestinians and settlers broke out after Palestinians threw rocks at Israelis, lightly injuring them.
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Musalletâs family said medics tried to reach him for three hours before his brother managed to carry him to an ambulance, but he died before reaching the hospital.
Local resident Domi, 18, who has lived in Al-Mazrâa Ash-Sharqiya for the last four years after moving back from the United States, said fears had spread in the community since Friday and his parents had discussed sending him to the United States. âIf people have sons like this they are going to want to send them back to America because itâs just not safe for them,â he said.
He had mixed feelings about returning, saying he wanted to stay near his familyâs land, which they had farmed for generations, and that Washington should do more to protect Palestinians in the West Bank.
âItâs a kind of betrayal,â he said.
Settler violence in the West Bank has risen since the start of Israelâs war against Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza in late 2023, according to rights groups.
Dozens of Israelis have also been killed in Palestinian street attacks in recent years and the Israeli military has intensified raids across the West Bank.
Around 700,000 Israeli settlers live among 2.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territories Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 war.
US President Donald Trump in January rescinded sanctions imposed by the former Biden administration on Israeli settler groups and individuals accused of being involved in violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
Malik, 18, who used to visit Musalletâs ice-cream shop in Tampa and had returned to the West Bank for a few monthsâ vacation, said his friendâs death had made him question his sense of belonging.
âI was born and raised in America, I only come here two months of a 12-month year, if I die like that nobodyâs going to be charged for my murder,â he said, standing in the cemetery shortly before his friend was buried. âNo oneâs going to be held accountable.â
JOINT BASE ANDREWS, United States: US President Donald Trump told reporters on Sunday that talks are ongoing over Israelâs conflict in Gaza and he hopes for progress in the next week, even as ceasefire negotiations in Doha stalled.
âGaza â we are talking and hopefully weâre going to get that straightened out over the next week,â Trump said, echoing similarly optimistic comments he made July 4.