TEHRAN: Six Iranian border guards were killed Sunday during clashes with an armed group in the restive southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan, local media reported.
The guards were killed in Saravan, near Iran’s border with Pakistan, the judiciary’s Mizan Online website quoted local prosecutor Mehdi Shamsabadi as saying.
Poverty-stricken Sistan-Baluchistan, which also borders Afghanistan, is a flashpoint for clashes with drug smuggling gangs as well as rebels from the Baluchi minority and Sunni Muslim extremist groups.

MUSCAT: The official visit of Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tarik to Egypt would herald a new era in bilateral ties, said Oman’s ambassador to Cairo Abdullah Nasssir Al-Rahbi.

Sultan Haitham is scheduled to arrive to Egypt on Sunday and meet with President Abdelfattah El-Sisi.

Al-Rahbi said both leaders would discuss ways to boost cooperation across various fields and increase trade.

RAMALLAH: Israel’s ultra right-wing national security minister has been condemned as “provocative” and “dangerous” after visiting Al-Aqsa mosque in occupied Jerusalem on Sunday.

The visit by Itamar Ben-Gvir — his second since becoming a member of Israel’s government — was denounced as a flagrant challenge to the feelings of Muslims and Palestinians and Islamic and Arab sovereignty over the Al-Haram Al-Sharif.

BEIRUT: The Lebanese army said on Saturday it had arrested a prominent Al Qaeda leader in Deir Ammar town, northeast of the city of Tripoli.
It identified the arrested man only as “T.M.” and said in a statement that the arrest took place on Friday.
“T.M. is one of the most prominent leaders of Al Qaeda and the founder of its cells in Lebanon,” it added.

MANAMA: Bahrain will resume full diplomatic relations with Lebanon and ambassadors will soon to be appointed and stationed in the respective capitals, the Bahraini Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Saturday.

The decision came in order to “strengthen the brotherly relations” between the two countries and its peoples and to promote mutual respect, a statement said.

It was also in accordance with the principles of the Charter of the League of Arab States, and the provisions of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, it added.