Putin snubs Israel with new Syrian air defences
Russia announced yesterday it will supply an S-300 surface-to-air missile system to Syria in two weeks despite strong Israeli objections, a week after Moscow blamed Israel for indirectly causing the downing of a Russian military plane in Syria.

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Iran blames US-backed Gulf states after attack on parade
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei last night accused US-backed Gulf Arab states of carrying out a shooting attack on a military parade that killed 25 people, almost half of them members of the country's elite Revolutionary Guards.

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Syria accord strengthens the Russian hand in world affairs
A ceasefire seldom gets a good press. If it ends violence or defuses a crisis, the media get bored and lose interest. If the fighting goes on, then those who have called the ceasefire are condemned as heartless hypocrites who either never intended to bring the killing to an end or are culpably failing to do so.

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Foreign diplomats summoned in Iran after deadly militant attack on parade
Iran has summoned diplomats from Britain, Denmark and the Netherlands over allegedly harbouring members of a terrorist group that launched an attack on a military parade in the country's south-west.

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Tánaiste must tread tightrope if we're to help promote peace in Middle East
Palestinian President Abu Mazen, better known in the West as Mahmoud Abbas, is visiting Ireland and is meeting, amongst others, President Michael D Higgins and, my former colleague, Foreign Minister and Tánaiste Simon Coveney.

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Outspoken Israeli activist fatally stabbed by Palestinian teenager
A Palestinian assailant has fatally stabbed a well-known Israeli activist outside a busy mall in the West Bank.

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