Tehran, IRNA – Iran says the Resistance Front will not turn a blind eye to the atrocities committed by the Zionist regime against the defenseless Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Speaking at a weekly press conference in Tehran on Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani warned that the continuation of this “barbaric approach” by the Zionist regime can inflame the situation in the region and spin it out of control.

16 October 2023; AA: Chinese and Russian foreign ministers met in Beijing and discussed relations between their countries and the ongoing armed conflict between Israel and Palestine.

Wang Yi hosted his counterpart Sergey Lavrov ahead of the third Belt and Road Forum for International (BRI) Cooperation.

Ahead of their meeting, Lavrov said: "We consider this project as an important part of promoting cooperation on the basis of equality and mutual benefit throughout the Eurasian continent."

MOSCOW, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin entered the fevered diplomatic fray of the Middle East on Monday, speaking to five of the major players including Iran and leading Arab powers in an attempt to secure a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas.

Russia, which has relationships with Iran, Hamas, major Arab powers as well as with the Palestinians and with Israel, has repeatedly said the United States and the West have ignored the need for an independent Palestinian state within 1967 borders.

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group said Monday it has started destroying surveillance cameras on several Israeli army posts along the border as tension rose following the Israel-Hamas war that began Oct.7.

Hezbollah’s military media arm released a video showing snipers shooting at and destroying surveillance cameras placed on five points along the Lebanon-Israel border including one outside the Israeli town of Metula.

Tehran, IRNA- Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian has warned that war fronts will likely expand if Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip do not stop.

“If the attacks by the Zionist regime on Gaza do not stop, the expansion of war fronts is likely, and the possibility of this increases every hour,” Amirabdollahian said in an interview with Al Jazeera.

Iran’s top diplomat added that a message has been sent to the Israeli regime through its allies that if its atrocities do not cease in Gaza, “it will be very late tomorrow".

16 October 2023; MEMO: The United States provided its forces in the Deir Ez-Zor province in eastern Syria with a radar system after oil fields in the area were attacked by “groups backed by Iran,” local sources reported.

The sources told the Anadolu Agency that US forces brought four radar systems from Iraq to their base in the Al-Shaddadah area, in Al-Hasakah province, northeastern Syria, through the Al-Walid border gate on Saturday.

16 October 2023; AA: The Egyptian Red Crescent said that aid trucks have started moving from Egypt’s Al Arish toward the Rafah border crossing with Gaza.

In a statement to Anadolu on Monday morning, Khaled Zaid, the director of the Egyptian Red Crescent in North Sinai, said: "Aid trucks have begun to be dispatched to the Rafah border."

The trucks contain food supplies and medical equipment, he said.

ANKARA, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in a call on Monday that Western countries should refrain from "provocative steps" regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Turkish presidency said.

Erdogan also told Sunak that Western powers must "remember the unkept promises to Palestine and do what is necessary", the presidency said on social messaging platform X. It said the two also discussed the resolution of the "grave humanitarian crisis" in Gaza.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Last year, a teenager in a small Michigan town killed himself after an online chat turned to demands that he pay money to keep intimate photos secret. He was one of dozens of people targeted online by two men extradited from Nigeria to face charges, FBI director Christopher Wray said Saturday.

The arrests came after the FBI joined with police in Michigan to investigate the death of 17-year-old Jordan DeMay, one thousands of American teenagers targeted in a sharp rise in online “sextortion” cases in recent years.

ATHENS, Oct 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Greece’s coastguard late on Sunday said it had found three bodies during a search for survivors after a migrant boat sank off the eastern Greek island of Symi.

According to a statement, eight people were found alive during the rescue operation that is underway with ships and a helicopter.

The weather conditions off the Dodecanese island are good.

Sources said that at least two more people are thought missing.

New York Oct 15 (Reuters) - The Palestinian Authority's official news agency published comments on Sunday by President Mahmoud Abbas that criticized Hamas over its actions but later removed reference to the militant group without providing an explanation.

The comments, published by WAFA on its website, came during a phone call between Abbas and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. The two discussed Israel's bombardment of Gaza following Hamas' deadly rampage through Israeli cities.

BEIJING, Oct 16 (APP):: The third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF) will be held in Beijing from Tuesday to Wednesday, as the year marks the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Leaders and representatives of countries from around the globe and international organizations have arrived in China, and Beijing is fully prepared for this major home diplomatic event.