This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareBEIRUT — Iranian investigators blamed the downing of a Ukrainian passenger jet over Tehran earlier this year on the misalignment of an air defense unit's radar system, in a report issued late Saturday.All 176 passengers and crew aboard Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 were killed in the Jan. 8 crash, which sparked widespread public anger. Iranian authorities took days to admit that the country’s forces had fired an antiaircraft missile at the Boeing 737-800 shortly after its takeoff from Imam Khomeini...…This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareBEIRUT — Iranian investigators blamed the downing of a Ukrainian passenger jet over Tehran earlier this year on the misalignment of an air defense unit's radar system, in a report issued late Saturday.All 176 passengers and crew aboard Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 were killed in the Jan. 8 crash, which sparked widespread public anger. Iranian authorities took days to admit that the country’s forces had fired an antiaircraft missile at the Boeing 737-800 shortly after its takeoff from Imam Khomeini...WW…

This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareBAGHDAD — The Trump administration intensified pressure Friday on Iraq and Iran by reducing the length of a sanctions waiver that allows Iraq to power its already overstretched energy grid.The Trump administration’s maximum-pressure campaign against Iran has left Iraq dependent on the rolling waivers, which exempt it from sanctions when it purchases a tranche of Iranian gas and electricity products that account for about a third of its energy needs.A spokesman for the State Department said Friday that Secretary of State...…This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareBAGHDAD — The Trump administration intensified pressure Friday on Iraq and Iran by reducing the length of a sanctions waiver that allows Iraq to power its already overstretched energy grid.The Trump administration’s maximum-pressure campaign against Iran has left Iraq dependent on the rolling waivers, which exempt it from sanctions when it purchases a tranche of Iranian gas and electricity products that account for about a third of its energy needs.A spokesman for the State Department said Friday that Secretary of State...WW…

This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareBAGHDAD — With cheering, partially masked crowds and armed security lining the roads, Pope Francis began the first-ever papal trip to Iraq on Friday, seeking reconciliation in a country with an extraordinary biblical history, a surging coronavirus outbreak and ongoing political turmoil.He called for cooperation among ethnic groups in the palace once used by autocrat Saddam Hussein. He called for an end to religious violence in a church where, 10 years earlier, gunmen had killed 58 people, leaving flesh on the pews."I come...…This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareBAGHDAD — With cheering, partially masked crowds and armed security lining the roads, Pope Francis began the first-ever papal trip to Iraq on Friday, seeking reconciliation in a country with an extraordinary biblical history, a surging coronavirus outbreak and ongoing political turmoil.He called for cooperation among ethnic groups in the palace once used by autocrat Saddam Hussein. He called for an end to religious violence in a church where, 10 years earlier, gunmen had killed 58 people, leaving flesh on the pews."I come...WW…