MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a phone conversation on Friday to discuss the prospects of creating a gas hub in Türkiye and the extension of the Black Sea grain export deal.

Erdogan supports the initiative proposed by Putin in October of establishing a major natural gas hub in Türkiye, the Kremlin said in a statement. (Russia-Türkiye-Call)

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TEHRAN — Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said on Friday that it has busted an “armed terrorist team” in the northwestern province of West Azerbaijan.

The “terrorists” attempted to smuggle arms and ammunition into Iran to undermine its security, the IRGC’s intelligence service in West Azerbaijan was quoted by Iran’s official news agency IRNA as saying. (Iran-Bust-Terrorist Team)

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ISTANBUL — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky discussed a deal of exporting grain from Ukraine, Türkiye’s presidential office said in a statement on Friday.

During a phone call, Erdogan thanked Zelensky for his “constructive stance” on extending the agreement on the UN-backed grain export deal. (Turkey-Ukraine-Grain Export Deal)

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UNITED NATIONS — UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is pushing for bold climate action as the UN Climate Change Conference in Egypt (COP27) is drawing to a conclusion, said a UN spokesman on Friday.

Guterres earlier Friday met separately with member states of the European Union, members of the Group of 77 and China, European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans, and China’s special climate envoy Xie Zhenhua in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for Guterres. (UN-COP27-Guterres)