Late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez developed a close political and strategic relationship with Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad based on a deep anti-Americanism, which led to an “Axis of Unity” against the US.

Israel faces a series of extreme challenges in the changing Middle East but can overcome the threat of a nuclear Iran, former intelligence chiefs have claimed.

Efraim Halevy, former Mossad director and ex-chief of Israel’s National Security Council, and Sir Richard Dearlove, former head of MI6, discussed a wide range of issues affecting the region at the Zionist Federation annual dinner.

Iranian officials are planning to file a lawsuit against the makers of the Academy Award-winning film, Argo.

According to the Iranian media, French lawyer Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, wife of Venezualian terrorist Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, has plans to lodge a case in an international court arguing that Argo, directed by Ben Affleck, was an “unrealistic portrayal” of the country.

Iran will promise the United Nations that it will not seek to create nuclear weapons, an Iranian news agency has claimed.

A non-profit organisation, modelled on Holocaust research groups, has launched 11 new websites to detail the exodus of Jews from 11 countries in the Middle East and North Africa.

Defence Minister Ehud Barak told the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) conference on Sunday that Israel would consider taking "unilateral steps" to solve ongoing tensions with the Palestinians in the absence of a "reasonable, fair, interim agreement".