Istanbul / AFP Turkey has dismissed 87 staff from its spy agency over alleged links to the failed July 15 coup, state media said on Tuesday, in the first purge of one of the country’s most powerful institutions. The National Intelligence Organisation (MIT) has suspended 141 personnel in an internal probe over links to US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen who …

  Tehran / AFP Iran is not ready to compromise on the issues of intelligence sharing, sanctions and definitions of terrorist groups in order to join an international task force against terror financing, a minister said on Tuesday. Iran, along with North Korea, is blacklisted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and aims to be removed from “high risk …

  Tehran / AFP Former hardline Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday he will not compete in next year’s presidential vote, following advice from Iran’s supreme leader, media reported. “In following the will of the great leader of the revolution, I have no plans to be present in next year’s presidential competitions,” he wrote in a letter to Ayatollah …