1. European Union Foreign Policy Chief, Federica Mogherini is in Tehran on an official visit. She has held a meeting with Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. Mogherini is also scheduled to hold separate meetings with Iran’s president and parliament speaker. The nuclear JCPOA is expected to be at the heart of the talks.
2. A Turkish soldier has been seriously injured in an attack near the Iraqi border. Reports say a masked gunman shot the soldier in the mainly-Kurdish town of Şemdinli in southeastern Hakkari province. An operation is currently underway in the area to find the assailant.
3. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said the alliance stands firmly by Turkey in the face of terrible acts of terror and instability along its southern border. He also said NATO is following the developments very closely. Stoltenberg made the statements at a NATO emergency meeting requested by Ankara.
4. Greece and its international creditors have held talks on a new rescue loan. The talks in Athens aimed to reach a deal worth about 85 billion euros over three years. Greece has to make a debt repayment before August twentieth, which it cannot afford without new loans.
5. Secretary General of Lebanon's Hezbollah Movement, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warns that the Zionists are taking advantage of the current turmoil in the region to push ahead with their plots. He says Iran fully represents the Islamic Ummah in the anti-Zionist project.
6. Israeli forces, backed by military vehicles and bulldozers, have demolished a number of buildings belonging to Palestinians in Silwan town south of al-Aqsa Mosque in the occupied East Jerusalem al-Quds. The Israeli forces surrounded the area before destroying the buildings and declared it a closed military zone.
7. The Taliban have taken control of a district in Afghanistan's northern province of Sar-e Pol following fierce clashes with government forces. Officials say fighting continues there as security forces try to regain the area. Just days ago, the Taliban seized a police base in Badakhshan province.
8. The UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East says the Israeli raids into the al-Aqsa Mosque in the East Jerusalem al-Quds are provocative. Nickolay Mladenov says respect for the religious site is needed for stability. Meanwhile, Palestinian movement Hamas has promised to retaliate the Israeli violation of Muslim sanctity.