April 27 (Reuters) - Iraq's alliance of Shi'ite political blocs, the Coordination Framework, on Monday named Ali al-Zaidi as its nominee for the post of prime minister, said a coalition statement.
Iraq's President Nizar Amedi invited Zaidi on Monday evening, the nominee of the largest parliamentary bloc known as the Coordination Framework, an alliance of Iran-aligned factions, to form a government, Shi'ite lawmakers told Reuters.
VALLETTA, April 27 (Reuters) - Malta will hold a parliamentary election on May 30, Prime Minister Robert Abela said on Monday, calling the vote a year before his current five-year term expires.
Abela said in a televised message that with the coming months expected to be "crucial" given the international situation, Malta needed a government which could focus solely on stability.
WASHINGTON, April 27 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump discussed a new Iranian proposal on resolving the war with Tehran with his top national security aides on Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
Answering questions at a briefing, Leavitt did not offer an opinion of the proposal, in which the Strait of Hormuz would be opened and Iran's nuclear program discussed at a later date. But she said Trump's bottom line demands remain the same.
France said Monday that Iran must be ready to make "major concessions" to end a crisis, as countries piled pressure on Tehran at a UN session on its control of the key Strait of Hormuz.
"There can be no lasting solution to this crisis unless the Iranian regime agrees to major concessions and a radical shift in its stance," Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told the UN Security Council.
The head of the UN's maritime agency said Monday there was "no legal basis" for imposing any fees for ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
Shipping through the narrow strait has been strangled since the US and Israel attacked Iran in late February.
Iran has sealed off the passage, sharply cutting oil and gas flows and sending prices soaring, while the US has blockaded Iranian ports. Tehran has also said it wants to impose transit fees as part of any lasting peace deal.
Signatories of the landmark nuclear non-proliferation treaty began a meeting Monday at the United Nations as fears of a renewed arms race escalate, with atomic powers again at loggerheads over safeguards.
In 2022, during the last review of the treaty considered the cornerstone of non-proliferation, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned humanity was "one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation."
On Monday he warned "the drivers" of nuclear weapons proliferation were accelerating.
FRANKFURT, April 27 (Reuters) - Five people appeared in court in Stuttgart on Monday on charges of causing about 1 million euros ($1.17 million) of damage at the German site of an Israeli defence company, the court said.
Prosecutors say the defendants, aged 25 to 40, trespassed and shouted pro-Palestinian statements as they smashed office equipment, measuring devices and windows at the business in the southern city of Ulm, the court added.
April 27 (Reuters) - Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Monday that Tehran was looking into U.S. President Donald Trump's request for negotiations, according to a post on the minister's Telegram account.
He told reporters in Russia that Trump requested negotiations because the U.S. has not achieved any of its objectives.
Trump scrapped a visit to Islamabad by his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner for talks on ending the conflict, and said Iran could telephone if it wanted to negotiate.
(Reporting by Menna Alaa El-Din; Editing by Alex Richardson)
April 27 (Reuters) - Mortar and rocket attacks launched by Pakistan against neighbour Afghanistan killed four people on Monday and injured 70 more, Afghan Taliban's Deputy Spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat said in a post on X.
Pakistan, however, dismissed the claims as a "blatant lie".
(Reporting by Sakshi DayalEditing by Tomasz Janowski)
MOSCOW, April 27 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in St. Petersburg on Monday and told him he hoped the Iranian people would weather what he described as a "difficult period" and that peace would soon prevail.
Russia has offered to mediate to try to help restore calm to the Middle East following U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, which Moscow has condemned. It has also repeatedly offered to store Iran's enriched uranium as a way of defusing tensions, an offer the United States has not taken up.
