MOSCOW, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Sergei Shoigu, Secretary of Russia's Security Council, held a telephone conversation with the Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Interfax reported on Monday.

During the call, Shoigu strongly condemned what he described as attempts by foreign powers to interfere in Iran’s internal affairs.

Both sides agreed to maintain contacts and coordinate their positions to strengthen security.

(Reporting by Maxim Rodionov; Editing by Nia Williams)

By Parisa Hafezi

DUBAI, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Iran's bazaar merchants, the trader class who were the financial backbone of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, have turned against the clerics they helped bring to power, fuelling unrest over an economy that has morphed into full-blown anti-government protests.

Reza Pahlavi, who as a boy was groomed to be the next shah of imperial Iran but has spent nearly five decades in exile, has emerged as a rallying figure in the protests shaking the Islamic republic.

The chant of "Pahlavi will come back!" has become a mantra for many of the protesters, while the US-based 65-year-old has urged nightly actions in video messages.

Pahlavi's prominence in the protest movement has surprised some observers.

ANKARA, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Turkey said on Monday that any foreign intervention in neighbouring Iran would lead to greater crises in the country and the region, and it called for U.S. and Iranian negotiations to resolve existing problems.

Iran is facing its biggest demonstrations since 2022 and U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to get involved if force is used against protesters.

NATO member Turkey does not wish to see chaos in Iran despite "certain problems within Iranian society and government", Omer Celik, spokesperson for Turkey's ruling AK Party, said.

By Saad Sayeed, Ananda Teresia and Ariba Shahid

ISLAMABAD/JAKARTA Jan 12 (Reuters) - Indonesia's defence minister met Pakistan's air force chief in Islamabad to discuss a potential deal that includes the sale of combat jets and killer drones to Jakarta, three security officials with knowledge of the meeting on Monday said.

The talks come as Pakistan's defence industry moves forward with a series of defence procurement negotiations, including deals with Libya's National Army and Sudan's army, and looks to establish itself as a sizable regional player.

By Steven Scheer

JERUSALEM, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Israel plans to begin the long-awaited privatisation of two of its largest defence companies as early as the second quarter of this year, a senior government official said.

Roi Kahlon, director of the Government Companies Authority, said union and regulatory issues should be resolved in the next few months to allow initial public offerings by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems in the second quarter.

By Mahmoud Issa and Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA/CAIRO Jan 12 (Reuters) - She spends her lessons in the wintry cold on the floor of a crowded tent, her teacher interrupted by regular gunfire and explosions from Israeli-controlled territory less than 1,000 metres away. But Toulin Al-Hindi, 7, is grateful to be in school at last after more than two years of war.

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

CAIRO, Jan 12 (Reuters) - An Israeli-backed Palestinian militia said on Monday it had killed a senior Hamas police officer in the southern Gaza Strip, an incident which Hamas blamed on "Israeli collaborators".

A statement from the Hamas-run interior ministry said gunmen opened fire from a passing car, killing Mahmoud Al-Astal, head of the criminal police unit in Khan Younis, in the south of the enclave. It described the attackers as "collaborators with the occupation".

US President Donald Trump announced a 25 percent tariff on any country doing business with Iran, ramping up pressure as a rights group estimated a crackdown on protests has killed at least 648 people.

Trump, who has repeatedly threatened Iran with military intervention, said in a social media post on Monday that the new levies would "immediately" hit the Islamic republic's trading partners who also do business with the United States.

"This Order is final and conclusive," he wrote, without specifying who they will affect.

Barham Salih has known torture and the wrenching loss of exile. Four decades after his own ordeal, he has taken the helm of the UN refugee agency as it grapples with a funding shortfall and ever-rising needs.

A former Iraqi president, Salih, 65, became the first former head of state to run the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) at the start of the year.

"It is a profound moral and legal responsibility," Salih told AFP during his first trip in the new role -- to Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya.