Boston Globe: Iran's foreign minister said yesterday his country's relations with the United States are about the worst ever, but he believes the upcoming US presidential election could open avenues for renewed dialogue, even if President Bush is reelected.
Xinhuanet: Iranian Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani on Wednesday dismissed the US claim that nuclear tests have been conducted in the Parchin region in Iran, the official IRNA news agency reported.
"The claim is baseless. Such claims are not unprecedented on the part of the United States," Shamkhani was quoted as saying.
Reuters: Four people were killed and a dozen were injured in northwestern Iran when police attacked the hideout of an extremist Shia Muslim religious group, an interior ministry official said on Wednesday.
UPI: Russia offered Wednesday to resume construction of a nuclear power plant in Iran if Iran will return the spent fuel, the Interfax news agency reported.
At a Moscow news conference, Russian Security Council secretary Igor Ivanov made the offer of returning to the Bushehr facility.
Voice of America: The United States Wednesday imposed sanctions against 14 foreign firms and individuals, seven of them Chinese, for selling missile or weapons of mass destruction technology and equipment to Iran.
The decision carried in the U.S. government's official journal, the Federal Register, and confirmed by the State Department ...
Iran Focus: Bam, Sep. 30 Nine months after a devastating earthquake that left behind over 50,000 people dead and more than 90,000 homeless, a new specter is haunting the wretched survivors of that natural disaster. Human trafficking has become a booming business, as orphaned girls and the children of impoverished families are being picked up by organized crime gangs.
Iran Focus: Tehran, Sep. 29 They left their village before dawn to be at the gates of the complex housing the judiciary in Tehran before it opened. They were more than a hundred; all men, their lean faces tanned and their large hands callused and rough. Most looked young, some middle-aged, and a handful very old.
AFP: The United States will keep pushing the UN Security Council to consider whether Iran's nuclear ambitions are out of bounds, John Bolton, US undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, said.
"The reason we favor taking it to the Security Council is, we want to put Iran in the international spotlight ..."
Iran Focus: Bandar Abbas, Sep. 28 - Widespread clashes have erupted between people and security forces in Nour-Abad region of Mamasani, Bandar Abbas and Miandoab
At least seven people have been killed and hundreds more were reportedly wounded and a vast number of people have been detained.
AFP: An Iranian journalist working on the political pages of two reformist dailies has been arrested, his wife told the student news agency ISNA Tuesday.
The report quoted her as saying Rozbeh Mir-Ebrahimi, a writer with the Etemad and banned Jomhuriat papers, "was arrested by people who said they were from the police" on Monday morning.
"They searched the house and asked him questions about his work with different internet sites ..."
Iran Focus: Tehran, Sep. 28 - Iranian officials announced on Tuesday that 2 Afghans were executed. The pair were hanged in prison on Monday in the city of Saveh (northern Iran).
Police sources have identified the men as Jomeh Arab and Mohammad Tajik.
The two men who had been arrested more than 3 years ago ...
Reuters: Iran's hardline lawmakers could try to force President Mohammad Khatami's government to follow North Korea's example and quit the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the official IRNA news agency said on Tuesday.
Leading conservative parliamentarian Hassan Kamran has prepared a bill for submission to parliament that would force the government to set a November deadline for the U.N. nuclear watchdog to take Iran off the agency's agenda, IRNA said.
Reuters: The analysis of soil samples taken by U.N. inspectors at Lavizan, a site in Tehran that U.S. officials suspect may be linked to an atomic weapons programme, shows no sign of nuclear activity, Western diplomats said.
Satellite photos of Lavizan taken between August 2003 and May 2004 showed that Iran had completely razed Lavizan, a site which Iran said was a former military research laboratory and had nothing to do with atomic-related activities.
Iran Focus: Baghdad, Sep. 28 - Iraqi security forces have arrested a spy working for Iranian intelligence, a Baghdad newspaper reported Tuesday.
A senior Iraqi intelligence official identified the arrested man as Nashaat Abd Ali Al-Hussaini, adding that he had confessed to serious things that would incriminate the Iranian intelligence and its interference in Iraq's internal affairs, Al-Furat reported.
The Straits Times: Is Iran - with oil-export revenues of more than US$30 billion (S$51 billion) expected this year - on its way to producing nuclear weapons that would threaten not only neighbouring Middle East enemies such as Israel but also European nations?
Indeed, should it be allowed to do so? With growing unemployment among its young, and rising social tensions, can Iran afford to pursue the development of a nuclear arsenal?
AP: President Bush, preparing for this week's much-anticipated campaign debate on foreign policy, is insisting Iran will not develop a nuclear weapon on his watch.
"My hope is that we can solve this diplomatically," Bush said in a TV interview broadcast Monday. "We are working our hearts out so that they don't develop a nuclear weapon, and the best way to do so is to continue to keep international pressure on them."
Iran Focus: Tehran, Sep. 27 - A senior member of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, the highest decision-making body on military and security issues, threatened that Iran might pull out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) that it had signed. Ali Larijani threatened action if Iran was put under pressure by Europe and the United States to curb its nuclear program.
Boston Globe: Iran's foreign minister said yesterday his country's relations with the United States are about the worst ever, but he believes the upcoming US presidential election could open avenues for renewed dialogue, even if President Bush is reelected. 
Xinhuanet: Iranian Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani on Wednesday dismissed the US claim that nuclear tests have been conducted in the Parchin region in Iran, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Reuters: Four people were killed and a dozen were injured in northwestern Iran when police attacked the hideout of an extremist Shia Muslim religious group, an interior ministry official said on Wednesday. 
UPI: Russia offered Wednesday to resume construction of a nuclear power plant in Iran if Iran will return the spent fuel, the Interfax news agency reported.
Voice of America: The United States Wednesday imposed sanctions against 14 foreign firms and individuals, seven of them Chinese, for selling missile or weapons of mass destruction technology and equipment to Iran.
Iran Focus: Bam, Sep. 30 Nine months after a devastating earthquake that left behind over 50,000 people dead and more than 90,000 homeless, a new specter is haunting the
Iran Focus: Tehran, Sep. 29 They left their village before
AFP: The United States will keep pushing the UN Security Council to consider whether Iran's nuclear ambitions are out
Iran Focus: Bandar Abbas, Sep. 28 - Widespread clashes have erupted between people and security forces in Nour-Abad region of Mamasani, Bandar Abbas and Miandoab
AFP: An Iranian journalist working on the political pages of two reformist dailies has been arrested, his wife told the student news agency ISNA Tuesday.
Iran Focus: Tehran, Sep. 28 - Iranian officials announced on Tuesday that 2 Afghans were executed. The pair were hanged in prison on Monday in the city of Saveh (northern Iran).
Reuters: Iran's hardline lawmakers could try to force President Mohammad Khatami's government to follow North Korea's example and quit the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the official IRNA news agency said on Tuesday.
Reuters: The analysis of soil samples taken by U.N. inspectors
Iran Focus: Baghdad, Sep. 28 - Iraqi security forces have arrested a spy working for Iranian intelligence, a Baghdad newspaper reported Tuesday.
The Straits Times: Is Iran - with oil-export revenues of more than US$30 billion (S$51 billion) expected this year - on its way to producing nuclear weapons that would threaten not only neighbouring Middle East enemies such as Israel but also European nations?
AP: President Bush, preparing for this week's much-anticipated campaign debate on foreign policy, is insisting Iran will not develop a nuclear weapon on his watch.
Iran Focus: Tehran, Sep. 27 - A senior member of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, the highest decision-making body on military and security issues, threatened that Iran might pull out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) that it had signed. Ali Larijani threatened action if Iran was put under pressure by Europe and the United States to curb its nuclear program. .jpg){kind=icon}
