OPEC’s second largest producer Iran is making a drastic cut in gasoline imports through rationing and expects to save nearly $3 billion in this Iranian year, a top Iranian oil official said on Tuesday.

Some OPEC members began pumping more crude well ahead of their decision earlier this month to increase output, Iran’s OPEC governor said.

After attending the Assembly of the United Nations Organization (UN), in New York, United States, and after his official journey to Bolivia, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, will visit Venezuela for a few hours.

Western banks withdrawing from Iran would not be welcome back, the Islamic Republic’s central bank governor warned on Tuesday, calling their behavior unprofessional and immoral.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the UN General Assembly Tuesday that his nuclear standoff with the West was a “closed” matter.

Seven chancellors and presidents of Iranian universities and research centers, in a letter addressed to their counterpart in the US Colombia University, denounced Lee Bollinger’s insulting words against the Iranian nation and president and invited him to provide responses for 10 questions of the Iranian academicians and intellectuals.

Proposed by foreign minister and approved by the president, Ibrahim Rahimpour was appointed as Iran’s ambassador to Ireland.

Following the arrest of an Iranian business official and lack of efforts to release him within the specified deadline, all economic and trade relations with the Iraqi Kurdistan have been cut, an Iranian official in the border province of Kermanshah said.

Commander of the Iranian army underlined his country’s military might, and said his troops will show Iran’s power in practice whenever and wherever necessary.

Foreign Minister of the Czech Republic Karel Schwarzenberg voiced his country’s preparedness to develop ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran.