Former President Hashemi Rafsanjani was picked Tuesday as head of the Experts Assembly, a powerful clerical body empowered with choosing, supervising and dismissing Iran’s Supreme Leader.

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Helen Clark says diplomacy is the best way to resolve Tehran-West standoff over Iran’s nuclear issue.

 Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei pledged that Iran would never yield to Western pressure over its nuclear program, and it would outsmart “drunken and arrogant” Western opponents in the standoff.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met with Nicaragua’s visiting Foreign Minister Samuel Santos Lopez on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) ministerial meeting here in Tehran on Monday.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said that the fourth round of talks between Iran and the US over his country would be held in the near future.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mehdi Mostafavi said that Iran has not yet received any formal request to attend the next round of talks with the US over Iraq.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad viewed as valuable the activities made by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in consolidating unity among the Islamic Ummah (nation).

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said bolstering cooperation between Tehran and New Delhi would serve regional peace and security, adding that Iran does not perceive any restriction for expanding ties with India.

Islamic countries, including Iran and Algeria, can play complementary roles to assist each other and provide for their needs, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said, noting the aptitudes and potentials of Muslim nations.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tehran and Pyongyang can defend the rights of independent nations and governments in such international bodies as the United Nations (UN) and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).