Iran

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on Central Bank Governor Tahmasb Mazaheri to take quick measures to solve the recent problems preventing state-owned banks from granting loans to the public.

TEHRAN (FNA)- The falling value of the dollar is to blame for around a third of the rise in the price of oil, Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Saturday.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told his visiting Syrian counterpart on Saturday that although Iran welcomes talks on its nuclear program, it will not give up even an iota of its legitimate right to access civilian nuclear technology.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Seven detained Baha’i believers have confessed to setting up an illegal organization in Iran that took orders from Israel and others to undermine the Islamic system, an Iranian paper reported on Saturday.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Sixteen people were killed and 11 were injured when a bus and a truck collided in southern Iran on Sunday.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran, the number two oil producer in OPEC, expects the cartel to discuss ways of controlling the quotas of member countries at its next meeting in September, Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari said.

TEHRAN (FNA)- World oil prices faced a roller coaster ride this week, tumbling on US demand concerns before rocketing higher on resurgent fears about West’s ultimatum to Iran over the latter’s nuclear energy programs, traders said.

It is unlikely that Iran, being a sovereign state, will yield to the latest deadline of the United States pressurizing Iran to answer an international nuclear incentives offer or face new sanctions.

 President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday that Iran has always welcomed just negotiations.

The Norwegian StatoilHydro company has not officially announced that it would withdraw from activities in an Iranian oil field, Oil Minister Gholam-Hossein Nozari said on Saturday.