Iran

Iran has decided to reopen its consulate centers in the northern Iraqi cities of Erbil and Suleymaniah, an Iranian official said here on Saturday.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) deputy Director General Ollie Heinonen is scheduled to arrive here in Tehran on Monday to wrap up discussions on Iran’s P1 and P2 centrifuges, an informed source said.

OPEC’s second largest producer Iran has made a drastic cut in gasoline imports through rationing and saved over $1.2 bln in this Iranian year.

Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Mostafa Mohammad Najjar underlined that his country’s missiles capability is not meant to pose a threat to any other country and merely serves as a deterrent to enemy invasion.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is scheduled to pay a visit to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia next month to attend the third summit of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

A gang of three armed robbers broke into a branch of Iran’s Melli Bank here in Tehran on Saturday and took 72 mln Tomans away after they wounded a security guard.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan is scheduled to arrive here in Tehran Saturday afternoon.

Iran believes the shares of rich nations which enjoy extra benefit from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank must be reduced.

China said on Friday the new sanctions imposed by the United States against Iran can only make the Iranian nuclear issue complicated.

Tehran’s provisional Friday Prayers leader Ali Jannati dismissed as biased certain analyses presented about the resignation of Iran’s former nuclear negotiator, stressing that Ali Larijani’s replacement with Saeed Jalili would not be followed by a shift in Tehran’s nuclear policy.