Iran

A senior Iranian security official said that the country will reopen its shared borders with the Iraqi Kurdistan on Sunday.

Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Mostafa Mohammad Najjar underlined the need for the formation of Iran-Afghanistan joint defense commission and implementation of the contents of the two countries’ joint statement.

Head of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC) Abdel Aziz Hakim and leader of the Sadr Movement Moqtada Sadr signed an agreement to start mutual cooperation within a joint committee.

The international Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) introduced Iran, with an annual production rate of 23 mln tons, as the 9th producer of gains among Asian states in 2006.

Two drug smugglers and an Iranian police officer were killed in shootouts outside a northeastern Iranian town that borders Afghanistan.

At least 17 people were killed and another 21 injured early Saturday in a road accident in northern Iran.

Asian benchmark 180-centistoke fuel oil rose to a record on higher benchmark Dubai crude and lower supplies in the Middle East after Iran cut exports.

Tehran said that expansion of relations with the Arab countries underpins its foreign policy.

The Middle-East peace conference has been designed to help Israel get rid of its present political isolation, Iran’s ambassador to Thailand Mohsen Pak Ayeen said, adding that the US neoconservatives are striving to hide their political failures by making such a move.

An earthquake measuring 3.1 on the Richter scale jolted the town of Esfarayen in Iran’s northeastern province of Northern Khorassan on Friday.