Iran

There has been a flurry of diplomatic activity involving Tehran, Baghdad, Ankara and Washington to defuse tensions along the border between Turkey and northern Iraq.

Iran welcomed a recent Arab proposal to set up a consortium to provide Mideast countries with enriched uranium but said it would not halt its own enrichment activities

China urged Iran Saturday to further cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and create favorable conditions for further talks on the nuclear issue.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reiterated on Saturday that his country’s nuclear issue is already closed.

Iraq’s neighbors and other Arab countries gathered Saturday to discuss the future of the war-torn country — but the crisis involving Kurdish separatist rebels along the border between Iraq and Turkey threatened to overshadow the event.

Iran would be ready to join a body that would provide enriched uranium for users in the Middle East, an Iranian official said, after Saudi Arabia proposed it as a way to defuse Tehran’s nuclear row with the West, Reuters repoted.

Foreign Minister Ali Babacan made clear in a strongly worded statement on Thursday that Turkey does not have any intention of harming Iraq’s territorial integrity via a possible cross-border incursion to tackle outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) bases in northern Iraq since Turkey’s sole target would specifically be the PKK …

Iran’s foreign minister has responded positively to the prospect of Iran and the United States holding another round of talks on the situation in Iraq.

TEHRAN – Iran is studying a plan to connect the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf, Deputy Foreign Minister for Asia-Pacific Affairs Mehdi Safari said.

The Assembly of Experts Chairman Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani here on Wednesday called unity between religious, tribal, and political groups as the most important way to stand against foreign imperialism.