Iran

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki in a meeting with his Niger counterpart Aichatou Mindaoudou voiced the Islamic Republic’s preparedness to host ambassador of that country in Tehran.

Iranian and Azeri foreign ministers agreed to attend a meeting in Tehran in mid June to study the legal status of the Caspian Sea.

According to the trade and economic agreements made by Iran and Pakistan, the two countries are due to increase their present trade volume of $600m to $1b, Pakistan’s consul general said

Tajikistan’s culture minister and governor general of Iran’s northeastern province of Khorassan Razavi in a meeting on Wednesday stressed the need for the preservation of the two countries’ joint identity and utilization of all potentials for the development of both states.

Iran and the US are to hold ambassadorial level talks on Iraq, the Iranian foreign minister said today, in the first substantive contacts between the countries for years.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) approved that Iran has the required knowledge for enriching uranium.

US and Iranian officials will meet in Baghdad later this month to discuss issues involving Iraq, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Thursday.

Unfortunately after three months since the five Iranian diplomats were kidnapped during a raid by the US troops on Iran’s consulate general in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil, Americans still deny the diplomatic right of the five to have a consulate meeting, an informed source told FNA.

Head of Iran-Iraq friendship association Ali Agha-Mohammadi in a meeting with the Prime Minister of the local government of Iraq’s Kurdistan, Nichervan Barezani, on Wednesday stressed the need for the restoration of calm and stability in Iraq.

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei Wednesday stressed that the upcoming talks between Iran and the US will only include a discussion of the duties of foreign troops for restoring security in Iraq.