Iran

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is due to pay visits to the United Arab Emirates and Oman in mid May.

Despite all sanctions, Iran has succeeded in conquering peaks of science and technology among which access to civilian nuclear technology has been the most important one, head of Iran-Cuba parliamentary friendship group said in a meeting with Cuban parliament speaker.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Saturday viewed utilization of all nuclear energy potentials as his nation’s right.

Deputy Culture and Information minister of Laos in a meeting with Iranian ambassador to that country Mohsen Pak Ayeen welcomed widening of cooperation with Iran in the field of culture and information dissemination.

Pope Benedict XVI and former Iranian president Seyed Mohammad Khatami met at the Vatican Friday as part of ongoing Church efforts to improve relations with Muslims.

Iran will not bow to international pressure to halt its nuclear program, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said, after world powers told Tehran to halt uranium enrichment or face a third round of UN sanctions, Reuters reported.

South Africa proposed a compromise on Friday to prevent a global meeting on the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) from collapsing over Iranian objections to the agenda, and Tehran said it would consider the idea.

Iran on Tuesday objected to a clause inserted in the agenda of the first session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2010 NPT Review Conference, saying that the clause would unjustly single it out as a peril to the NPT.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Thursday underlined that his people are insistent on their inalienable right to fully access and use nuclear energy, assuring that his country would never retreat from its stances even for an inch.

The United Arab Emirates’ Foreign Minister Abdallah bin Zayid al-Nuhayyan viewed establishment of security as Iraq’s top priority.