Middle Orient

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran is negotiating with Spanish and British-Dutch energy giants to switch their gas exploration blocs with others due for later development, Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari said Thursday.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran’s ambassador to New Delhi said Wednesday that Tehran hopes to finalize the $7.4-bln IPI pipeline deal with India and Pakistan by mid-year.

TEHRAN (FNA)- The latest report by the UN nuclear watchdog on Iran prompted a warning from the new Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, who said the country could review its relations with the UN watchdog.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran has played a positive role in preparations for a conference on Iraq here this week at which it was hoped US and Iranian delegates could hold bilateral talks, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said in Stockholm Wednesday on the eve of the meeting.

TEHRAN (FNA)- A report from the UN nuclear watchdog shows the Security Council has no business bothering with Iran’s atomic program since all open questions about it have now been resolved, Iran said on Wednesday.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran Liquefied Natural Gas Company, in which state-owned National Iranian Oil Company has a 49 percent stake, will produce the country’s first LNG in December 2010, Managing Director Ali Kheirandish said.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Russia’s gas export monopoly Gazprom said on Tuesday it had increased gas supplies to Turkey after it asked for more gas following a stoppage of flows from Iran.

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) – A suicide bomber killed 14 police recruits and two policemen in northern Iraq on Thursday, police and military sources said. An attacker wearing a military uniform detonated an explosive vest near a police recruiting centre where about 200 applicants queued at Sinjar, near Mosul, police said.

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called on the international community on Thursday to cancel the country’s debt and end sanctions imposed during Saddam Hussein’s rule.

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Sunni-led Arab states need to offer more support to the Shi’ite-led Iraqi government to give reconstruction efforts a chance to succeed, Sweden’s foreign minister said on Wednesday ahead of a conference on Iraq.