Middle Orient

TEHRAN (FNA)- US military involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq would make it difficult to mount any attack on Iran, the Pentagon’s top officer said in remarks broadcast on Monday, adding that he would prefer to avoid a new regional war.

TEHRAN (FNA)- A senior Iranian oil official said on Sunday high oil prices might remain till the end of the year and were not the result of a shortage of crude in the market.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iraq said on Sunday it has no evidence that Iran was supplying militias engaged in fierce street fighting with security forces in Baghdad, and rejected US accusations against Tehran as mere “speculation”.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran said on Sunday that it has not been informed of any plan by Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Spain’s Repsol to withdraw from a $10 billion natural gas project in the Middle East country.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei stressed that Iran will not bend to pressures imposed by West on the Islamic Republic to make it give up its nuclear rights.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran will reject any offer that violates its right to the full nuclear fuel cycle, the foreign ministry said on Monday after world powers said they had prepared a new package which again calls on Tehran to give up its right of uranium enrichment.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Chairman of Iran’s Expediency Council Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said leaders of the regional states could play a crucial role in strengthening peace and security.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran has announced plans to hold celebrations around the country to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of its oil industry.

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (Reuters) – By day, Awad al-Qiq was a respected science teacher and headmaster at a United Nations school in the Gaza Strip. By night, Palestinian militants say, he built rockets for Islamic Jihad.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad this week launched a $1.2 billion project to upgrade Sri Lanka’s sole refinery at Sapugaskande, outside Colombo, the island nation’s capital.