Middle Orient

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran on Sunday dismissed a statement by Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa on backing the United Arab Emirates’ claim over three Iranian Islands in the Persian Gulf.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Mohammad Ali Hosseini here on Sunday underlined Tehran’s sovereignty over the three Persian Gulf islands of the Greater and the Lesser Tunbs and Abu Musa, reiterating that the islands are inseparable part of Iranian territory.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran is ready to raise the volume of imported Azerbaijani gas at least by ten times, announced a source from the National Iranian Gas Company.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki expressed hope that Saudi Arabia would use its influence in the region to help end the protracted Lebanon crisis.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran’s unemployment rate dropped to 10.3 percent in the 2007-2008 Iranian year from 11.3 percent the previous year, a senior government official said on Monday.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as well as the army and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) commemorated Farvardin 12 (March 31), i.e. the Islamic Republic Day, in separate statements here on Monday.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Chinese Ambassador to Tehran Xie Xiaoyan extended an invitation to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to attend the Olympic Games (2008) in China.

TEHRAN (FNA)- The US has demanded to see a Swiss contract for natural gas supplies from Iran to see whether it violates an American sanctions law against Tehran, the US Embassy in Switzerland said Sunday.

BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) – British forces set up a checkpoint at a bridge outside Basra on Sunday, witnesses said, but a spokesman said they had no plans yet to retake Iraq’s second city, scene of a government crackdown on Shi’ite fighters.

 TEHRAN (FNA)- Five Iranian police officers were killed on Friday in a helicopter crash while monitoring holiday traffic flows in northwest Iran.