Middle Orient

TEHRAN (FNA) – The United Arab Emirates’ Vice-President and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum in a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Parviz Davoudi here in Tehran on Monday reiterated the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear activities.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Head of the International Paralympics Committee said that he would soon extend an official invitation to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to attend the inauguration ceremony of the 2008 competitions in Beijing.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Oman’s Deputy Prime Minister for Cabinet Affairs Fahd bin Mahmud al-Said is due to pay a visit to Iran in the near future, Tehran’s ambassador to Masqat said here on Monday.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Iranian Oil Ministry Sunday announced the launch of operation by the country’s first oil products bourse in the free trade zone on the Persian Gulf Island of Kish.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Iranian Economy Minister Davoud Danesh Jafari downplayed a secret meeting last month between US and Iranian banking officials, calling it “an exchange of views” over the Islamic nation’s new money laundering law.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Radio Ma’aref (Islamic Knowledge) has launched its English service on the ninth anniversary of the start of its work which coincided the birth anniversary of Imam Musa Kazem (Shiites’ seventh Imam) on Sunday 17 February.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei said the reason Western powers threaten Iran is that they are afraid of the nation’s determination.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Iran’s parliament has approved a bigger budget for 2008-09 totaling the equivalent of $310 billion.

BAGHDAD – Negotiations to free a CBS News journalist seized in the southern Iraqi city of Basra a week ago are being held up over discussions about how he should be released, a leading Shi’ite militia group said on Sunday.

JERUSALEM – French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Sunday that Israel and the Palestinians have made no real progress since a U.S.-sponsored peace conference in November, and called the situation dangerous.