Middle Orient

BAGHDAD – U.S. warplanes dropped 40,000 pounds of bombs on more than 40 targets on Baghdad’s southern outskirts on Thursday in a major strike on al Qaeda safe havens, the military said in a statement.

TEHRAN (FNA) Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei said massive participation of the public in 28 state elections since the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran (in 1979) has proved the populist system of the Islamic Republic.

TEHRAN (FNA) A senior commander in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) dismissed Pentagon’s so-called documented footages claiming to show Iranian speedboats swarming US ships in the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend, describing it as a “clumsy fabrication”.

TEHRAN (FNA) A spokeswoman for the International Atomic Energy Agency Wednesday said that the UN nuclear watchdog chief, Mohamed ElBaradei is hopeful about resolving all issues remaining between Iran and IAEA during his upcoming visit to Tehran.

TEHRAN (FNA) Iran’s defense minister dismissed White House claims about a hostile confrontation between Iranian and US navy vessels in the Persian Gulf, describing US allegations as a plot to make regional and world countries fearful of Iran.

TEHRAN (FNA) Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Alireza Sheikh Attar said that an upcoming visit to Tehran by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Mohamed ElBaradei will be aimed at resolving the issues remaining between the two sides.

TEHRAN (FNA) Iran’s Embassy in Baku said that the incident which took place with the US military ship in Persian Gulf was nothing “extraordinary”, and dismissed Washington’s allegations about the incident.

TEHRAN (FNA) Edison SpA, Italy’s second biggest power generator, has won a bid to explore for oil and gas in Iran.

TEHRAN (FNA) Iran’s Deputy Oil Minister Hossein Noqrekar Shirazi and Managing Director of Syrian Gas company Ali Abbas signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Monday for export of Iran’s gas o Syria by the end of 2009, it was announced on Tuesday.

TEHRAN (FNA) National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC) and the Italian company Edison will sign a contract on the exploration and development of Dayyer Block here today.