Middle Orient

Hosting an Iranian delegation headed by deputy Interior Minister for Security Affairs Mohammad Baqer Zolqadr last week, Russia proved inefficiency of the recent UN Security Council (UNSC) Resolution against Iran’s nuclear activities.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Reza Baqeri said his chief has no program for meeting his US counterpart Condoleezza Rice on the sidelines of the meeting of the foreign ministers of Iraq’s neighbors in Sharm ol-Sheikh, Egypt.

Member of the Iranian parliament’s presiding board said that Iran’s giant and frequent successes in the acquisition of the nuclear fuel production cycle guarantee its power and might in the international arena.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said he can’t promise to set free the five Iranian diplomats kidnapped during a raid by the US troops on Iran’s consulate general in the Iraqi northern city of Erbil a few months ago.

Iran’s executive director at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that the US boycott on two Iranian banks is against the contents of the IMF agreement, and called on IMF officials to take the required actions in this regard.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that the Islamic Republic is determined to pursue the case of the Iranian diplomats kidnapped in Iraq and set them free.

Russian officials in charge of construction of Bushehr nuclear project are likely to pay a visit to Tehran later this week, an informed source said here on Sunday.

Iran’s First Vice-President Parviz Dawoodi said that the release of the second Secretary of Iran’s Embassy in Baghdad, Jalal Sharafi, was in no way related to the pardoning of the 15 British troops who trespassed on Iran’s waters.

Tehran believes that the summit of the foreign ministers of Iraq’s neighboring states should be held in Baghdad, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Mohammad Ali Hosseini said.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel described as a worthless theatrical act the recent interview with 6 of the freed British marines broadcast by western media.