It is unlikely that Iran, being a sovereign state, will yield to the latest deadline of the United States pressurizing Iran to answer an international nuclear incentives offer or face new sanctions.

 President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday that Iran has always welcomed just negotiations.

The Norwegian StatoilHydro company has not officially announced that it would withdraw from activities in an Iranian oil field, Oil Minister Gholam-Hossein Nozari said on Saturday.