Iran said that it would consider possibility for continuing talks with Washington on Iraq if only US officials extended a relevant request to Tehran through diplomatic channels.

Iran will open a consulate in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil on Tuesday, Tehran’s third such office in the war-ravaged country, a senior Kurdish official said on Monday.

An Iranian lawmaker said here on Monday that the Islamic Republic would certainly produce its needed nuclear fuel inside the country.

Iran and Malaysia are set to form a joint committee to exchange more tourists and help expand their tourism industry.

Iran’s commerce minister here on Sunday said that the Islamic Republic and some Latin countries have decided to establish a joint shipping company to further expand economic relations.

Iran warned foreign oil and gas firms on Sunday that it will implement major projects with domestic companies alone if they do not speed up the completion of negotiations.

Muhammad Makkawi, the project director of Dana’s affiliate Crescent Petroleum, said that in the coming months some 600 million cfd of Iranian natural gas would start to be delivered to end users in the UAE early next year.

The Middle East has acquired immense strategic value as one of the determining fulcrums in the global balance of power due to its being the world’s largest known storehouse of low-cost energy supplies.

Iran has shut down several traditional tea houses popular with Iranians and foreign tourists alike in historic cities because they offer water pipes, a newspaper said on Sunday.

Supreme State Attorney Renata Vesecka wants to ask Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek to assign the civilian counter-intelligence service (BIS) to check the information leak from