Iran Focus

Reuters: The European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said on Thursday she had pressed China to ensure that Chinese companies did not fill the void left by other firms leaving Iran due to U.N. sanctions.

AFP: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is to make a brief visit on Sunday to Qatar, Iran's closest ally among the Gulf Arab states, the Iranian ambassador in Doha, Abdollah Sohrabi, said.

AFP: Hardline "thugs" surrounded the home of opposition Iranian leader Mehdi Karroubi, pelting the building with rocks to prevent the cleric from attending a rally, his website said.

AFP: Prominent Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, barred from attending the screening of his short film "The Accordion" at the Venice film festival, on Wednesday decried his "mental imprisonment."

AFP: Egypt said Thursday it has postponed a visit to Cairo by Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki over comments criticising the role of some Arab leaders in facilitating Middle East peace talks.

The Guardian: The west should use force against Iran if it "continues to develop nuclear weapons", Tony Blair said today, aligning himself with US hawks who have called for strikes against Iranian nuclear sites.

AFP: Hardline Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed on Wednesday the holding of direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, saying the negotiations will fail to resolve conflict in the Middle East.

Reuters: Turkey's gasoline exports to Iran dropped by a hefty 74 percent in July after U.S.-led sanctions against the Islamic Republic came into force, figures obtained by Reuters from Turkey's statistics office showed on Wednesday.

Bloomberg: President Barack Obama leads Israel and the Palestinian Authority into direct talks starting tomorrow aiming for a big prize: a peace deal that will help stabilize the region and thwart Iran’s bid to expand its influence.

AFP: US spy agencies view political stalemate in Iraq as the biggest threat to security in Iraq as the American military scales back its mission in the country, a senior official said on Tuesday.

Reuters: President Barack Obama declared an end to the seven-year U.S. combat mission in Iraq on Tuesday and promised recession-weary Americans "my central responsibility" now is to repair the U.S. economy.

Reuters: Japan is set to toughen sanctions against Iran as early as this week over its disputed nuclear programme, the Nikkei business daily said, following the United States and European Union's leads in pressuring Tehran.

Iran Focus - Editorial: Last week, Iran's madcap president made a series of pompous claims about his regime's potentials and objectives while warning the international community to "sit like polite children and talk".

The Guardian: Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning, was told on Saturday that she was to be hanged at dawn on Sunday, but the sentence was not carried out, it emerged tonight.

Los Angeles Times: Amid the controversy and international outcry sparked by the stoning sentence handed down to a 43-year-old Iranian mother of two, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, Iran's supreme court reportedly has sentenced two more people to stoning on charges of adultery.

AFP: Iran has dismissed as "unacceptable" the continued deployment of American troops in Iraq as US President Barack Obama was to announce on Tuesday the end of combat operations in the country.

Reuters: The Iraqi government has warned neighboring countries thinking they can fill the vacuum once U.S. troops withdraw not to interfere in its affairs, Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said Tuesday.

AFP: France said Tuesday that insults in the Iranian media against first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, who has been branded an "Italian prostitute" who "deserves death", are unacceptable.

Reuters: Iranian paramilitaries surrounded the house of leading opposition figure Mehdi Karoubi Tuesday to prevent the cleric from participating in a religious ceremony, his website said.

AFP: Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has backed the Iranian government's plan to scrap subsidies in the coming weeks, despite concerns from some conservatives of its inflationary impact.

Reuters: An Iranian newspaper said on Tuesday that Carla Bruni, the wife of France's president, deserved to die after she expressed solidarity with a woman sentenced to be stoned for adultery.

Washington Post - Editorial: The official end of U.S. combat operations in Iraq that President Obama will mark with a speech Tuesday night is a milestone but, as we hope Mr. Obama will make clear, hardly an end to America's involvement or strategic interests in the Middle Eastern country.

AP: As Vice President Joe Biden presides over the formal end to U.S. combat operations in Iraq, few Iraqis are cheering the American exit.

Washington Post - By Ryan C. Crocker: Much has been written in recent days about Iraq and anniversaries. August 1990: Iraq invades Kuwait. August 2010: The last U.S. combat brigade withdraws from Iraq. Are these the bookends of a 20-year war? Did we win? What does winning mean?