AP: President Barack Obama’s pick for defense secretary, Chuck Hagel, is meeting with senior Pentagon staff to try to set the record straight about his stand on Iran, saying he backs strong international sanctions against Tehran and believes all options, including military action, should be on the table.
Defense nominee Hagel lays out stand on Iran
Turkey holds plane en route to Iran: customs official
AFP: Turkey has for several days been holding a cargo plane en route from the United Arab Emirates to Iran after its crew refused to document its load, a customs ministry official told AFP on Wednesday.
US sees Iran behind hostage photos of ex-FBI agent
AP: Two years after a hostage video and photographs of retired FBI agent Robert Levinson raised the possibility that the missing American was being held by terrorists, U.S. officials now see the government of Iran behind the images, intelligence officials told The Associated Press.
Iran arrests 10 Indian fishermen: report
AFP: Iran has arrested 10 Indians after their vessels strayed into its territorial waters, a provincial official told the Fars news agency on Tuesday.
Khamenei tells Iranians: criticizing election will help enemies
Reuters: Iran’s leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned the Iranian public on Tuesday against helping Tehran’s enemies by criticizing the forthcoming presidential election.
Briton to be sentenced in weapons-to-Iran plot
AP: A British businessman who pleaded guilty to trying to buy missile parts and resell them to Iran is expected to learn his punishment. Christopher Tappin is scheduled to appear before U.S. District Judge David Briones in El Paso, Texas, on Wednesday.
Iran, Syria, not settlements, threaten world: Israel PM
AFP: Iran’s nuclear ambitions and Syria’s chemical weapons are the real threats facing the world, not Israeli settlement building, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday.
Iran says it’s hopeful on Hagel nomination
AP: Iran’s Foreign Ministry says it is hopeful the appointment of former Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel to lead the Pentagon would improve relations between Tehran and the U.S.
Labour activist wins temporary prison leave
Iran Focus: Reza Shahabi, a member of the Board of Directors Tehran’s Bus Drivers Syndicate, who had gone on a hunger strike 23 days ago to protest against prison officials’ refusal to allow him with proper medical care (Iran Focus, 2 Jan.), won a five-day leave from prison.
New Iran sanctions target industry in bid for deal curbing nuclear program
Washington Post: New U.S. sanctions have broadened the front in the West’s escalating economic conflict with Iran, targeting large swaths of the country’s industrial infrastructure even as Iranian leaders are indicating a willingness to resume negotiations on the country’s nuclear program.
