AFP: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad shifted two of controversial aides into new jobs on Saturday, state news agency IRNA reported.
Iran president reshuffles controversial aides
Iraq says it can’t search all Syria-bound planes
AP: Iraq’s prime minister says his country is unable to search all Syria-bound Iranian planes that fly through Iraqi airspace. But Nouri al-Maliki said Saturday that Iraq is committed to preventing weapons from being shipped through the country to Syria.
Iran sacks cyber police chief over blogger’s death
AFP: Tehran’s cyber police chief has been sacked for negligence in events leading to the death in custody of an Iranian blogger, Iran’s police said on its website on Saturday.
Nations may keep sanctions exemption for cutting Iran oil
Bloomberg: Oil-importing nations are continuing to cut back their purchases from Iran, making it likely those countries will earn a new round of exceptions from U.S. sanctions next week.
Clinton says U.S. open to bilateral talks if Iran is “ever ready”
Reuters: Responding to a question, Clinton called Iran the hardest issue she has dealt with as secretary of state “because of the dangers that its behavior already poses and the geometrically greater danger that a nuclear-armed Iran would pose.”
Outspoken Swedish Academy member, awarder of Nobel, dies
AFP: Swedish author Knut Ahnlund, a member of the Swedish Academy that awards the Nobel Literature Prize and who boycotted its workings over Iran’s fatwa against Salman Rushdie, has died aged 89, the Academy said Friday.
Iranian channel reports bomb outside its office in Damascus
New York Times: Iran’s state-owned satellite channel Press TV reports that a bomb destroyed six vehicles, including a satellite news truck near the broadcaster’s office in Damascus early on Friday.
U.S. demands Iran release hunger-striking human rights lawyer
Reuters: The United States on Friday demanded that Iran free jailed human rights activist Nasrin Sotoudeh, who it said has been on hunger strike for more than six weeks, and sharply criticized Iranian authorities for their treatment of the 49-year-old prize-winning lawyer.
Supposed Iranian nuke graph off; UN still worried
AP: A leaked diagram suggesting that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon is scientifically flawed, diplomats working with the U.N. nuclear agency conceded Friday. However they insisted that it still supports suspicions that Tehran is trying to build a bomb, especially when combined with other documents that remain secret.
Iranian defiance at IAEA sparks Western ‘pessimism’
AFP: Iran fiercely denied Friday seeking nuclear weapons and threatened to withdraw from a key treaty aimed at stopping their spread, in another note of defiance just as fresh diplomatic efforts gather pace.
