Bloomberg: Senate Banking Committee leaders circulated draft legislation that would tighten sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program and its human-rights record.

Reuters: Iranian traffickers, trying to dodge an embargo imposed by Western nations over Iran’s nuclear program, are smuggling weapons on container ships owned by firms from the countries that imposed the sanctions, a think-tank said Monday.

AFP: Iran has developed laser-guided artillery rounds designed to home in on stationary or moving targets at a distance of up to 20 kilometres (12 miles), Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi told state media Monday.

AFP: India said Monday it may use its own currency, the rupee, to pay for oil imports from Iran in the face of a US-led sanctions campaign aimed at forcing Tehran to abandon its nuclear programme.

AFP: Iran could develop a nuclear bomb in about a year and create the means for delivery in a further two to three years, the US defense chief said Sunday, reiterating President Barack Obama’s determination to halt the effort.

Wall Street Journal: Pentagon war planners have concluded that their largest conventional bomb isn’t yet capable of destroying Iran’s most heavily fortified underground facilities, and are stepping up efforts to make it more powerful, according to U.S. officials briefed on the plan.

Reuters: Iran called on staunch ally Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday to hold free elections and allow multiple political parties to operate in the country, but said he must be given time to implement these reforms.

Reuters: Iran sent conflicting signals in a dispute with the West over its nuclear ambitions on Sunday, vowing to stop oil exports soon to “some” countries but postponing a parliamentary debate on a proposed halt to such sales to the European Union.

AFP: Iranian media on Sunday confirmed an Iranian man with Canadian residency has had a death sentence against him reinstated by the supreme court on charges he operated a pornographic website.