Wall Street Journal: U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner headed to Asia Sunday to seek support from China and Japan for boosting financial pressure on Iran in an effort to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons.
Geithner’s Asia trip to focus on Iran
UK sends new warship to Gulf amid Iran tensions
AFP: Britain’s newest warship is heading to the Gulf for its first mission at a time of tensions over Iran’s threat to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a key transport route for oil.
Iran denies central bank resignation rumor
Reuters: A senior Central Bank of Iran official has denied rumors that the bank’s governor has resigned, the ISNA news agency reported Saturday, in a week when the currency hit a record low amid rising inflation and concerns about tighter economic sanctions.
US: Iran has not yet decided to build nuclear bomb
AP: Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says Iran is laying the groundwork for making nuclear weapons someday, but is not yet building a bomb and called for continued diplomatic and economic pressure to persuade Tehran not to take that step.
Iranian president to tour US foes in Latin America
AFP: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, under growing pressure from debilitating Western economic sanctions, starts a Latin America tour Sunday aimed at shoring up ties with his few remaining allies.
Report: Iran begins uranium enrichment at new site
AP: Iran has begun uranium enrichment at a new underground site well protected from possible airstrikes, a leading hardline newspaper reported Sunday.
US Navy rescues Iranian fishing boat from pirates
AP: The political tensions between the U.S. and Iran over transit in and around the Persian Gulf gave way Friday to photos of rescued Iranian fisherman happily wearing American Navy ball caps.
Iran holds military exercise near Afghan border
Reuters: Iran launched a military manoeuvre near its border with Afghanistan on Saturday, the semi-official Fars news agency reported, days after naval exercises in the Gulf increased tensions with the West and pushed up oil prices.
West readies oil stocks release as Iran plans war games
Reuters: Iran announced on Friday new military exercises in the Strait of Hormuz, but the West has readied plans to use strategic oil stocks to replace almost all Gulf oil lost if Iran blocks the waterway, industry sources and diplomats told Reuters.
Iran group say US responsible for members in Iraq
Reuters: The leader of an Iranian dissident group in Iraq said on Friday the United States would be responsible for any harm that came to 3,000 of its members who could be forcefully moved to a camp outside Baghdad that they describe as a prison.
