AFP: German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer expressed “great concern” about Iran’s nuclear technology programs but said he did not expect Western allies to go to war with Tehran over the issue. “I do not think that we are heading anytime soon into a confrontation similar to the one in Iraq,” Fischer told German news weekly Stern in an issue to be published Thursday.


AFP: President George W. Bush on Tuesday extended for one year a range of financial sanctions first imposed on Iran in November 1979, the White House announced in a statement.
AFP: An upcoming conference on Iraq will be a chance to talk with Iran about its nuclear program at a time of intense world pressure on Tehran to renounce nuclear military activity, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said here Tuesday.
AFP: A top Iranian regime official has warned Britain, France and Germany that the Islamic republic could harden its stance if they failed to show flexibility in a crucial stage of talks over a nuclear stand-off, press reports said Tuesday. “If the Europeans are rational, we can make some assurances… but if they put their foot down, then our attitude will change,” powerful former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was quoted as saying by the Hamshahri newspaper.
AFP: The United States is skeptical about the EU’s efforts to cut a deal with Iran to get it to give up uranium enrichment that could be used to make nuclear weapons, a senior US official said here Tuesday.
Reuters: Iran says it is now able to manufacture large quantities of its medium-range Shahab-3 ballistic missile, which defence experts say is capable of hitting Israel or U.S. bases in the Gulf. “We have the capability to mass-produce Shahab-3 missiles,” Defence Minister Ali Shamkhani told reporters on Tuesday. His comments, reported on several
Human Rights Watch: The Iranian government is moving to silence Internet and Web-log communications, the last remaining outlet for freedom of expression in the country, Human Rights Watch said today. Many of Irans most high-profile civil society activists rely on the internet to get their message out.
New York Times: Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi of Iran on Monday praised the outcome of weekend talks with European negotiators, saying that a preliminary agreement had been reached to suspend Iran’s production of enriched uranium immediately. But he emphasized that any suspension would
AFP: An Iraqi delegation is to deliver a written message from Iraq’s leadership to Iranian President Mohammad Khatami during a visit here Tuesday, an Iraqi diplomat told AFP Monday, amid fresh complaints from Baghdad over alleged Iranian interference. Iraq’s ambassador to Tehran, Mohammad Majid al-Sheikh, said the letter had been written by interim President Ghazi al-Yawar and interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, but …
Reuters: The European Union’s three big powers are “pretty close” to a deal with Iran that would freeze Tehran’s nuclear