Daily Mail: A British housewife and her husband have been accused of spying for Iran in a leaked US government report. Anne Singleton, 53, is alleged to have been blackmailed into training with the Iranian secret service during a visit to Tehran in 2002.
British housewife accused by the US of spying for Iran ‘to save her brother-in-law’s life’
Khamenei says US couldn’t stop Iran getting bomb
AFP: Iran has no intention of developing nuclear weapons but if it wanted to, the United States could not thwart it, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday.
Iran’s Khamenei says irked by officials infighting
AFP: Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday expressed disappointment at intense public infighting between senior officials, calling for “calm” amid Western economic sanctions.
Iran could use U.N. talks as cover to build bomb, Ban Ki-moon says
Washington Post: The United Nations must be decisive and swift in judging whether diplomacy can resolve world concerns about Iran’s nuclear program, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday, or invite the risk that Iran, like North Korea, will use talks as a cover to build a bomb.
Iranian leader: Iran not seeking nuclear weapons
AP: Iran’s Supreme Leader said Saturday that his country is not seeking nuclear weapons, but that no world power could stop Tehran’s access to an atomic bomb if it intended to build one.
Iran bans pistachio exports to control price hike
AP: Iran has ordered a six-month ban on pistachio exports to try to control the price of the nut, which doubled in the past month. Iran was long the world’s largest pistachio exporter, with over 200,000 tons a year, but was surpassed last year by the United States.
Turkey-Iran gold trade wiped out by new U.S. sanctions
Reuters: Tighter U.S. sanctions are killing off Turkey’s gold-for-gas trade with Iran and have stopped state-owned lender Halkbank from processing other nations’ energy payments to the OPEC oil producer, bankers said on Friday.
Iran’s bid to buy banned magnets stokes fears about major expansion of nuclear capacity
Washington Post: Iran recently sought to acquire tens of thousands of highly specialized magnets used in centrifuge machines, according to experts and diplomats, a sign that the country may be planning a major expansion of its nuclear program that could shorten the path to an atomic weapons capability.
Iranian Guards commander killed in Syria
Reuters: An Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander has been killed inside Syria by rebels battling Iran’s close ally President Bashar al-Assad, Iranian officials and a rebel leader said on Thursday.
Iran denies transferring arms to Somali militants
AP: Iran’s U.N. Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee said in a letter to the U.N. Security Council obtained Thursday by The Associated Press that the allegations in a report by experts monitoring sanctions against Somalia and Eritrea were part of a “malicious campaign.”
