Reuters: Iran, dismayed at the plight of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, is seeking to shore him up and counter a perceived drive by Western and U.S.-aligned Sunni Muslim nations to roll back its own power in the Middle East.

Reuters: Asia’s major crude buyers are finding ways around tough U.S. and EU sanctions to maintain imports from Iran, suggesting that, for now, the worst may be over for the OPEC producer that is losing more than $100 million a day in oil export revenues.

Bloomber: New York’s financial-services regulator has grounds to shut Standard Chartered Plc (STAN) in the state even if he accepts the firm’s argument that it illegally laundered only a fraction of the $250 billion he claims.

AFP: The United States on Thursday accused Iran of playing a “nefarious” role in the Syria conflict, one that strengthens the case for President Bashar al-Assad to be forced out of office.

AP: Iran appears intent on strengthening its role as Assad’s big brother with outreach that included a visit to Damascus on Tuesday by one of the ruling clerics’ top envoys, who tried to frame the conflict as part of Iran’s wider showdown with the West.

AFP: The United States on Thursday dismissed a 29 nation conference on the Syria crisis in Tehran, saying the Islamic Republic had been helping Bashar al-Assad kill his people.

AP: An Iranian semiofficial news agency is quoting the country’s acting navy commander as saying that Tehran has no immediate plans to build nuclear naval reactors.

Bloomberg: Iran’s ministry of industries, mines and commerce will pay 10 trillion rials ($816 million) to Iranian carmakers as they are going through “financial problems,” Tehran Times reported.