AFP: Canada’s embassy in Tehran said on Sunday it has closed its visa section effective immediately as a cost-cutting measure that will affect thousands of Iranians.
Canada closes visa section in Tehran embassy
Iran and Obama’s Syria hesitation
Wall Street Journal: The president fears confronting Assad because of the effect it might have on his nuclear diplomacy.
US pastor burns Korans to urge Iran clergyman release
AFP: A controversial Florida pastor has burned copies of the Koran and a depiction of the prophet Mohammed to protest the imprisonment in Iran of a Christian clergyman Youcef Nadarkhani.
Iran to tap local banks for petrochemical projects
Bloomberg: Iran’s National Petrochemical Co. plans to borrow from local banks some of the $50 billion it needs to develop 60 projects by the end of 2015, the Oil Ministry’s news website Shana reported.
Iran lawmaker: Fighters in UAE are US-Israeli plot
AP: A prominent Iranian lawmaker says the reported basing of America’s most sophisticated stealth jet fighters in the United Arab Emirates is a U.S.-Israel plot to create regional instability.
Iran skeptical but open to U.S. overture on nuclear program
Los Angeles Times: An Iranian Foreign Ministry official says the Obama administration’s offer to consider allowing limited uranium enrichment ‘would be a good start.’
Iran’s appalling human rights record has not deterred organised opposition
The Independent: Another tragic political execution is regrettably imminent in Tehran, where the mullahs have already murdered 120,000 members and supporters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), the main opposition movement.
UN nuclear watchdog to resume Iran talks in mid-May
Reuters: The United Nations nuclear watchdog confirmed on Saturday it will resume talks with Iran in mid-May, more than two months after the last meeting over concerns about the Islamic state’s atomic activities ended in failure.
Tehran police in new dress code crackdown
AFP: Police in Tehran are conducting a new crackdown on women wearing mandatory headscarves improperly or in “vulgar” dress, the city’s police chief said, according to media reports on Saturday.
Possibility of war ‘very, very weak’: Iran official
AFP: An Iranian foreign ministry official Friday in Warsaw played down the likelihood of a Western attack or invasion of his country, saying the “possibility of war is very, very weak.”
