AFP: The EU on Friday pushed India to use its influence to get Iran to resume talks over its disputed nuclear drive, a day after New Delhi said it wanted to boost trade with the Islamic republic.
EU pressures India over Iran nuclear programme
Hamas ‘will never recognise Israel’: Gaza premier
AFP: Hamas “will never recognise Israel,” its Gaza prime minister said Saturday in a speech in Iran that is likely to complicate Palestinian efforts to form a unity government in the teeth of opposition from the Jewish state.
Hamas leader visits Iran after outreach to Gulf
AP: An Iranian semiofficial news agency reports that the Hamas prime minister of Gaza has arrived in Tehran. The visit may be an attempt by the Palestinian militant movement to avoid snubbing Iran even as it cultivates ties with the wealthy Gulf.
Underneath a bellicose posture, a decaying and fractured regime
UPI: Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a stern warning last week against the international community, which imposed sanctions last month targeting the regime’s vital oil exports and central bank.
Turkey and Iran diverge over Syria
AP: Turkey and Iran, regional heavyweights and heirs to imperial pasts, expanded trade in the past decade and papered over their traditional rivalry with diplomacy and rhetoric. Now these neighbors have staked out opposing positions in Syria, where outside players seek to sway an outcome to the bloodshed that could, in turn, alter power balances in the Middle East.
No Iran requests for Malaysian palm oil barter-sources
Reuters: Iran has not approached Malaysia for barter deals to keep its palm oil supplies flowing as Western financial sanctions hurt it ability to pay for imported food staples, two Malaysian government sources told Reuters on Friday.
Congress needs to demand a plan
New York Times: The strategy we should have had for Iraq was to slowly transition from military presence by building Iraqi capacity to maintain security and grow political institutions that would frame and ensure representative governance in Iraq. President Obama’s rush to the exits precludes that outcome.
Iran may free ex-Marine in prisoner swap
UPI: Iran says it will hang a former U.S. Marine for alleged espionage, but his attorney says a prisoner swap with the United States could save his life.
Dwindling time, rising tension make Iran top fear
AP: The United States and its allies believe the window to stop Iran from building a bomb is quickly closing, pushing conflict with the Islamic republic to the top of the Obama administration’s national security worries in the midst of an election year.
India eyes business with sanctions-hit Iran
AFP: India Thursday said it would send a “huge” trade mission to Iran to explore business opportunities created by sanctions imposed by the West over the Islamic Republic’s disputed nuclear programme.
