AP: Iran’s official news agency is reporting that a blast caused by leftover ammunition has killed at least seven workers including foreign nationals at a steel mill in the central city of Yazd.
Report: Blast kills 7 in steel mill in Iran
Iran army declines comment on MP’s Hormuz exercise remarks
Reuters: A member of the Iranian parliament’s National Security Committee said on Monday that the military was set to practice its ability to close the Gulf to shipping at the narrow Strait of Hormuz, the most important oil transit channel in the world, but there was no official confirmation.
Obama demands Iran return downed US drone
AFP: President Barack Obama acknowledged for the first time Monday that a US drone was in Iranian hands and said the United States has asked Tehran to return the sophisticated spycraft.
Iran central bank urges measures against sanctions, Mehr says
Bloomberg: Iran needs to come up with solutions to face western countries’ punitive measures that target its central bank, Mehr reported, citing Mahmoud Bahmani, the bank’s governor.
Iran says it’s recovering data from US drone
AP: Iranian experts are in the final stages of recovering data from the U.S. surveillance drone captured by the country’s armed forces, state TV reported Monday.
U.S.-listed firms told to reveal Syria, Iran links: FT
Reuters: At least a dozen U.S.-listed companies have been told by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to disclose business activity in and with Syria, Iran and others deemed “state sponsors” of terror by the state department, the Financial Times said on Sunday.
UN-Iraq calls on Europe to take Iran camp members
AFP: European states should agree to accept members of an exiled Iranian group whose base in Iraq is being threatened with closure at year-end, the United Nations’s special envoy to Baghdad said on Monday.
Iran says it will not return US drone
AP: Iran will not return a U.S. surveillance drone captured by its armed forces, a senior commander of the country’s elite Revolutionary Guard said Sunday.
Iran says EU “definitely” will not impose oil sanctions
Reuters: Iran said on Sunday the European Union “definitely” will not impose sanctions on the country’s oil exports as the measure will harm the global crude market, the Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said.
Iran’s boasts over US drone reveal inconsistencies
AFP: Iran’s boast it downed a highly sophisticated US drone has handed the Islamic republic a propaganda coup while revealing numerous inconsistencies in both Iranian and US accounts of the incident.
