AFP: Qatar on Sunday denied press reports that it had seized two Iranian boats carrying weapons in the Gulf amid mounting tensions in the strategic region.
Qatar denies seizing Iran arms ships
Iran says OPEC special meeting ‘unnecessary’
AFP: Iran Oil Minister Masoud Mirkazemi sees no reason to call an extraordinary meeting of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Country (OPEC), Mehr news agency reported on Saturday.
Austria’s OMV ends Iran Air fuel contract – paper
Reuters: Oil and gas group OMV has not renewed a fuel supply contract with Iran’s state airline because of international sanctions against the Islamic Republic, an Austrian newspaper reported.
Iran only making slow nuclear progress: expert
AFP: Iran is not making fast progress towards acquiring a nuclear weapon, a US expert said Friday, adding he believed Tehran would still need another two years to achieve that goal.
Bahrain says meddling by Iran risks ‘conflict’
Wall Street Journal: Bahrain gave its sternest warning yet to Iran to keep out of its affairs, saying an escalation in the two countries’ dispute over Bahrain’s recent crackdown on political unrest could even lead to “conflict.”
Iran blasts appointment of UN rights investigator
AP: Tehran lashed out on Friday at the decision by U.N.’s top human rights body to appoint a special investigator to look into allegations of human rights abuses in Iran, saying the newly created post is “politically motivated” and meant to divert attention from abuses in the United States.
Attacks on Iranian security forces kill two: report
AFP: Two members of Iranian security forces were killed during separate “armed actions” in the city of Sanandaj, capital of Iranian Kurdistan on the border with Iraq, Mehr news agency reported Friday.
Gulf states ‘to deport Hezbollah, Iranian agents’
AFP: Arab states in the Gulf plan to deport thousands of Lebanese Shiites over their alleged links to Hezbollah and Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard force, a Kuwaiti newspaper reported on Thursday.
Obama on Iran’s dissidents
Wall Street Journal – REVIEW & OUTLOOK: Monday was Nowruz, the Persian New Year, and hundreds of Iranian political prisoners again spent the holiday behind bars. The difference this year is that President Obama mentioned some of those prisoners by name. That’s a welcome first.
Four charged in plot to export jet engines to Iran
AFP: Four Colombians face charges linked to an attempt to illegally export 22 F-5 fighter jet engines to Iran, the US Justice Department said Wednesday.
