AFP: A son of Osama bin Laden said Sunday on Al-Arabiya television that 20 members of the Al-Qaeda chief’s family are stranded in Iran as Tehran is refusing to discuss their fate with Saudi Arabia.
Bin Laden’s ’20-strong family stranded in Iran’: son
CIA suspects Iranian nuclear defector who returned to Tehran was a double agent
Sunday Telegraph: The CIA is investigating whether Shahram Amiri, the Iranian nuclear scientist who defected to the US but last week flew back to Tehran, was a double agent.
Free the hikers
Washington Post – Editorial: The more information becomes available about Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri, the more the Obama administration’s version of events seems borne out: He freely chose to leave Iran for the United States, and he freely chose to return.
Iranian prosecutor urges Islamic dress checks
Reuters: Iran’s prosecutor called on Sunday for tighter checks on women who fail to observe Islamic dress code in public, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.
Lifting the ban on Iran’s opposition
Iran Focus – Editorial: On Friday, a federal appeals court in the United States ordered the State Department to re-examine a controversial decision to maintain the main Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin (PMOI), on its list of Foreign Terrorist Organisations. The ruling was a major victory for the PMOI in its 13-year legal battle to get off the FTO list.
Stoned in Iran
Wall Street Journal – REVIEW & OUTLOOK: If an Iranian prosecutor has his way, a 43-year-old mother of two will soon be taken from her cell in Tabriz prison, wrapped in a white shroud, buried up to her chest in a dirt pit, and stoned to death. It will take time—maybe half an hour—for her to die.
Iran threatens to blacklist foreign oil firms
AFP: Oil Minister Massoud Mirkazemi warned on Saturday that Iran will blacklist foreign firms like Russian energy giant Lukoil that pull out of projects because of sanctions against Tehran.
Iran Guards warn U.S. of “fallout” over bomb attack
Reuters: The United States will face “fallout” from a deadly rebel bomb attack in southeast Iran, a senior Revolutionary Guards commander was quoted as saying on Saturday by a semi-official Iranian news agency.
Iraqi cleric Sadr visits Syria from exile in Iran
AFP: Self-exiled Iraqi radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr visited Damascus on Saturday from his base in Iran for talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Iraqi affairs.
Swiss ambassador briefly taken into custody, Iran media reports
CNN: Swiss Ambassador Livia Leu Agosti was arrested and released by Iranian authorities during a recent trip to the northern province of Khorasan, Iranian media reported Saturday.
