AFP: The UN atomic agency thinks Iran could have 8,000 centrifuges enriching uranium by December, a significant rise in nuclear capability likely to fuel fears that Tehran seeks nuclear weapons, diplomats said Tuesday.
Iran cranking up uranium enrichment capability: diplomats
Iran says judge to decide next week on U.S.-Iranians
Reuters: An Iranian judge will next week decide whether to indict or free three American-Iranians accused of acting against national security, a judiciary spokesman said on Tuesday.
Reid says U.S. strike on Iran would be destabilizing
Reuters: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid rejected on Monday another prominent senator’s call for a military strike against Iran, saying a U.S. attack would destabilize the Middle East.
U.N. monitor urges defusing of stalemate over Iran
New York Times: The director general of the United Nations nuclear inspection agency warned Tehran and Washington for the first time on Monday that their yearlong stalemate over Irans nuclear activities was turning into a brewing confrontation that he said urgently needs to be defused.
Ahmadinejad aims for a big hit with his ‘works and opinions’
The Guardian: He has provoked the west’s fury with his calls for Israel’s elimination, dismissal of the Holocaust as a “myth” and strident advocacy of Iran’s nuclear rights. Now Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, has ordered his fiery polemics to be saved for posterity in preparation for commercial publication.
Iran to make U.S. “regret” detention of Iranians-FM
Reuters: Iran will make the United States “regret” its detention of five Iranians in Iraq since early this year, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Tuesday.
IAEA warns of Iran atomic risk amid EU-Tehran talks
Reuters: Iran’s nuclear behavior poses a serious concern it might gain the ability to build atom bombs, the U.N. atomic watchdog agency said on Monday as Tehran and the EU resumed talks but dampened expectations of a breakthrough.
House OKs ban on F-14 part sales to Iran
AP: The House drew attention Monday to the danger posed by shortcomings in U.S. military surplus sales, voting a second time to ban the Pentagon from selling leftover F-14 fighter jet parts sought by Iran.
Iran ex-president criticised for ‘shaking woman’s hand’
AFP: A hardline Iranian daily on Monday launched an attack on former reformist president Mohammad Khatami who it said had publicly shaken hands with women while on a visit to Italy last month.
Kuwait says US cannot use bases for any Iran strike
AFP: Kuwait, a staunch US ally, said on Monday it would not allow the United States to use its territory as a launch-pad for any attack on Iran over its nuclear programme.
