AFP: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday she was open to direct talks with Iran if it froze its sensitive uranium enrichment work.
Rice ready for direct Iran talks if enrichment stops
UN chief: ‘Tone down rhetoric’ in Iran-Britain crisis
AFP: UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Monday urged the release of 15 British naval personnel 10 days after Iran seized them in the Gulf and said “rhetoric should be toned down.”
Iran says hopeful of end to row with Britain
AFP: Iran is hopeful the standoff with Britain over the detention of 15 sailors will be resolved “soon” but London must recognise that its forces illegally entered Iranian waters, Vice President Parviz Davoudi said on Tuesday.
Iran says snatched diplomat freed in Iraq
AFP: The Iranian embassy in Baghdad said on Tuesday that its second secretary, Jalal Sharafi, who had been kidnapped in the Iraqi capital in February had been released.
Nuclear Iran would destabilize Middle East: Bush
AFP: US President George W. Bush warned Tuesday that a nuclear-armed Iran would be “a seriously destabilizing influence in the Middle East” and vowed to keep working to prevent it.
Iran ready for US talks if no conditions
AFP: Iran on Tuesday reaffirmed it was ready to hold talks with its arch enemy the United States, but only if Washington drops its insistence that Tehran halts sensitive nuclear work first.
Bush sees no swap for British sailors in Iran
Reuters: President George W. Bush said on Tuesday his administration was consulting with Britain on Iran’s seizure of 15 British sailors and marines but that there would be no swap of the Britons for Iranians held in Iraq.
U.S. could strike Iran but not win-Russian general
Reuters: The United States cannot inflict a military defeat on Iran and any attack would be a huge political mistake, Russia’s top general said on Tuesday.
Moscow calls for Teheran to pay on time for nuclear plant
AFP: Russia’s federal atomic energy agency, Rosatom, on Tuesday said it hoped Teheran would make timely payments for a Russian-built nuclear power plant in the southwestern Iranian town of Bushehr.
ABC News: Iran may produce first nuclear bomb by 2009
Iran Focus: London, Apr. 03 Iran may be able to produce its first nuclear bomb by 2009, the U.S.-based news channel ABC News reported on Monday.
