AFP: The European Union’s Dutch presidency dismissed Thursday speculation about a US military strike on Iran to force the Islamic republic to abandon its nuclear drive.
Referring to suggestions that some in the United States wanted to attack Iran, labelled part of an “axis of evil” by the re-elected President George W. Bush, Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot said “not all people in Washington” endorsed this.
EU presidency rejects talk of military strikes on Iran
U.S. official’s visit to Iran called cultural ‘outreach’
The New York Times: James Billington, the librarian of Congress, is in Iran this week on the first visit by a notable U.S. government official to that country in 18 years, administration officials said. The unannounced visit was confirmed by the Library of Congress on Wednesday after it was disclosed by the Federation of American Scientists, an independent policy group in Washington.
China’s FM to visit Iran, discuss nuclear issue
Reuters: Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, deeply involved in efforts to end the North Korean nuclear standoff, will visit Iran later this week and discuss the Islamic republic’s own nuclear crisis.
The United States accuses Iran of seeking to build nuclear bombs. It wants the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to report it at a Nov. 25 meeting to the U.N. Security Council for defying the watchdog’s demands to halt uranium enrichment.
Iranian press says Bush win a victory for violence
AFP: The Iranian press on Thursday derided US President George W. Bush’s re-election as a victory for violence on the 25th anniversary of the storming of the former American embassy in Tehran.
Iran and EU hold last-chance meeting on Tehran’s nuclear program
AFP: Iran and the EU continue last-chance talks in Paris Friday with both sides seeking compromise over Europe’s call for the Islamic Republic to suspend uranium enrichment in order to allay US-led concerns it is secretly developing nuclear weapons. The European Union is no longer explicitly calling
for an indefinite suspension of Iran’s uranium enrichment …
US attack on Iran is ‘inconceivable’: Britain’s Straw
AFP: British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on Thursday it was “inconceivable” that the United States would attack Iran over its nuclear programme and that the world would back such action. “I don’t see any circumstances in which military action would be justified against Iran full stop,” Straw told BBC radio.
Iranians Express Ire at Bush
Washington Post: George Bush may have triumphed at home, but he was burned in effigy again and again in Iran Wednesday. Officially, the angry street demonstration marked the 25th anniversary of the student takeover of the old U.S. Embassy, when 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days. But
unlike past commemorations, this one focused just as much on the future — and the potential for another showdown with
the United States during Bush’s second term.
Protests, Flag Burning Mark 1979 Embassy Seizure In Iran
Associated Press: Students burned American flags and
effigies of President George W. Bush on Wednesday to mark the 25th anniversary of the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, while a top Iranian official accused Washington of undermining his country’s goodwill gestures.
Iran can make the bomb, but doesn’t want to: Iranian official
AFP: Iran has the capacity to produce nuclear weapons but does not intend doing so, a senior Iranian official said here Wednesday. “We do not intend making nuclear weapons,”
said Ali Akbar Soltan, deputy director-general of Iran’s foreign ministry political department.
Indian Oil signs preliminary pact on proposal to develop Iran gasfield
AFP: Leading state-run refiner Indian Oil Corp (IOC) said Wednesday it has signed an agreement to put forward a joint proposal to develop a gasfield in Iran, a project estimated to cost three billion dollars. The memorandum of understanding was signed Monday with Petropars, a unit of the National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC), said an IOC spokesman. The two firms will draw up a joint proposal for exploiting the gasfield and setting up liquefied natural gas liquefaction facilities.
