AFP: Iran will not give UN nuclear inspectors access to a military base outside Tehran that they have been seeking to visit since 2005, Defence Minister Hossein Dehgan said on Saturday. Dehgan’s comments, reported by the ISNA news agency, came just two days before a deadline for Iran to answer historic allegations of a military dimension to its nuclear research.
Iran refuses UN nuclear watchdog access to Parchin base
Iran unveils new short-range missiles, drones
AP: Iran has produced a new generation of short-range marine missiles and aerial drones, the official IRNA news agency reported Sunday. The report said the Ghadir missile, with a range of 100 kilometers (62 miles), is designed to destroy marine targets. It did not give a range for the Nasr-e Basir cruise missile, but said it could “operate in silence,” without elaborating.
Baku, Tehran sign energy agreements
UPI: Azerbaijan said it signed a memorandum of understanding to broaden energy ties in the Iranian oil and natural gas sector. The State Oil Co. of the Azerbaijan Republic said its delegates have spent the last three days in Iran visiting with ministers and representatives from the energy sector. SOCAR said it reviewed interests expressed by Iran’s Khazar Exploration and Production Co. to work on oil and gas issues.
U.N. nuclear inquiry on Iran seen making slow headway – diplomats
Reuters: The U.N. nuclear watchdog appears to have made only limited progress so far in getting Iran to answer questions about its suspected atomic bomb research. Under an accord reached by the U.N. agency and Iran in November in an attempt to revive the long-stalled investigation, Tehran agreed in May to carry out five specific steps by Aug. 25 to help allay international concerns.
Iran to send aid to Gaza via Egypt: report
AFP: Iran plans to send aid to the beleaguered Gaza Strip after Egypt said it would allow the shipment to enter the Palestinian territory, an Iranian diplomatic source said on Friday. The official IRNA news agency said Cairo had agreed to transfer humanitarian aid bound for the coastal enclave, citing a foreign ministry source in Tehran.
Iran links Iraq role to lifting of Western sanctions
AFP – Iran is ready to join international action against jihadists in Iraq provided the West lifts crippling sanctions, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Thursday. His comments followed a call by French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Wednesday for all countries in the region, including Iran, to join the fight against Islamic State (IS) fighters who have seized swathes of Iraq as well as neighbouring Syria.
The lioness of Iran
Wall Street Journal: For a lesson in the power of artists to shake despots, consider the Iranian poet Simin Behbahani. The Islamic Republic four years ago imposed a travel ban on her in retaliation for poems she’d written denouncing Tehran’s crackdown on the 2009 Green uprising. She was 82 and nearly blind, yet she was barred from boarding a France-bound plane and interrogated through the night in March 2010.
China’s July crude imports from Iran hold at elevated volumes
Reuters: China’s crude imports from Iran expanded 40.6 percent in July from a year ago, customs data showed on Thursday, as Tehran’s largest oil client stayed with the elevated shipment levels that began late last year. China began stepping up purchases from Iran after a preliminary nuclear deal in November of last year eased some sanctions on Iran.
Iran is the real Middle East threat
The Hill: Images of unrest emerging from Iraq are deeply troubling and concerns relating to the rise of ISIS come from a noble place – an American belief that bullies should be held accountable. But such convictions are misplaced when it comes to the ongoing crisis on the Iraqi street. The real threat to peace and security in the Middle East is the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Simin Behbahani, Iranian poet quoted by Obama, dies at age 87
Bloomberg: Iranian poet Simin Behbahani, whose politically defiant writing was mentioned by U.S. President Barack Obama in a message aimed at improving relations with the Islamic Republic, has died at the age of 87 in Tehran. Behbahani died from heart failure at around 1:15 a.m. local time today at a hospital in the Iranian capital, her son, Ali Behbahani, said in a phone interview.
