AP: Iran’s Foreign Ministry says it is hopeful the appointment of former Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel to lead the Pentagon would improve relations between Tehran and the U.S.
Iran says it’s hopeful on Hagel nomination
Labour activist wins temporary prison leave
Iran Focus: Reza Shahabi, a member of the Board of Directors Tehran’s Bus Drivers Syndicate, who had gone on a hunger strike 23 days ago to protest against prison officials’ refusal to allow him with proper medical care (Iran Focus, 2 Jan.), won a five-day leave from prison.
New Iran sanctions target industry in bid for deal curbing nuclear program
Washington Post: New U.S. sanctions have broadened the front in the West’s escalating economic conflict with Iran, targeting large swaths of the country’s industrial infrastructure even as Iranian leaders are indicating a willingness to resume negotiations on the country’s nuclear program.
Ahmadinejad aide replaced as Iran news agency boss
AFP: A top aide to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who has been jailed since September was replaced on Monday as the head of Iran’s state Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), it and other media reported.
Israel presses U.S. for military threat against Iran
Bloomberg: Israel is again turning up the pressure on the Obama administration to issue an ultimatum threatening military action if Iran refuses to abandon its suspected pursuit of an atomic weapons capability.
Iran oil exports ‘plunge 40% in nine months’
AFP: Iran’s oil exports have been slashed 40 percent in the past nine months because of tough Western sanctions, Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi was quoted as saying on Monday, in a reversal of his previous denials of any decline at all.
Iran to hang dissidents on bogus charges
Iran Focus: Friday prayer leader of the northwestern town of Marivan has gone to Tehran to prevent the prosecutor general and the judiciary from hanging two political dissidents, Loqman and Zaniar Moradi, according to their family, which requested anonymity fearing regime reprisals.
Iran lawmakers find cyber police guilty of blogger death: Mehr
Bloomberg: Iran’s parliament said the Tehran branch of the cyber police unit is responsible for the death in detention of a blogger who had criticized the Islamic Republic’s government, the state-run Mehr news agency reported.
Iran welcomes Assad’s “peace plan” for Syria
Reuters: Iran welcomed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s television address, saying he had rejected violence and offered a “comprehensive political process” to end his country’s conflict, Iranian media reported on Monday.
Tehran air pollution ‘leaves 4,460 dead’ in a year
AFP: Air pollution in Tehran has left 4,460 people dead in a year, an Iranian health official said in reports Sunday, with another sounding the alarm over high dose of carcinogens in domestically-made petrol.
