UPI: Iran won’t allow Saudi Arabia to carry out Western-backed plots in Syria, the head of the Iranian Parliament’s defense subcommittee said Monday.

AP: Russia’s foreign minister has strongly warned against a military attack on Iran, saying that a pre-emptive strike would violate international law.

Reuters:  South African crude oil imports from Iran leapt in February to $364 million from zero the preceding month, customs data showed on Monday, dashing the view that Pretoria has bowed to U.S. pressure to curb commercial links with Tehran.

AFP: The United States Sunday welcomed Turkey’s decision to reduce its purchases of oil from neighbouring Iran by 20 percent.

AP: Iranians flocked to parks and orchards to mark Sizdeh Bedar, an ancient festival that predates Islam and goes back thousands of years to the time when Zoroastrianism was the predominant religion of Persia.

AFP: Police on Sunday extended the detention of a Kuwaiti arrested last week for allegedly burning an Iranian flag in protest at a Shiite tweeter’s apparent insult to the Prophet Mohammed, a legal source said.

AP: U.S. officials say Turkey’s prime minister is updating U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton about his recent nuclear talks with Iran.

AFP: Iran on Sunday backtracked on reports that five Iranian “engineers” abducted in Syria had been freed — the second time in months it retracted news of their liberation.