AP: Oil prices fell on Wednesday, after Saudi Arabia said it will offset any loss of oil from a threatened Iranian blockade of a crucial tanker route in the Middle East.
Oil price falls as Saudis trump Iran threat
US warships cross Hormuz despite Iran threats
AFP: Two American warships have crossed through the Strait of Hormuz without incident despite Iranian threats to close the strategic oil route, the US Navy said Thursday.
Iranian president to visit Venezuela, Cuba
AFP: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is to visit Venezuela and Cuba as part of a four-nation Latin America tour in the second week of January 2012, an official said Wednesday.
U.N. complains to Iraq over attack on dissident camp
Reuters: The United Nations has complained to Iraq about mortar attacks this week on an Iranian dissident camp near Baghdad and has won a promise that they will be stopped, a U.N. spokesman said on Thursday.
Closing Strait of Hormuz not so easy for Iran-analysts
Reuters: Iran’s navy chief boasts that closing the Strait of Hormuz to oil traffic would be “easier than drinking a glass of water.” Hardly, U.S. analysts say.
France urges Iran to respect Hormuz shipping rights
Reuters: France urged Iran on Wednesday to adhere to international law allowing freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz after Tehran threatened to stop oil moving through the strategic shipping lane.
US says Iran again denies access to alleged US spy
AFP: Iran on Wednesday denied a new request from Swiss diplomats to meet with a US citizen of Iranian descent now reported to be on trial on charges of spying for the CIA, the US State Department said.
Iran ‘sentences opposition figure to jail’
AFP: Iran has sentenced Ebrahim Yazdi, the head of a banned opposition party and a former foreign minister, to eight years in prison for “attempting to act against national security,” his lawyer said Wednesday.
Rocket hits Iran dissident camp in Iraq: officials
AFP: Multiple rockets over the past 24 hours hit a camp in Iraq housing Iranian exiles, officials and the group based there said on Wednesday, after Iraq and the UN signed a pact to resettle residents.
Iranian exiles in Iraq ready to start relocation
Fox News: The leader of an Iranian dissident group has agreed to start relocating refugees who for years have been living in precarious conditions in an Iraqi camp.
