Wall Street Journal: More than 90 U.S. senators signed a letter to President Barack Obama pressing him to sanction Iran’s central bank, with some threatening legislation to force the move, an outcome that would represent a stark escalation in tensions between the two countries.
Senators press Obama on Iran’s central bank
Iranian exiles demonstrate for UN, US protection
AFP: Some 200 people demonstrated at the European headquarters of the United Nations Monday, demanding US and UN protection for Iranian exiles at the Ashraf refugee camp in Iraq.
Iran arrests 17 youths over water fight
AFP: Iranian police arrested 17 boys and girls over a water fight at a seaside park in the Islamic republic’s south, a senior judicial official said on Sunday.
Iran’s new oil minister seeks $40 bln to develop shared fields
Reuters: Iran will need some $40 billion this year to spur the development of oil and gas fields it shares with neighbouring countries, Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said in his first interview since being appointed to the post, published on Saturday.
Iran’s Salehi ‘hopes’ court will free Americans
AFP: Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi hopes the trial of two US citizens detained in the Islamic republic on espionage charges will lead to their freedom, reports said on Saturday.
Iran parliament to examine repeated pipeline explosions
Reuters: Iran’s parliament is to examine recent energy pipeline explosions to see to what extent sabotage or technical problems were to blame, a lawmaker said on Sunday, two days after an oil line blast which caused a jump in global crude prices.
Iran’s oil minister: Replace foreign oil companies
AP: Iran’s new oil minister says he wants the Revolutionary Guard’s economic conglomerate to replace foreign gas and oil companies, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Blast, followed by fire, hits Iran oil pipeline
AP: An explosion struck an oil pipeline in Iran’s oil-rich southwestern province of Khuzestan early Friday, triggering a blaze that took firefighters hours to put out, news agencies reported.
OPEC to consult if oil prices fall more: Iran
AFP: OPEC ministers will hold consultations if the price of crude oil continues to fall but it is too soon to call for an extraordinary meeting, Iran’s representative to the cartel said on Friday.
Iran’s rich eat ice cream covered in gold as poor struggle to survive
Washington Post: Gold-flecked ice cream wasn’t part of the picture that Shiite Muslim clerics painted during the Iranian Revolution, when they promised to lift the poor by distributing the country’s vast oil income equally across society.
