AFP: A delegation from the UN nuclear watchdog arrived in Tehran on Sunday to tackle a new subject in ongoing talks over the controversial Iranian nuclear programme, the IRNA news agency reported.
UN nuclear team in Iran for new talks: state media
CIA has recruited Iranians to defect
Los Angeles Times: The CIA launched a secret program in 2005 designed to degrade Iran’s nuclear weapons program by persuading key officials to defect, an effort that has prompted a “handful” of significant departures, current and former U.S. intelligence officials familiar with the operation say.
Sanctions strain Iran’s economy, officials say
Daily Telegraph: Iran’s banks are on the brink of collapse and its manufacturing industries facing severe shortages as sanctions bite, according to assessments by Western officials.
Whitewashing Iranian nukes
Washington Times – Editorial: The new National Intelligence Estimate on Iran, asserting that that Tehran probably shut down its covert nuclear weapons program in 2003, has become a football to kick around in Washington.
Iran ‘hoodwinked’ CIA over nuclear plans
Sunday Telegraph: British spy chiefs have grave doubts that Iran has mothballed its nuclear weapons programme, as a US intelligence report claimed last week, and believe the CIA has been hoodwinked by Teheran.
Iran protests over ‘US nuclear spying’: FM
AFP: Iran has issued a formal protest over the use of espionage by the United States to produce a key intelligence report on its controversial nuclear programme, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Saturday.
Intelligence expert who rewrote book on Iran
The Guardian: The intelligence came from an exotic variety of sources: there was the so-called Laptop of Death; there was the Iranian commander who mysteriously disappeared in Turkey. Also in the mix was video footage of a nuclear plant in central Iran and intercepts of Iranian telephone calls by the British listening station GCHQ.
Agency defends estimate on Iran
Washington Times: The federal agency responsible for national intelligence estimates yesterday defended its report on Iran against charges that it was crafted primarily by former State Department officials who infused their personal politics into the report to undercut the Bush administration.
Iran drops dollar from oil deals: report
AFP: Major crude producer Iran has completely stopped carrying out its oil transactions in dollars, Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari said on Saturday, labelling the greenback an “unreliable” currency.
Bolton says U.S. intel report on Iran was political
Reuters: U.S. intelligence services were seeking to influence political policy-making with their assessment Iran had halted its nuclear arms program in 2003, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said.
