AP: The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said Saturday that the country had produced its first nuclear fuel pellets for use in a heavy water reactor, which is still under construction.
Iran says it made nuclear fuel pellets
Iran rejects UN nuclear snap inspections
AFP: Iran on Saturday rejected the UN atomic watchdog’s demand for more inspections of its nuclear sites after the body urged the country to open up its doors, the ISNA news agency reported.
Iranian-linked militants bombed Baghdad market: US military
AFP: A US military commander on Saturday accused Iranian-linked “special groups” of bombing a Baghdad pet market in which 13 people were killed and said the bombers had tried to pin the blame on Al-Qaeda.
Market bomb blamed on Iran-backed groups
AP: The U.S. military on Saturday blamed the deadly bombing of a pet market in Baghdad on Iranian-backed Shiite militants, raising concerns that escalating activity by Shiite extremists could jeopardize a relative calm that has offered new hopes for Iraqis after years of turmoil.
Israeli ‘tried to spy for Iran’
BBC: A reserve officer in the Israeli army has been charged with offering to supply classified information to Iran, Russia and the Palestinian group Hamas.
Tribal leader: Evicting Iranian regime is only solution for Iraq
CNN: The leader of a prominent group representing tribes in southern Iraq is calling for “the eviction of the Iranian regime from our homeland.”
At Mideast talks, U.S. and Israel seek to isolate Iran by wooing Syria
Wall Street Journal: The Bush administration for years rejected the notion that progress towards Arab-Israeli peace could ease its wider woes in the Middle East. Next week, President Bush kicks off talks with just such an aim.
Iran, Bush’s uninvited guest at Mideast talks: experts
AFP: The threat posed by Iran and shifting realities in the region have spurred US President George W. Bush to step into the Middle East peace process after years of neglect, experts said Friday.
U.S. push on Palestinians has Iran motive
Reuters: The United States hopes one byproduct of its Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking will be a moderate Arab alliance to counter Iran’s influence in the region, but analysts are skeptical the strategy will work.
Bahrain feels the heat from Iran
Daily Telegraph: It may not seem like it sometimes, but we do have some friends left in the Middle East. The continuing fall-out from the invasion of Iraq, which prompted a rare moment of unanimity among Arab leaders as they vehemently objected to Saddam Hussein’s overthrow, and the West’s failure to address the Palestinians’ aspirations for statehood have, on occasion, caused friction.
