Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Feb. 19 – Former Iranian President and current chairman of the State Expediency Council Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has no say in the Islamic Republic’s nuclear policy, a senior Iranian official said on Saturday.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Feb. 19 – An attempt by Iran’s radical theocratic government to organise an international conference of Islamist parties in Tehran to adopt a unanimous position on the publication of cartoons depicting Islam’s Prophet Muhammad may have to be put off due to lack of interest from political parties across the Muslim world.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Feb. 19 – Iran criticised its principal opposition movement on Saturday for charging that it was behind the recent violence over cartoons depicting negatively the Islamic prophet Muhammad published in European dailies.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Feb. 18 – A senior delegation from the radical Palestinian group Hamas will travel to Tehran on Monday to meet and hold talks with senior Iranian officials including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the news agency Fars, run by the Office of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, reported Saturday evening.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Feb. 18 – A judge at Tehran’s Appellate Court announced on Saturday that the Islamic Republic would continue to issue death verdicts for juvenile delinquents “without considering other available options”.