Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Nov. 03 – The United States is attempting remove Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and prominent Shiite leader Abdol-Aziz Hakim from power and install the secular former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi as the country’s new statesman, an Iranian government-run Persian-language website reported on Wednesday.

Iran Focus: Brussels, Nov. 03 – Parliamentarians from 22 European nations have called for the immediate referral of Iran’s nuclear file to the United Nations Security Council and the removal of Iran’s main opposition group Mojahedin-e Khalq (MeK) from the EU’s terror list, according to a press release by the European Parliamentary group Friends of a Free Iran received by fax.

Iran Focus: Tehran/London, Nov. 03 – Iran hastily organised a demonstration outside the Italian embassy in Tehran on the same day that top Italian lawmakers from both government and opposition parties are lining up outside the Iranian embassy in Rome to condemn “incendiary” remarks by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who said last week that “Israel must be wiped off the map”.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Nov. 03 – Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi will be fired very shortly, Iran Focus has learned.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Nov. 03 – Radical fanatics are to sign up for suicide operations in central Tehran on Friday, which marks the end of the month of Ramadan, Mehr News Agency, which is run by the office of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, announced on Thursday.