Iran captures four bomb suspects in southeast: state TV (AFP)

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TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran has arrested four people wearing explosives vests who are suspected of plotting attacks on behalf of Sunni militant group Jundallah, the state television website reported on Tuesday.

"The four members of this group who were arrested attempted to enter Sistan Baluchestan carrying explosive vests," the southeastern province's justice chief Ebrahim Hamidi told the website.

They now face "charges of espionage as well as cooperation with anti-revolutionary elements," Hamidi said.

In recent years, Jundallah (Army of God) has claimed a series of deadly attacks in Sistan-Baluchestan and adjacent provinces near the border with Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In December, it claimed an attack by multiple suicide bombers that killed 39 people in the city of Chabahar.

The group says it is fighting for the rights of the province's significant Sunni ethnic Baluchi community, who complain of discrimination in Shiite-dominated Iran.

Iranian officials charge that the group has received support from Western governments, as well as Israel and Pakistan.

A year ago, Iran hanged the group's leader, Abdolmalek Rigi, after capturing him on an intercepted flight.

Washington has now blacklisted Jundallah as a foreign terrorist organisation, in a move cautiously welcomed by Tehran.

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Iran, Iraq to shut down Camp Ashraf (AFP)

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在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran and Iraq have formed a joint committee with the Red Cross to shut down Camp Ashraf in Iraq which houses thousands of outlawed Iranian opponents, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said on Saturday.

"The camp will be shut down by the end of this year," Talabani said on the sidelines of a counter-terrorism summit in Tehran, the official IRNA news agency reported.

"For this, a tripartite committee has been set up by Iraq, Iran and the International Red Cross to make decisions and follow up on necessary measures to shut down the camp of this terrorist group," IRNA quoted him as saying.

The People's Mujahedeen established Camp Ashraf in the 1980s -- when now-executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime was at war with Iran -- as a base from which to launch military action against the Islamic republic.

Camp Ashraf is now home to around 3,400 people.

The People's Mujahedeen, which describes itself as both left-wing and Islamic, opposed the shah of Iran and now seeks to oust the clerical regime that took power in Tehran in the 1979 revolution.

Iranian intelligence minister Heydar Moslehi said the Mujahedeen was on the verge of "collapse," and added that his agencies were taking "measures" to speed up the process, the Mehr news agency reported.

"On this issue, (the intelligence apparatus) have had discussions with officials in Iraq to resolve the future of the camp Ashraf as soon as possible," Moslehi said, also speaking on the sidelines of the summit.

But he also extended an olive branch to Mujahedeen members who part ways with the group.

"Islamic leniency awaits those members of this terrorist group who leave it or escape Camp Ashraf and return to the arms of the Islamic republic of Iran's regime," Moslehi said.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari had proposed during a Tuesday visit to Tehran the formation of a tripartite committee to "resolve the issues of Camp Ashraf."

"We have asked international organisations and European parliaments to encourage the (group's) members to leave Iraq, and to facilitate (the movement of) those members who seek to go to those countries," Zebari said.

The announcement was met with a "vigorous" condemnation by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the broad grouping that includes the People's Mujahedeen.

The NCRI said allowing Iran to "interfere in the issue of Ashraf is a red line that should not be crossed," and urged the International Committee of the Red Cross "not to lose credibility by participating in this plan of repression."

"The UN and the US government must take responsibility to protect the unarmed and defenceless people at Ashraf, and they will be held responsible for any attack that will target them," the NCRI warned in a statement.

Camp Ashraf has become a mounting problem for the Iraqi authorities since US forces transferred security for the camp in January 2009, and amid pressure from Tehran to hand over the members of the militant group.

On April 8, Iraqi security forces carried out a deadly raid on the camp, killing 34 members of the group.

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Iran's judiciary detains Ahmadinejad's ally (AP)

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TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's judiciary Thursday detained a close ally of the president, another step in a power struggle that is sweeping the Iranian leadership, according to a report on the Iranian state television station.

The TV report said Mohammad Sharif Malekzadeh was in custody, and the judiciary pledged to issue a statement.

The arrest was the latest incident in a struggle involving President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the parliament and the powerful Iranian Muslim clergy.

Ahmadinejad is in danger of losing the backing of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters in Iran. Also, Ahmadinejad has been battling his parliament for supremacy, using a series of issues and appointments to promote his position.

Experts say the conflicts are mostly about internal Iranian politics and not about overall policy.

Ismail Kowsari, a lawmaker, told the semiofficial Mehr news agency that Malekzadeh was arrested over financial corruption allegations.

Malekzadeh resigned Tuesday, just days after he was appointed deputy foreign minister, responding to pressure from hard-liners, who view him as part of a movement seeking to weaken the role of Iran's powerful Muslim clerics.

Also on Thursday, Tabnak, a conservative news website reported that authorities detained Ali Asghar Parhizkar, head of an economic free zone in southern Iran on similar charges. The report could not be independently verified due to the weekend holidays in Iran.

Both of the officials are close allies of Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, the president's chief of staff, another target of hard-liners.

Over the past months, authorities have detained dozens of Ahmadinejad's allies.

Mashaei is sharply opposed by hard-liners and has been described by hard-line clerics as the head of a "deviant current" that seeks to elevate the values of pre-Islamic Persia and promote nationalism at the expense of clerical rule.

Ahmadinejad has strongly defended Mashaei, whose daughter is married to the president's son, saying the attacks against Mashaei are actually directed at him.

Ahmadinejad appears to be trying to set up Mashaei, his chief of staff, or another loyalist to succeed him in 2013 when Iran elects a new president. Also, both have been accused of seeking to control the next parliament by manipulating parliamentary elections slated for March 2012.

___

Nasser Karimi is at http://twitter.com/ncarrimi

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IAEA chief invited to Iran but wants concrete result (AFP)

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VIENNA (AFP) – UN atomic watchdog chief Yukiya Amano said Friday he had been invited to visit Iran by the head of the country's atomic organisation Fereydoon Abbasi Davani, but added he was awaiting clarification.

"Dr. Abbassi invited me to Tehran," Amano told journalists on the margins of an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) conference here Friday.

"I will consider visiting Tehran at an appropriate time but a constructive concrete result is needed," he added.

The West accuses Tehran of seeking to build a nuclear bomb under the guise of a civilian power programme, a charge which Iran strongly denies.

"We have covered various fields and I raised the issue of nuclear activities and the possible military dimension and I asked their operation to clarify these activities," Amano also said of his first meeting with Davani since the Iranian took over the post in February.

"We agreed to continue the dialogue," the IAEA chief added, following the talks this week.

The UN Security Council in New York has repeatedly ordered Tehran to halt all uranium enrichment until the IAEA has verified the exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear activities.

But despite being targeted by four sets of UN Security Council sanctions over its refusal to suspend enrichment, Iran remains adamant that it will push ahead.

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Feds charge 2 with supplying Iranian military (AP)

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MACON, Ga. – Prosecutors in Georgia say two Americans were at the center of a complex plot to illegally ship aircraft parts to the Iranian military.

Prosecutors said Thursday that the two Americans have pleaded guilty to conspiring to illegally export fighter jet and attack helicopter parts from the U.S. to Iran. Five other people based in France, the United Arab Emirates and Iran have been charged with helping.

An indictment says the companies purchased parts from a firm run by Michael Todd, of Macon. The indictment also says Hamid Seifi of Chicago purchased aircraft parts from Todd on behalf of a company in Iran. The supplies were funneled to Iran through the French company.

Seifi has been sentenced to more than 4 years in prison. Todd's sentencing is scheduled for August.

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Afghan, Pakistan presidents in Iran three-way summit (AFP)

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在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

TEHRAN (AFP) – The presidents of Pakistan and Afghanistan arrived Friday in Tehran for a three-way summit with their Iranian counterpart and to attend an anti-terrorism conference, IRNA news agency reported.

The summit to be attended by President Asif Ali Zardari, Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad comes as the United States announced that it will draw down by 33,000 its contingent of 99,000 troops in Afghanistan by the end of summer 2012.

Several hundred French soldiers have also been recalled from the country recently.

Britain and Germany, which have the largest presence in Afghanistan after the United States, have also declared their intention to reduce their contingent by the end of the year.

Iran has always been hostile to the presence of NATO troops in neighbouring Afghanistan, saying this strengthened terrorist groups such as Taliban and Al-Qaeda more than it weakened them.

Tehran itself suffers from the activities of the armed Sunni Muslim group Jundallah around its border with Pakistan and Afghanistan. Jundallah is on the United States' list of outlawed terrorist groups.

After the three-way summit, Zardari and Karzai will attend on Saturday an anti-terrorism conference alongside Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, Iranian media reported.

Other nations will also attend the conference as observers.

Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court, which has issued two arrest warrants on charges of crimes against humanity and genocide in the Darfur region, where a bloody conflict has raged for eight years.

Iran, which is on the United States' list of state sponsors of terrorism, regularly accuses Israel and the US of plotting terrorist attacks against its territory.

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U.S. sanctions Iranian port operator, airline (Reuters)

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在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States on Thursday blacklisted a major Iranian port operator and the country's national airline, Iran Air to increase pressure on Tehran to curtail its alleged nuclear weapons program.

The sanctions target two key segments of Iran's transport infrastructure that the U.S. Treasury said were being used to aid the country's efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction.

Washington's latest actions prohibit U.S. entities from any transactions with Tidewater Middle East Co., which operates seven port facilities in Iran, and Iran Air, which serves 35 international and 25 domestic destinations with a fleet of about 40 aircraft.

The Treasury's designation of the firms as weapons proliferators also aims to freeze any assets they may have under U.S. jurisdiction.

The sanctions on Iran Air could increase difficulties in the airline's operations that started last year when airports in many Western countries stopped refueling Iran Air planes because of U.S. sanctions prohibiting the export of refined petroleum products to Iran.

A senior U.S. Treasury official acknowledged the action could reduce flight options for Iran's population.

The new sanctions "may have an impact on Iranian people (but) the Iranian people are not the target of these actions," the official told reporters.

Instead, the Treasury is trying to ratchet up pressure on Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the elite military organization that U.S. officials say is assuming control of greater parts of Iran's economy as sanctions hamper private firms.

Iran rejects charges by Western powers it is engaged in military-linked nuclear work. The Islamic state on Tuesday said it had invited the head of the U.N. atomic energy agency to visit its nuclear facilities. Iran has rebuffed previous appeals by the U.N. body for information and access to its nuclear program to clarify allegations against it.

Treasury said Iran Air and its Iran Air Tours subsidiary were put on the sanctions list because its passenger aircraft have on numerous occasions transported military related electronic parts on behalf of Iran's Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics organization. The shipments have also included missiles, rockets and titanium sheets, a dual-use material that can be used in advanced weapons systems, the Treasury said.

The Treasury official said Tidewater was blacklisted because it is owned by the Revolutionary Guards. He added that he anticipated that shippers would avoid port facilities managed by the firm due to the U.S. sanctions.

This was not expected to have a major impact on Iran's oil trade, however, as Tidewater facilities only handle around 1 percent of Iran's oil shipments. And other facilities at ports where the company operates will remain accessible to U.S. and other international shippers.

The Treasury said the Tidewater-managed ports have been used to export arms or handle related materiel in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, including the main Shahid Rajaee container terminal at Bandar Abbas. Other ports affected by the sanctions include the Bandar Imam Khomeini grain terminal, and facilities at Bandar Anzali, Khorramshar, Assaluyeh, Aprin and Amir Abad

(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Andrew Hay)

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Afghan, Pakistan presidents in Iran summit (AFP)

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在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

TEHRAN (AFP) – Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai held a three-way summit with Iran on Friday ahead of attending an anti-terrorism conference, state news agency IRNA reported.

Zardari, Karzai and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad discussed "ways of battling terrorism, extremism and drug trafficking," IRNA said.

A statement posted on the Iranian presidency website said the three "expressed concern over a rising lack of security, extremism and terrorism, and insisted on the need for cooperation to combat these phenomena."

The tripartite summit is being held amid announcements by the United States that it will draw down by 33,000 its contingent of 99,000 troops in Afghanistan by the end of summer 2012.

Several hundred French soldiers have also been recalled from Afghanistan recently, while Britain and Germany, which have the largest presence there after the United States, have also declared their intention to reduce their contingents by the end of the year.

"The Afghan people wants the departure of foreign forces, and therefore Iran and Pakistan can play an important role in establishing a durable peace in Afghanistan," the Iranian presidency website quoted Karzai as saying.

Ahmadinejad agreed that all three nations must "cooperate closely on security matters," it said.

Zardari was quoted as saying that Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan must boost ties and cooperation because all three countries "are the main victims of terrorism and war."

Iran has always been hostile to the presence of NATO forces in neighbouring Afghanistan, saying this strengthened terrorist groups such as the Taliban and Al-Qaeda more than it weakened them.

Tehran itself suffers from the activities of armed Sunni Muslim group Jundallah around its border with Pakistan and Afghanistan. Jundallah is on the United States' list of outlawed terrorist groups.

On Saturday Zardari and Karzai will attend an international anti-terrorism conference alongside Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, Iranian media reported.

All three arrived in the Iranian capital on Friday afternoon for the gathering, which will also be attended by other nations as observers.

Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court, which has issued two arrest warrants on charges of crimes against humanity and genocide in the Darfur region, where a bloody conflict has raged for eight years.

Iran, which is on Washington's list of state sponsors of terrorism, regularly accuses Israel and the US of plotting terrorist attacks against its territory.

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Afghan, Pakistan presidents in Iran summit (AFP)

在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。
在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

TEHRAN (AFP) – Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai held a three-way summit with Iran on Friday ahead of attending an anti-terrorism conference, state news agency IRNA reported.

Zardari, Karzai and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad discussed "ways of battling terrorism, extremism and drug trafficking," IRNA said.

A statement posted on the Iranian presidency website said the three "expressed concern over a rising lack of security, extremism and terrorism, and insisted on the need for cooperation to combat these phenomena."

The tripartite summit is being held amid announcements by the United States that it will draw down by 33,000 its contingent of 99,000 troops in Afghanistan by the end of summer 2012.

Several hundred French soldiers have also been recalled from Afghanistan recently, while Britain and Germany, which have the largest presence there after the United States, have also declared their intention to reduce their contingents by the end of the year.

"The Afghan people wants the departure of foreign forces, and therefore Iran and Pakistan can play an important role in establishing a durable peace in Afghanistan," the Iranian presidency website quoted Karzai as saying.

Ahmadinejad agreed that all three nations must "cooperate closely on security matters," it said.

Zardari was quoted as saying that Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan must boost ties and cooperation because all three countries "are the main victims of terrorism and war."

Iran has always been hostile to the presence of NATO forces in neighbouring Afghanistan, saying this strengthened terrorist groups such as the Taliban and Al-Qaeda more than it weakened them.

Tehran itself suffers from the activities of armed Sunni Muslim group Jundallah around its border with Pakistan and Afghanistan. Jundallah is on the United States' list of outlawed terrorist groups.

On Saturday Zardari and Karzai will attend an international anti-terrorism conference alongside Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, Iranian media reported.

All three arrived in the Iranian capital on Friday afternoon for the gathering, which will also be attended by other nations as observers.

Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court, which has issued two arrest warrants on charges of crimes against humanity and genocide in the Darfur region, where a bloody conflict has raged for eight years.

Iran, which is on Washington's list of state sponsors of terrorism, regularly accuses Israel and the US of plotting terrorist attacks against its territory.

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Iranian oil delegation attacked in Baghdad (Reuters)

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在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Gunmen attacked an Iranian oil delegation visiting Baghdad on Wednesday, the Iranian Oil Ministry said.

"The delegation was attacked by terrorists but they are not harmed and have no problems," the ministry's Shana website said.

"The delegation was visiting Iraq to hold talks about exporting fuel to Iraq. They came under gunfire when heading to the Electricity Ministry building."

An Iraqi Interior Ministry source said the convoy was attacked in central Baghdad and two Iraqi guards were wounded.

The head of the Iranian delegation said a contract was signed between the two neighboring countries.

"We signed a contract to export 1.5 million liters of fuel to Iraq," said Alireza Zeyghami, the semi-official Fars news agency reported, without giving further details.

Another Iraqi government source said it was an Iranian technical team visiting Baghdad as part of meetings to discuss border demarcation and investment in joint oilfields.

Iran did not say who was behind the attack and no group has taken responsibility for the attack yet.

Iraq became a base for many Shi'ite and Sunni armed groups after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 and all of these groups are active in most areas of Baghdad, the Iraqi capital.

Al Qaeda affiliates and many Sunni armed groups, some Shi'ite militias, and Baathists, some of whom ruled Iraq under Saddam Hussein, consider the Iranian government akin to a second occupier of Iraq.

They put Iranian visitors, officials and facilities in Iraq high on their priority lists for attacks. Many of these groups are active in Baghdad.

Iraq is also home to a base of the People's Mujahideen Organization of Iran (PMOI), which the United States, Iraq and Iran consider a terrorist group.

The PMOI has for decades advocated the overthrow of the Islamic Republic of Iran, in place since 1979.

The fate of the base at Camp Ashraf, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, has been in question since the U.S. military turned it over to Baghdad in 2009 under a bilateral security agreement.

In April, Iraqi forces moved against the camp in what they said was an attempt to reclaim land and return it to farmers. Some 34 people died in clashes, according to U.N. investigation.

The United States has proposed a temporary relocation of Ashraf's residents within Iraq, pending eventual resettlements in third countries, but the PMOI's umbrella group -- the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) -- rejects this.

(Additional reporting by Ahmed Rasheed and Suadad al-Salhy in Baghdad and Mitra Amiri in Tehran; Writing by Parisa Hafezi, Editing by Angus MacSwan and Paul Taylor)

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Iran says U.S. hikers to be tried on July 31: lawyer (Reuters)

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TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran will hear the case against three Americans detained for nearly two years on spying charges on July 31, their lawyer told Reuters on Tuesday, saying he hoped a final decision on their case will be made then.

Josh Fattal, Shane Bauer and Sarah Shourd were arrested by Iranian forces on July 31, 2009, on suspicion of spying after crossing into Iran from neighboring Iraq.

"The next trial will be held on July 31," lawyer Masoud Shafiee said, adding that he had received a notification of the trial from Iranian authorities.

Shourd, who was released on bail in September and returned home, has insisted the trio were innocent hikers who unintentionally crossed the unmarked border into Iran.

"Since the trial date coincides with the second anniversary of their arrest and continuous detention, I hope that this session will put an end to their case," Shafiee said.

The U.S. State Department renewed its call on Iran, with which Washington has no diplomatic ties, to release the two men.

"Joshua Fattal and Shane Bauer have been unjustly detained in Iran for two years, and we call on Iran to do the right thing and allow them to come home," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told a news briefing on Tuesday.

The Americans' last hearing, scheduled for May 11, was postponed without a clear reason. Iranian authorities had called on Shourd to return to Tehran to stand trial alongside Fattal and Bauer.

Shafiee said that Iran had not asked Shourd to be present at the next court session.

Bauer and Fattal pleaded not guilty at a closed-door court hearing on February 6. Under Iran's Islamic law, espionage can be punished by execution.

Tehran Prosecutor-General Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi had also said earlier this month he hoped a final verdict over the case would be reached in late July.

The case has further complicated relations between Tehran and Washington already fraught over Iran's nuclear activity.

Western powers suspect Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of an atomic energy program. Tehran denies this, saying its nuclear activity is entirely peaceful. (Writing by Mitra Amiri; editing by David Stamp)

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Iran supreme leader accuses US of terrorism (AP)

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在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's supreme leader on Saturday accused the United States of supporting terrorism, pointing to American drone strikes in Pakistan and Afghanistan that allegedly have killed scores of civilians.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said a country whose military forces are responsible for such deaths can't lecture the world about fighting terror.

Strong anti-U.S. salvos are heard regularly from Iran's leadership. But Saturday's statement by Khamenei also reverberated the depth of rift between Iran and the U.S. on who is a terrorist and who is a freedom fighter.

"The U.S. and European governments that follow it describe Palestinian combatant groups who fight for liberation of their land as terrorists," Khamenei said in a written message to an international conference on combating terrorism that opened Saturday in Tehran.

However, Khamenei said Israeli military strikes against civilian targets or assassination of Palestinians by Israeli security agents are not condemned by the West as acts of terrorism.

Iranian leaders say Palestinian groups and the Lebanese Hezbollah are fighting to liberate their occupied lands. Iran openly praises groups such as Islamic Jihad and Hamas, which have claimed responsibility for suicide bombings and other attacks.

Khamenei said Iran was a victim of U.S. "terrorism" for the 1988 downing of an Iranian passenger plane by the warship USS Vincennes, killing all 290 people aboard. The U.S. Defense Department said at the time that the crew mistook the plane for a hostile aircraft, which Iran rejects.

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Iran arrests Ahmadinejad ally: report (Reuters)

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在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran arrested an ally of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday, the semi-official Fars news agency reported, the latest move by opponents of the president to try to weaken his position.

Mohammad Sharif Malekzadeh, an ally of the president's controversial chief of staff, is accused of corruption. Hardline politicians have also accused him of being part of a "deviant current" close to Ahmadinejad which has tried to undermine the role of Iran's clerical hierarchy by promoting secular ideas.

He denies the charges.

"Malekzadeh was arrested a few hours ago ... soon a statement detailing his arrest will be issued," Fars said.

Hardline politicians, who backed Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in 2009, forced Malekzadeh to resign as deputy foreign minister on Tuesday. Malekzadeh said he resigned to protect Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi from impeachment.

Political analysts say a deepening rift between the president and his hardline opponents, including politicians and senior clerics, are leaving Ahmadinejad a lame duck as he enters the final two years of his presidency.

But few think Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, given a troubled economy and the risk of popular unrest spreading from the Arab world, would allow parliament to unseat the president and jeopardize stability.

Iran's most powerful figure, Khamenei, who endorsed Ahmadinejad's re-election, sided with the president's critics in April by reinstating an intelligence minister who had been sacked.

Analysts interpreted the move as an attempt to clip the president's wings after he tried to grab more power. In the past few months, some of Ahmadinejad's allies have been dismissed, detained and banned from holding office on various grounds.

The president's chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, is accused by hardliners of being head of the "deviant current." Malekzadeh was also head of the High Council of Iranian Expatriates' Affairs, set up by Mashaie.

Some senior clerics and members of the elite Revolutionary Guards have called for Mashaie's dismissal.

So far, Ahmadinejad has shown no sign of withdrawing his support for Mashaie, whose daughter is married to the president's son.

Some politicians say Mashaie is mounting a campaign to make sure Ahmadinejad's allies win in a March 2012 parliamentary vote and also in the 2013 presidential race.

(Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Elizabeth Piper)

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Mothers of US hikers held in Iran renew hunger strike (AFP)

在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。
在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The mothers of two US hikers held in Iran for nearly two years will renew a rolling hunger strike to protest their sons' detention, they said in a statement Friday.

Laura Fattal, 58 and Cindy Hickey, 50, were preparing to spend their birthdays without their sons for the second straight year in the coming days, and planned to fast from Saturday to next Thursday.

"The only thing we want for our birthdays is for justice to be served," said Fattal, whose son Josh, now 29, was arrested with Shane Bauer, 28, on July 31, 2009, near the border between northern Iraq and Iran.

The pair are being held on charges of spying and entering Iran illegally.

"Iran knows that Josh and Shane are innocent, just as the whole world knows. I ask whoever is doing this to them -- and inflicting such pain on us and our families -- to have a heart and release them immediately."

They will be joined by Ingrid Betancourt, a former Colombia hostage, and US anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed fighting in Iraq.

The hikers' mothers, who first launched the rolling hunger strike on May 19, plan to hold a news conference in New York next Thursday.

Iran has set a date of July 31 for the next hearing in the repeatedly delayed trial of the hikers, their lawyer told AFP on Monday.

Washington has vehemently denied Tehran's charges and has pressed for their release. The hikers' detention has added to tensions between the two countries over Iran's nuclear program and hardline stance towards Israel.

Sarah Shourd, 32, arrested with the two men, is being tried in absentia after she returned to the United States when she was freed on humanitarian and medical grounds in September 2010, paying bail of around $500,000.

Bauer and Fattal were allowed to call home in late May for just the third time since their arrest, and told their families they had staged a 17-day hunger strike earlier this year after being prevented from receiving letters.

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Iran in 'alarming' breaches of UN sanctions: envoys (AFP)

在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。
在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – Western nations on Thursday accused Iran of carrying out "alarming" breaches of UN nuclear sanctions, often with Syria's aid.

The United States, France and Britain also stepped up demands for the publication of a UN Security Council expert report on Iran sanctions which is being blocked by Russia.

The experts' report contains "troubling findings" about sanctions violations, said US ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice.

The experts set out a "complete and alarming" picture of Iran's violations, said French deputy UN ambassador Martin Briens, who highlighted three new cases of trading in arms and related technology reported since March.

No details of the case were made public at Thursday's Security Council meeting on the Iran sanctions regime.

Four rounds of UN sanctions have been ordered against Iran over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment. Western nations accuse Iran of seeking a nuclear bomb, while Tehran insists its nuclear drive is for civilian energy.

Stepping up pressure on Iran in recent months, Israel says it has intercepted a shipload of Iranian arms being transferred through Syria to the Gaza Strip. Iran has also been accused of providing missiles to the Taliban militia in Afghanistan. It denied the charge.

Iran's breaches involve nuclear and ballistic weapons and all other categories of sanctions passed, Briens told the meeting.

"They involve increasingly complex methods: the use of front companies, assumed names, using multiple financial intermediaries and currency exchange offices, physically hiding things, false statements and forgery," the French envoy said.

Syria is implicated in nearly all the violations and is itself refusing to cooperate with the panel of experts, Briens said. According to a copy of the blocked report seen by AFP, six of the nine arms transfer violations reported involved Syria.

The report also says that Iran's Revolutionary Guard and state shipping line, IRISL, are increasingly involved in sanctions violations. It says dozens of the maritime company's ships have had their names changed in recent months.

The US ambassador said the international community "must further strengthen the implementation and enforcement of UN sanctions." Rice backed the speedy implementation of recommendations made by the experts to tighten enforcement.

"It is clear that Iran continues to proliferate and continues to pursue a nuclear weapons program. Iran has given us no good reason to believe that it is willing to engage in meaningful negotiations on its nuclear program," said Britain's UN ambassador Mark Lyall Grant.

Lyall Grant, along with the French and US envoys, demanded the Iran sanctions report be urgently made public. Russia has led a block on the release of the report, calling the document "sloppy".

Russia's deputy UN ambassador, Alexander Pankin, did not mention the block but told the Security Council meeting: "Unverified and politicized information would not help" the council.

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US hits Iran Air, port company with sanctions (AP)

在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。
在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration hit two pillars of the Iranian economy with sanctions Thursday, targeting the Islamic republic's national airline carrier and a major port company on charges that they facilitate illegal weapons trade and help the mighty Revolutionary Guard corps in destabilizing activity in Iran and nearby countries.

The Treasury Department's action blocks any assets in the United States belonging to Iran Air, Tidewater Middle East Co. and three other firms. It also prevents Americans from doing business with them.

In a joint statement, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the hardline Revolutionary Guard's use of Tidewater and Iran Air for proliferation activities was indicative of its increasing power in the Iranian economy. This displaces legitimate private Iranian companies in the commercial and energy sectors, which they called "deeply troubling."

The Revolutionary Guard serves as the "enforcer" for the Iranian regime by suppressing peaceful protests, and imports and exports weapons for the government, the secretaries said. They also blamed it for supporting terrorism in the Middle East.

The other companies sanctioned were the Mehr-e Eqtesad-e Iranian Investment Company, Iran Air Tours and the Behnam Shahriyari Trading Company. Iranian businessman Behnam Shahriyari was personally targeted for his alleged role in providing weapons to the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Although the sanctions only apply to the United States, senior Treasury and State Department officials said they hoped other countries would take a closer look at business being conducted with the companies. The U.S. is hoping authorities will halt the refueling of Iran Air planes, though non-U.S. airports are not required to take any action against the company, the officials said.

The Treasury Department says Iran Air has helped the military obtain raw materials such as titanium sheets, which can be used in support of advancing nuclear weapons. It has also transported rockets on passenger planes and taken missile components to Syria, Treasury alleges.

The airline operates about 40 aircraft flying to 35 international destinations.

The statement from Geithner and Clinton said preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons is a top U.S. priority. They said they remain deeply concerned about Iran's uranium enrichment program, even if the Iranian government insists it is solely designed for energy purposes.

"The international community must continue to increase and broaden the scope of pressures on Iran," the two secretaries said. "We have made important progress in isolating Iran, but we cannot waver. Our efforts must be unrelenting to sharpen the choice for Iran's leaders to abandon their dangerous course."

Tidewater manages seven ports in Iran and serves as a key element in Iran's infrastructure and transport network. Treasury says it has operations at terminals that have facilitated the Iranian government's weapons trade.

The company has no relation to Tidewater Inc., an international shipping company based in the United States.

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Ahmadinejad: Iran not afraid to make nuke weapon (AP)

在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。
在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's president says his country isn't afraid of making a nuclear weapon but doesn't intend to do so.

Iranian state television on Thursday quoted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying: "If we do want to make a bomb, we are not afraid of anybody."

Iran has long insisted that its nuclear programs are peaceful and meant only to generate power for a future nuclear reactor network.

But the U.N. Security Council has passed four sets of sanctions against Iran for refusing to freeze activities that could be used in a weapons program.

The U.N. says Iran also blocked an IAEA probe into allegations of secret experiments that could reflect attempts to develop an arms program.

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Ahmadinejad insists Iran not seeking nuclear bomb (AFP)

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在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

TEHRAN (AFP) – Hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insisted Thursday that Iran is not seeking to build an atom bomb but defiantly added that should it decide to do so "no one can do a damn thing."

"When we say we do not want to make bomb it means we do not want to," Ahmadinejad was quoted by the state television website as saying.

"If we want to make a bomb we are not afraid of anyone and we are not afraid to announce it, no one can do a damn thing," he said during a ceremony inaugurating a sewage treatment plant in southern Tehran.

Iranian officials have staunchly denied Western suspicions that Tehran's nuclear enrichment programme is masking a drive for atomic weapons.

Parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani last year reiterated the denial by quoting a previous fatwa by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in the Islamic republic's affairs, which said "using weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear (arms) is haram (forbidden)."

Ahmadinejad's comments come two weeks after the chief of Iranian atomic organisation Fereydoon Abbasi Davani announced plans to triple Tehran's capacity to enrich uranium to 20 percent level in a move Washington deemed "provocative."

Despite being targeted by four sets of UN Security Council sanctions over its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment, Iran remains adamant that it will push ahead with its nuclear enrichment programme.

Enriched uranium can produce either fuel for a nuclear reactor or the fissile material for an atomic warhead. Tehran insists it will use the substance to fuel its future nuclear power plants.

Ahmadinejad also took a swipe at the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, which has been investigating Tehran's nuclear programme for a number of years.

"They have created something called the agency and have installed a bunch of puppets," he said in an apparent reference to Western powers, adding however that Iran had nevertheless cooperated with the IAEA.

Ahmadinejad pointed to the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan, saying that even though the "radiation was twice as much as was said ... even then the (IAEA) kept silent."

Japan's earthquake and tsunami in March left nearly 25,000 people dead or missing, and knocked out cooling systems at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, leading reactors to overheat and triggering the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl 25 years ago.

Ahmadinejad dubbed the IAEA's reports on Iran as "scrap paper," adding: "I asked them why are you silent there (about Fukushima) but it is not the same when it comes to Iran."

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Israeli leaders test nuclear bunker in defense drill (Reuters)

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在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli leaders holed up in a new underground nuclear bunker on Wednesday as part of annual maneuvers to prepare for a possible missile war with Iran, Syria and their Lebanese and Palestinian guerrilla allies.

Officials said it was the first time the security cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had tested the "National Management Center" carved out beneath the government complex in Jerusalem over the past decade.

The bunker includes living quarters as well as command facilities. It can be accessed through the western foothills leading to the coastal metropolis of Tel Aviv.

"This is the proper place from which to run the State of Israel in wartime," Homefront Defense Minister Matan Vilnai told Army Radio in an interview.

Israel instituted increasingly sweeping civil defense drills after the 2006 Lebanon war in which Hezbollah fighters fired thousands of short-range rockets at its northern towns.

There have been similar salvoes from Hamas and other Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip to the south, and Israeli officials say a future war could involve non-conventional missile strikes by Syria and Iran.

Wednesday's exercise, dubbed "Turning Point 5," envisaged heavy shelling and thousands of dead and wounded on several Israeli fronts. Police and medics practiced mass-casualty incidents and air raid sirens were scheduled to sound twice.

"It is certainly an extreme scenario (although) we assume that our enemies would not dare to operate this way, given our deterrent power," Vilnai said.

Reputed to have the Middle East's only atomic arsenal, Israel bombed an Iraqi reactor in 1981 under what it called a policy of denying foes the means to threaten its destruction.

Israel launched a similar sortie against Syria in 2007 but its veiled threats to tackle Iran's remote and fortified uranium enrichment sites have often been dismissed as bluster given the tactical challenges involved. World powers say they prefer a negotiated resolution with Iran, which denies seeking the bomb.

Disclosures of the Jerusalem bunker's existence prompted some Israelis to question whether their country, which has also been developing an elaborate ballistic missile shield, was taking a more passive approach to potential nuclear threats.

Officials say that providing Israeli leaders with a secret haven from which to respond to attacks would in itself discourage, or at least contain, any future war.

(Editing by Alison Williams)

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IAEA chief considers invitation to visit Iran (AP)

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在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

VIENNA – The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed being invited to visit Iran. But he says he will go only if there is hope of resolving major differences over the Islamic Republic's atomic activities.

Yukiya Amano says the prospect of "a constructive, concrete result is needed" for him to take up the invitation issued Tuesday by Iran's nuclear chief, Fereidoun Abbasi.

Iran has for years stonewalled IAEA efforts to probe suspicions that Iran has worked on components of a nuclear weapons program. It also refuses to freeze uranium enrichment, despite four sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions meant to pressure Tehran to stop the program and other activities that could be used for weapons.

Iran says it does not want nuclear arms and is enriching only to make reactor fuel.

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U.S. sanctions on Iran companies raise questions: Russia (Reuters)

在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。
在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

MOSCOW (Reuters) – The sanctions imposed by the United States on a major Iranian port operator and the country's national airline may affect Russian companies and "raise serious questions," the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

"Such actions, based on an extra-territorial use of U.S. law, potentially create a situation when Russian business structures cooperating with these companies could be affected," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

It did not specify which Russian entities could be affected.

Washington's latest actions prohibit U.S. entities from any transactions with Tidewater Middle East Co., which operates seven port facilities in Iran, and Iran Air, which serves 35 international and 25 domestic destinations with a fleet of about 40 aircraft.

The sanctions target two major segments of Iran's transport infrastructure that the U.S. Treasury said were being used to aid the country's efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction.

The statement added that the move strengthens "suspicions that the U.S. sanctions policy is pursuing goals other than enforcing the regime of non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction."

"Our position is well known: the unilateral use of U.S. sanctions against Russian individuals and companies goes against the spirit of the relationship between our two countries. Such a policy is categorically unacceptable for us and needs to be reviewed."

(Writing by Gleb Bryanski; editing by Elizabeth Piper)

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