An Iranian official says Tehran will not allow its people to be pressured by sanctions, stressing the need for regulating the market and controlling the prices. “The sanctions should not be used to justify heavy prices and cause other problems for people,” Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi said on Monday. He described the [...]

The Venezuelan ambassador to Tehran says his country is ready to sell gasoline to Iran despite US and EU unilateral sanctions against the Islamic Republic. “Every time Tehran announces its demand, we will provide it with gasoline,” David Velasquez Caraballo told Fars news agency on Monday. Caraballo added that the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has [...]

Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani says Western-imposed sanctions against Iran will only develop the capabilities of the Iranian nation and result in its empowerment. “It appears that these sanctions which go beyond the resolution adopted by the UN Security Council are aimed at making the Iranian nation suffer and at undermining its firm resolve,” [...]

Brazil has called for reopening of Iran’s nuclear negotiations amid reports suggesting that the European Union (EU) is toying with the idea of including Brazil and Turkey in the talks. Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim expressed optimism over the result of any upcoming negotiation over Iran’s peaceful nuclear program, saying that the new round of [...]

Amid new European Union (EU) sanctions against Iran, a senior Iranian lawmaker has expressed the country’s complete readiness to hold talks based on mutual respect. “The recent EU sanctions will have no impact on future talks between Iran and P5+1 member states – Russia, China, France, Britain and the US, plus Germany,” a member of [...]

A senior Iranian lawmaker has criticized EU sanctions against Iran, saying the Islamic Republic should switch its trade capacities to countries outside the European Union. “These sanctions will in practice deprive European firms of the opportunity to work with Iran. Therefore Europe and European companies will be the first to feel the blow of these [...]

In the wake of new European Union (EU) sanctions against Iran, the Islamic Republic says it is determined to supply the fuel needed for its nuclear research center. Senior Iranian lawmaker Mohammad Karami-Rad on Wednesday downplayed the latest EU sanctions, saying, “Despite the ongoing sanctions during the past years, Iran has had the maximum limit [...]

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has expressed strong disapproval of new EU sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said EU sanctions on Iran would hamper international efforts to resolve Tehran’s disputed nuclear issue, Reuters reported. “We have already said many times that we consider unacceptable the practice of unilateral or collective [...]

A senior Iranian lawmaker has warned the European Union against imposing any additional sanctions on the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program. “If EU wants to follow US policies on Iran and impose additional sanctions on the country, Islamic Republic will reconsider its cooperation with the member states,” head of the Majlis National Security and [...]

Italy will further diplomatic efforts with Iran after the European Union (EU) receives the Islamic Republic’s response on nuclear talks, a report says. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini says he will travel to Iran if the Iranian government decides to “respond to the request” of EU foreign affairs chief, Catherine Ashton, for the resumption of [...]

An appeals court in the US has ruled that the State Department should review the terror status of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO). The MKO had filed a petition against the US blacklisting in 2008. The Bush administration, however, rejected the request in its final days in 2009, after examining material submitted by the group [...]

One week after Iran announced readiness for nuclear talks if its conditions are met, the European Union (EU) welcomes Tehran’s willingness for negotiations with the West. “I am glad to hear that you would be prepared to restart dialogue,” EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton wrote in a letter to Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Saeed [...]

Tehran Friday Prayers Leader Ayatollah Sayyed Ahmad Khatami downplayed the anti-Iran UNSC Resolution 1921 Friday and said the Iranian nation gets a ground of opportunity out of any threat against the nation so that the more the Westerners tighten their pressure, the more the nation gets determined in its path. “You’d rather realize the Iranian [...]

The European Union is mulling over how to respond to a letter from Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, an EU spokesman says. In the letter, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Saeed Jalili, said Tehran is ready to sit at the negotiating table after its conditions for talks are met. “Once the direction of [...]

The European Union has extended restrictions on the use of its airspace by Iran Air because of safety concerns, the European Commission says. An EU air safety committee unanimously supported extending its air safety ban on Iran Air to cover its fleet of Airbus A320, Boeing 727 and 747 aircraft, the Commission said in a [...]

Major world powers have called for a new round of talks with Tehran on its nuclear program, despite a recent UN Security Council resolution against the Islamic Republic. Senior US diplomat William Burns on Friday traveled to Brussels for talks with Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the EU on the next approach on Iran, [...]

MPs in Sudan gave a unanimous vote for members of a commission who will oversee a key referendum on southern independence in January, a report said. President Omar al-Beshir’s National Congress Party and Sudan People’s Liberation Movement had put forward a referendum commission earlier this month. Legislators however, rejected the proposal, AFP reported. The commission [...]

Iran’s Foreign Ministry has strongly criticized a recent statement by the European Union on the human rights situation in the Islamic Republic. Director of Iran’s Foreign Ministry for international affairs, Mostafa Dolatyar, on Monday voiced the country’s strong objections to recent remarks by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. In a meeting with Spanish ambassador [...]

The Palestinian resistance movement of Hamas has rejected a report that Israel seeks to ease its three-year-long blockade of the Gaza Strip. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said Monday that the report stemmed from Israel’s desire to reduce international pressure over its deadly attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla aid convoy. The report surfaced after an [...]

The EU has called Israel’s closure of Gaza’s crossings a politically incorrect move and repeated the 27-nation bloc’s call for Tel Aviv to immediately lift the blockade. At a meeting on Monday, the European Union Foreign Affairs Committee issued a statement saying, “The continued policy of closure is unacceptable and politically counterproductive,” the Israeli newspaper [...]