Days after the Iranian president’s visit to Afghanistan, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki explains whether the trip has had an influence on the Afghan president’s trip made immediately afterwards to Pakistan.

Speaking to Press TV on Friday, the Iranian foreign minister said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to Kabul had been scheduled only days after the presidential elections in Afghanistan.

Mottaki said the visit was aimed at “congratulating Mr.[Hamid] Karzai,” “reviewing relations between Tehran and Kabul, reviewing the latest situation in Afghanistan,” and “holding talks on security measures.”

The Iranian minister went on to explain about the trip made by President Karzai to Pakistan immediately after the departure of the Iranian delegation, saying “it is the nature of relations between countries.”

Mottaki said while the visit was “not directly linked” to President Ahmadinejad’s trip, it was related to a decision made during talks with the Iranian delegation about holding a trilateral summit in Islamabad.

“I think based on the negotiation between Ahmadinejad and Karzai, he will also be in contact with President Zardari,” the Iranian foreign minister said.

A senior professor of International Relations has called on the Iranian government to prepare a strategy to counter the “soft warfare” launched by the US.

The Iranian officials should carry out studies on the tactics used by the West and the United States to influence on Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s adviser, Professor Hamid Mowlana said during a conference on “soft warfare” in Tehran.

“Iranian officials and organizations do not have enough knowledge about the soft warfare tactics used by the West and especially the United states,” he added.

Mowlana noted that since World War II, the US has employed executive organizations, universities and media outlets to use soft warfare tactics to put into practice its policies in the world.

“I can say even that the professors of big American social sciences universities had taken part in US soft warfare and psycho war during World War II,” the professor added.

Mowlana noted that the West, however, was not successful “in recognizing our soft power infrastructure.”

The US has been trying to “infiltrate” into Iran by influencing clerics, professors, students, journalists, businessmen, managers of big companies and others, he said.

The West has spent years on finding ways to attract our youth to itself and has tried to change the attitude of the international community’s elite toward Iran, the advisor added.

Mowlana, who is a professor of International Relations at the School of International Service (SIS) of the American University in Washington, advised Iranian officials to take “clear” measures to counter Western tactics against Iran.

Iran’s president says the US must explain what its troops are doing in Afghanistan, as catching terrorists only requires intelligence work not military deployments.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made the comment in a joint press conference with his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai in Kabul on Wednesday morning.

The Iranian president was responding to a question about the recent arrest of Jundallah leader Abdolmalek Rigi.

“Rigi is supported by the same people [and] governments, who have ill intentions for the government of Afghanistan and the Iranian nation. Rigi was a terrorist, who along with his associates killed more than 140 people,” said Ahmadinejad.

“Was Iran able to stop him? Yes, we arrested Rigi. Of course that was achieved with the cooperation of the Afghan and Pakistani intelligence services… but [in that process] Iran killed no innocent people,” he added.

“Is this not an example of the right way to fight terrorism? Why those who claim to be eager to fight terrorism are unsuccessful? Well the answer is that they themselves started terrorism and they want to fight it now. But they can’t.”

Ahmadinejad said that fighting terrorism is not possible with military surge, adding that terrorism can only be fought with intelligence cooperation.

Ahmadinejad was also asked about the significance of the simultaneous visit of US Defense Secretary Robert Gates to Afghanistan, to which he responded by asking the American official about the objectives of his trip.

“My question to Mr. Gates is what is he doing here? Your country is 12,000 kilometers (7,500 miles) away from the Middle East…Are you here to capture terrorists? Well if so it is clear what you must do, but if you are here to do something else, admit to it.”

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has warned that imposing new sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program would be a very dangerous step.

Sanctions could isolate Iran so much that tensions would spiral out of control, Lula told AP in an interview on Tuesday.

He suggested that new Iran sanctions might even lead to war.

“We don’t want to repeat in Iran what happened in Iraq,” Lula said, a week after rebuffing US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s appeal for Brazilian support for a new round of tough sanctions.

Lula said that Brazil will not support the calls for sanctions, but added that during his visit to Tehran in May, he will try to convince President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to restart negotiations to allay concerns about the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.

“I have already told them (Iranian officials) that a war must be avoided at all costs,” Lula said. “In whose interest is a war?”

Lula said Brazil is uniquely qualified to be an intermediary in negotiations with Iran because Brazil has a peaceful nuclear program and its growing economic clout allows it to play a more prominent role on the international stage.

Iran’s president is expected to discuss the problems facing Afghanistan with Kabul officials during a Monday visit to the war-torn country.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will meet with his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai during his one-day visit to Kabul, Mehr News agency reported.

Finding solutions to the challenges facing Afghanistan and trade talks are expected to be high on the meeting’s agenda.

Iran believes instability and insecurity in Afghanistan has its roots in the presence of foreign troops and has repeatedly called for the complete withdrawal of US-led forces from the country.

Iran, which has close ethnic and religious ties with Afghanistan, is a long-time victim of opium production in the neighbor state.

Although Iran has won the praise of the UN for its strenuous efforts in fighting drugs trafficking, its long border with Afghanistan has prompted smugglers to view Iran as a route for drug trafficking to Europe and the West.

Since the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan drug production has surged in the country, making it the source of 90 percent of the world’s heroin.

In reaction to several accidents involving Russian-built passenger planes in Iran, the Islamic Republic sets a two-month deadline for Russian pilots to leave the country.

“Upon an order from President [Mahmoud Ahmadinejad], the Road and Transport Ministry has set a two-month deadline, after which all Russian pilots must leave the country,” Fars News Agency quoted Minister of Roads and Transportation Hamid Behbahani as saying on Saturday.

“When our country itself has plenty of competent and skilled pilots, there is no need for hiring pilots from abroad to operate our flights,” he added.

Iran has suffered a string of aviation disasters over the past decade, most involving private airlines using Russian-made planes and crew.

Officials have blamed the incidents on a ban on the sale of airplane parts to Iran, forcing it to purchase the parts from Russia and other former Soviet states.

In the worst plane crash in Iran, a Tupolev-154M, crashed shortly after take-off from Tehran en route to the Armenian capital of Yerevan on July 15, 2009, leaving all 168 passengers onboard dead.

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declares that nations that possess culture and civilization do not need to make atomic bombs.

“I have repeatedly said that our atomic bombs are our youth and athletic heroes. A nation that possesses determination, intellect, culture and civilization doesn’t need to make atomic bombs,” IRNA quoted President Ahmadinejad as saying on Thursday.

“Those who suffer from inferiority complex and lack a historical background and civilization are the ones that claim they need atomic bombs,” he added.

President Ahmadinejad also asked the Head of Iran’s Physical Education Organization Ali Saeedlou to remove the existing limitations for the country’s athletes so that they could organize camps and enjoy the best coaches and technical staff.

The president also announced that “Iran’s sports budget will increase by fivefold next year.”

“We must not only earn the Asian championships but also think about becoming world champions,” he emphasized.

“Being a champion is always hard and requires plenty of efforts,” the president concluded.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki urges the country’s envoys to foreign states to adopt proactive diplomacy and innovative approaches in their interactions with other nations.

Addressing the Iranian ambassadors at the wrap-up ceremony of the annual meeting of Iranian envoys abroad on Thursday, Mottaki lavished praise on the foreign ministry’s experienced and qualified members, citing them as Iran’s major achievement over the past years.

The change in the West’s attitude towards Iran’s nuclear case which went from the obligation to shut-down our nuclear facilities to the talk of a nuclear fuel swap is an equivocal indication of the country’s major foreign policy accomplishment during Tehran’s eighth and ninth administration, the foreign minister maintained.

Mottaki also urged the ambassadors to address the problems and issues that concern the Iranian expatriates living abroad.

The Iranian foreign ministry held a week-long summit, beginning on February 27, with its ambassadors to foreign states to review the country’s foreign policy achievements and future perspectives and agendas.

The Foreign ministry’s envoys have attended meetings with the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as well as a number of cabinet ministers and other high-ranking officials over the past days.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Thursday arrived in Rasht, northern Iran to inaugurate a massive oncology medicine factory.

The factory is the largest in Middle East. The President also unveiled a memorial stamp which depicts the scientific accomplishment.

Built and commissioned within an area of 25000 square meters at a cost of 450b rials, the factory at present offers 6 types of medicine and would expand the pharmacy to 35 in two years.

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asserts that the lingering global financial crisis has exposed the dark side of the capitalist economic system in the West.

In a Tuesday meeting with representatives of the Developing Eight countries (D8), Ahmadinejad reiterated that western-style capitalism is the main reason behind the endless wave of problems plaguing global financial organizations, particularly in the US.

The Iranian President added that Western countries should face up to the fact that the greed of capitalism has pushed it into the brink of collapse.

“The whole idea of capitalism is based on emptying the pockets of world’s nations to secure the interests of a selected few,” he emphasized.

“Based credible report, the US treasury over the past 30 years has printed more than USD 29,000 billion in debt-based banknotes and has given it to nations in exchange for goods this method is the biggest theft in human history,” said the Iranian president.

Ahmadinejad also urged D8 member states to drop the American dollar in their various financial dealings and business transactions in the future.

Representatives from the D8 member states have gathered in Tehran to discuss ways of promoting economic and industrial cooperation.

The D8 members consist of Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey.

Iran and Syria will soon lift visa requirements for their nationals, says President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after his two-day visit to the Syrian capital, Damascus.

Talking to reporters upon arrival in Tehran, President Ahmadinejad said Friday that lifting visa requirements, will serve as a positive ground for promotion of mutual cooperation.

In his visit to Syria, Ahmadinejad met with Syrian President Bashar Assad and the Secretary General of Hezbollah Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah.

He discussed the latest developments in the Middle East as well as Israeli threats against Lebanon and Syria with the two.

Ahmadinejad also condemned Israel’s move to add two holy sites, sacred to Christians and Muslims, to its national heritage list.

The US State Department spokesman says President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to Syria will undermine Damascus’ position in the Middle East.

Philip Crowley told reporters on Thursday that the US has expressed concerns to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad about his country’s relationship with Tehran.

“This is ultimately a decision that Syria has to make,” dpa quoted Crowley as saying.

“But I think as President Assad assesses Syria’s long-term interest, he need only look around the region and recognize that Syria is increasingly an outlier,” he added.

Ahmadinejad and Assad held a joint news conference in Damascus on Thursday.

The Syrian president said at the joint news conference that he was “surprised” at US calls for Syria to distance itself from Iran.

“I am surprised by their call to keep a distance between the countries … when they raise the issue of stability and peace in the Middle East, and all the other beautiful principles,” al-Assad told reporters.

President Ahmadinejad for his part said that “relations between Syria and Iran are brotherly, deep, solid and permanent.”

A new Middle East is in sight where trails of Zionists or Arrogance no more exists, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a joint news conference with his Syrian counterpar tBashar Assad in Damascus on Thursday.

He added Tehran and Damascus are determined to boost bilateral relations.

Ahmadinejad went on to say that the whole world and region are at the verge of a great development, adding the relations which ruled the world during the past few decades are reaching the end and the Zionist regime’s file is closing.

“If the Zionist regime wants to repeats its past errors, its death will be inevitable,” said the Iranian President.

The Syrian President for his part said that President Ahmadinejad’s visit was proof that Iran and Syria were united and counter against enemy divisive plots.

He said the region was undergoing special conditions with some trying to stir Islamic communities as they did to African countries.

He regretted that some ignorant entities in the region were abusing the plots.

The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran announces the country’s plan to build two more enrichment facilities.

“God willing, the construction of two new [uranium] enrichment sites may begin in the new Iranian year (starts on March 21) on the order of President (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad),” Ali Akbar Salehi said.

“We intend to use new generation centrifuges in these two facilities,” he told the Iranian Students News Agency.

He added that up to 20 potential sites for the construction of 10 new enrichment facilities have been located, as ordered by President Ahmadinejad.

Salehi noted that the new enrichment plants will be similar to the Natanz enrichment plant in terms of production.

Salehi had earlier told Press TV that Iran needs 20 enrichment sites to fulfill its total electricity demand.

“We are in need of 20 thousands megawatts that means 20 [times the amount the] Natanz [facility can produce],” he said.

The Iranian Parliament (Majlis) is working on a bill that calls on the government to reconsider Iran’s relations with Britain, says a top Iranian lawmaker.

“There is a serious demand in Iran to downgrade ties with the British government. Parliamentarians have now proposed a bill regarding the issue,” said Kazem Jalali, the rapporteur of the Foreign Relations and National Security Commission of the Iranian Parliament, on Sunday.

Remarks made by British officials after the Iranian presidential election on June 12 drew sharp criticism from the Tehran government, prompting the Iranian Parliament to introduce a resolution to reconsider ties with Britain. The bill has received widespread support in the country.

However, Jalali added that ending all relations with London would not necessarily resolve the issues between the two governments, stressing that better management of ties with Britain would be a more effective solution.

The Iranian government has repeatedly accused Britain and a number of other Western states of inciting the post-election unrest in the country.

Earlier in January, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Tehran would consider limiting relations with London in various fields.

The idea gained momentum after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad pledged to give the move ’some serious thought,’ saying the bossy and intrusive attitude of British officials in the wake of the June presidential election had left Tehran no choice but to limit the level of its relations with London.

Diplomatic relations between Iran and Britain was severed in the years following the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

However, in September 1990, Iran and Britain resumed ties at a lower level, which was gradually increased to an ambassadorial level in the ensuing years. The two countries eventually restored full diplomatic relations after a visit by Jack Straw, the then British foreign secretary, to Iran in 2001.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has confirmed that Iran has produced its first batch of 20 percent enriched uranium at the Natanz enrichment plant.

IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano said in his first report on Iran that Iranian experts carried out the enrichment for producing nuclear fuel for the Tehran research reactor between February 9 and 11.

“Iran provided the agency with mass spectrometry results which indicate that enrichment levels of up to 19.8 percent (uranium) were obtained,” the report says.

Iran announced on February 9 that it had started enriching uranium to the level of less than 20 percent to meet the country’s fuel requirements for the reactor producing medical radioisotopes, after the potential suppliers failed to provide the fuel under a UN deal.

Two days later, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad formally declared that Iran had successfully produced the first stock of the 20-percent enriched uranium, a declaration which was met with cynicism in the West.

The report noted that Iran started enriching uranium to a higher level in the presence of IAEA inspectors.

“On February 10, when the agency inspectors arrived at the PFEP (Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant), they were informed that Iran had already begun to feed the UF6 (uranium hexafluoride) into one cascade the previous evening,” Amano said in his report to the IAEA Board of Governors.

The report also verified the non-diversion of declared nuclear material in Iran.

“The information available to the agency is extensive… broadly consistent and credible in terms of the technical detail, the time frame in which the activities were conducted and the people, and organizations involved,” the report said.

However, the IAEA called on Iran to further discuss and cooperate on alleged issues.

“Iran has not provided the necessary cooperation to permit the agency to confirm that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities,” it added.

“Altogether this raises concerns about the possible existence in Iran of past or current undisclosed activities related to the development of a nuclear payload for a missile,” Amano said.

Iran has repeatedly denied it is working on sensitive nuclear materials and insists its uranium enrichment plants and other facilities are only geared toward civilian nuclear energy applications.

The Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a telephone conversation with his Lebanese counterpart, Michel Suleiman, emphasized on the need for unity in the face of the Zionists’ threats.

The Iran President said that current political stability and peace in Lebanon is the result of the Lebanese leaders’ prudence and wisdom.

President Ahmadinejad continued that the Zionist regime is against a free and independent Lebanon and does anything to change it.

In return Michel Suleiman said that the Zionists are angry because of peace and quiet in Lebanon.

President Suleiman continued that exaggerating Syria, Palestine, and Lebanon’s possible threats to the regime as well as causing discord in the region are what the Zionist regime is after.

The President of Lebanon continued that due to unity among people and different groups, the Lebanese army is ready to face any possible military action.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Washington’s policies in the Middle East have failed and the US “supremacy” has reached the end of the road.

“The US supremacy is melting away just like snow in front of the sun,” Ahmadinejad said in a meeting with the Belarusian Foreign Minister Sergei Martynov in Tehran on Wednesday.

This means that in the near future the political trend of the world will change and a great transformation will take place, IRNA quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

“Mr. Obama and his friends or even his rivals cannot change the trend, so we should become ready for the changes in the future,” the Iranian president stated.

Ahmadinejad also noted that the relations between Iran and Belarus are enhancing.

“In the current political and economic situation of the world, expansion of ties between the two countries will serve the interests of the two nations and also those of the region,” he added.

Martynov, for his part, highlighted Iran’s key role in the region and said that Belarus is determined to enhance its ties with Iran.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the US is seeking the “strongest” possible UN Security Council (UNSC) sanctions on Iran over its nuclear work.

In an interview with al-Arabiyya television aired on Wednesday, Clinton said that the US was focusing all its efforts on getting more sanctions against Iran.

“We want to try to get the strongest sanctions we can out of the United Nations Security Council … mostly to influence their (the Iranians’) decision-making,” the former first lady told.

She said that collecting international support for more punitive measures against Iran would be a better approach than military action.

The US believes “the better approach is to join at the international community, to work together toward sanctions, to exert maximum pressure on the Iranians, and to try every way we can to change their thinking,” she said.

Washington has been leading efforts to push Iran into accepting a proposed deal that demands Tehran to send most of its low-enriched uranium abroad for further processing for the Tehran research reactor — which runs on 20 percent-enriched uranium and produces medical isotopes for cancer patients.

Iran has called for “concrete” guarantees that the fuel would eventually reach the country’s soil but the demand has been shrugged off by the West, particularly the US, which has reiterated the deal would remain intact.

After potential suppliers failed to provide the required fuel, Iran announced on February 9 that it had started enriching uranium to the level of less than 20 percent to meet the country’s demand.

Two days after that, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Iran had successfully produced the first stock of the 20 percent-enriched uranium, a declaration which was met with cynicism in the West.

The US threatened that it would seek fresh sanctions against Iran at the UNSC.

US-led calls for more sanctions against Iran have mainly received a chilly welcome by China, a veto-wielding member of the UNSC, which insists that diplomacy could still work regarding the Iranian nuclear work.

The chief of Russia’s General Staff, Nikolai Makarov, has warned the US against striking Iran over the country’s nuclear program.

“The consequences, I believe, would be dreadful for Iran, as well as Russia, the entire Asia-Pacific community,” Makarov said on Wednesday.

The Russian military chief further suggested that the United States might turn its military attention on the Islamic Republic once its operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have been completed.

Amid a US campaign to drum up support for new anti-Iran sanctions, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned on Tuesday that world powers would “regret” any moves against the country.

“If anybody seeks to create problems for Iran, our response will not be like before,” Ahmadinejad said at a press conference in Tehran.

“Something will be done in response that will make them (the world powers) regret [their action],” the Iranian chief executive added. “However, we prefer they steer towards cooperation [with Iran].”

President Ahmadinejad made the remarks as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was wrapping up her visit to the Middle East, where she stopped in Qatar and Saudi Arabia to seek the backing of the Arab world’s heavyweights against Tehran’s nuclear drive.

Tehran says its nuclear program is directed at the civilian applications of the technology and has called for the removal of all weapons of mass destruction around the globe.

The West, however, accuses the country of seeking military ends in its pursuit. The United States has spearheaded efforts to slap new UN Security Council sanctions against Iran, after the country announced the production of the first batch of 20 percent-enriched uranium to make fuel for a medical research reactor in Tehran.