Front-page Iran

Iran maintains defiant stance towards US

Iran’s religious leaders maintained an assertive stance Friday towards the US and its allies, despite assurances given by officials on Thursday to the United Nations nuclear chief, Mohammad ElBaradei, of increased co-operation with his agency. A team of UN inspectors will travel to Tehran next week after Mr ElBaradei’s visit, but Iran has refused international calls for a halt to sensitive nuclear work.
Opening a conference on Palestine on Friday in Tehran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, accused the US of “linked plots” against Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria and demanded Washington stop “enflaming the Middle East and Persian Gulf”.
Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati told Friday prayers in Tehran that this week’s announcement that Iran had completed nuclear enrichment in its Natanz laboratory was more important in the country’s history than the nationalisation of the oil industry in the 1950s.
In day-long talks on Thursday, Mr ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, was promised access to sites, documents and people requested by inspectors still trying to piece together a complete picture of Iran’s controversial nuclear programme.
More at the Financial Times

'Rotten Israel will be annihilated' - Iran's president

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today said Israel was a “rotten, dried tree” which will be annihilated by “one storm”.“Like it or not, the Zionist regime is heading toward annihilation,” Ahmadinejad told a conference for supporting the Palestinians as it opened in the Iranian capital Tehran.At the opening of a conference on supporting the Palestinians, Ahmadinejad fired a series of verbal shots at Israel, saying it was a “permanent threat” to the Middle East that will “soon” be liberated, and questioning the validity of the Nazi Holocaust against Jews in the Second World War.“Like it or not, the Zionist regime is heading toward annihilation,” Ahmadinejad said. “The Zionist regime is a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm,” he said.The president provoked a world outcry last October when he said Israel should be “wiped off the map”.Today, he repeated his previous line on the Holocaust, saying: “If such a disaster is true, why should the people of this region pay the price? Why does the Palestinian nation have to be suppressed and have its land occupied?”The land of Palestine, he said, referring to the British mandated territory that includes all of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, “will be freed soon”.He did not say how this would be achieved, but insisted to the audience of at least 900 people: “Believe that Palestine will be freed soon.”“The existence of this (Israeli) regime is a permanent threat” to the Middle East, he added. “Its existence has harmed the dignity of Islamic nations.”
More at Ireland Online

Iran fears push oil price above $70

The price of Brent North Sea crude oil broke through $70 a barrel for the first time on Thursday evening, fuelled by simmering tensions between Iran and the international community.
The price of Brent crude for June delivery jumped 34 cents to reach $70.20 before later falling back slightly to $70.15, an increase of 28 cents from Wednesday's close.
Brent has been striking record high points since Monday on market concerns that the US might launch military strikes at uranium facilities in Iran, the world's fourth largest producer of crude.
More at RTE Business

Russia to host new round of talks on Iran nuclear program

Russia will host a new round of talks next week with leading world powers on Iran's nuclear program in a bid to head off a confrontation with the U.N. Security Council, the Government said on Friday.
The talks involving Russia, the United States, the European Union and China will be held in Moscow on Tuesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Krivtsov said.
The United States and Britain say that if Iran does not comply with the Security Council's demand to stop enrichment by April 28, they will seek a resolution that would make the demand compulsory.
Sergei Mironov, the Kremlin-allied speaker of the Russian parliament's upper house, warned that sanctions against Iran would be ``premature and won't yield positive results,'' ITAR-Tass reported.
Russia's chief nuclear official, meanwhile, voiced hope for a diplomatic solution to the standoff despite Tehran's vow to press ahead with uranium enrichment.
Sergei Kiriyenko said that ``there is still a chance for a diplomatic settlement of the Iranian nuclear program.''
More at the Hindu