Russia consider Iran sanctions

PARIS — Russia and France launched a new era of close partnership on Monday, with the Kremlin signalling it could support targeted sanctions against Iran and France offering to sell warships to Moscow.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev made his most explicit threat yet to act against Tehran after talks with his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy at [...]

Israeli strike on Iran would be ‘disaster’: Turkey

MADRID — A pre-emptive Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities would be a “disaster of unpredictable consequences”, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned in an interview published on Monday.
“We have to find a solution through diplomatic means,” he told the leading Spanish daily El Pais. “We must not leave the negotiating table.” Israel this [...]

U.S. accelerating missile defenses in Gulf

WASHINGTON — The US administration is speeding up deployment of defenses against potential Iranian missile attacks in the Gulf to heed off any possible retaliation, The New York Times reported Saturday.
The move involves placing specialized ships off the Iranian coast and anti-missile systems in at least four Arab countries — Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, [...]

U.S. has contingency plan for Iran nukes: Gen. David Petraeus

WASHINGTON — The United States has developed contingency plans to address Iran’s nuclear ambitions if negotiations falter between the Islamic republic and Western nations, a top US general said Sunday.
“It would be almost literally irresponsible if CENTCOM were not to have been thinking about the various ‘what ifs’ and to make plans for a whole [...]

Iran expands naval clout in Persian Gulf

WASHINGTON  – Iran has restructured its naval forces to give an arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard full responsibility for operations in the strategic Persian Gulf in the event of a conflict, according to a new U.S. intelligence study.

Iranian Navy soldiers march during an annual military parade, September 22, 2009 (Getty Images)
The concentration of fast [...]

Iran to hold war games to protect nuclear facilities

TEHRAN – Iran will begin large-scale air defense war games on Sunday to help protect its nuclear facilities against any attack, a senior commander said.
Brigadier General Ahmad Mighani also suggested Iran could itself produce an advanced missile defense system which Russia has so far failed to deliver to the Islamic Republic and which Washington and [...]

Mystery disappearance of Iranian nuclear scientist deepens

TEHRAN — The mystery over an Iranian missing in Saudi Arabia deepened on Saturday after a local newspaper said the US Central Intelligence Agency was involved in his disappearance.
Hardline paper Javan (Young), quoting the unnamed wife of the man, who she claims is a physics researcher, said her husband, Shahram Amiri, went missing exactly 130 [...]

Western powers warn Iran of new nuclear sanctions

GENEVA — Six world powers on Thursday started crunch talks with Iran seeking to pressure Tehran to prove that its nuclear programme is peaceful.
Iran’s top nuclear negotiator met officials from the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany in a villa overlooking Lake Geneva only a week after the disclosure of a second Iranian [...]

China opposes Iran nuclear sanctions

BEIJING — China on Thursday reiterated its opposition to sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme, as Tehran came under mounting pressure from world leaders at the United Nations to stop uranium enrichment.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu takes a question at a press briefing in Beijing (Xinhua)
“We always believe that sanctions and pressure are [...]

NATO wants Russia to press Iran on nuclear plans

BRUSSELS  - NATO urged Russia on Friday to help other global powers put the maximum possible diplomatic pressure on Iran not to develop nuclear weapons.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen made the appeal before talks on October 1 between Iran and world powers including the United States, and as part of proposals to improve cooperation between [...]