Iran Focus

Reuters: U.S. plans for a possible military strike on Iran are ready and the option is "fully available", the U.S. ambassador to Israel said, days before Tehran resumes talks with world powers which suspect it of seeking to develop nuclear arms.

New York Times: An American advocacy group that has successfully pushed for strict sanctions against Iran joined with a prominent European research organization to press for further economic penalties against Iran over its disputed uranium enrichment program.

AP: Iran's top negotiator says his country is seeking "cooperation" from world powers in next week's nuclear talks in Baghdad and has warned against pressure by the West.

AFP: A Japanese bank has halted transactions by the Iranian government after a US court ordered a $2.6 billion asset freeze over the 1983 bombing of US barracks in Beirut, a bank spokesman said on Thursday.

Wall Street Journal: The regime is hurting. Fully cutting off its access to international business, especially banking and shipping, could be the solution to its bomb program.

AP: An expert panel monitoring U.N. sanctions on Iran has reported that Syria continues to be the main destination of illicit Iranian weapons, a Security Council diplomat said Wednesday.

AP: A federal judge has sentenced a businessman to 13 months in prison following his guilty plea in a scheme to illegally export computer parts to Iran.

AFP: Iran hardened its tone against a plan to unite Bahrain with Saudi Arabia, calling on its people to protest Friday against what it described as a US plot to annex the tiny Gulf archipelago.

Bloomberg: Taiwan resumed oil imports from Iran in March after ceasing purchases a month earlier, according to data from Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Reuters: Facing an imminent toughening of sanctions, Iran is hinting at a readiness to give some ground in its long nuclear stand-off with world powers, but any flexibility could split their ranks and lead to protracted uncertainty about how to respond.

AP: The negotiating stance from Iranian officials never varies: The Islamic Republic will not give up its capabilities to make nuclear fuel. But embedded in the messages are meanings that reach beyond Tehran's talks with world powers.

AFP: Iran warned on Tuesday that Riyadh's plans to form a union with Manama would deepen the crisis in Bahrain, a day after Saudi Arabia told Tehran to keep out of its relations with the tiny Gulf kingdom.

UPI: Negotiations are under way to choose contractors for the construction of a natural gas pipeline from Iran to Iraq, Iranian officials said.

Reuters: Iran and the U.N. nuclear watchdog ended two days of talks on Tuesday by agreeing to meet again next week, just two days before Tehran resumes negotiations with world powers concerned it may be seeking to develop atomic bomb capability.

Reuters: Britain and France are studying a proposed European Union ban on insuring tankers carrying Iranian oil to see how severe an impact it would have on trade with non-EU countries, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Tuesday.

CNN: An Iranian rapper is facing death threats and has a $100,000 bounty on his head for a song that some say insults an Islamic Shiite imam.

Bloomberg: Iran Khodro Co., the country’s largest carmaker, said it plans to manufacture 30,000 cars, mostly the Samand sedan, at a production site in neighboring Iraq this year.

AFP: India said Tuesday it would cut purchases of Iranian oil by 11 percent following pressure from the United States to join a drive to isolate the Islamic republic over its disputed nuclear programme.

AP: Iran has hanged a man who was sentenced to death for the 2010 killing of a nuclear physicist, state TV reported Tuesday.

Reuters: The United States is not impressed with India's efforts to cut its oil imports from Iran, a top U.S. diplomat said on Tuesday, throwing into doubt whether New Delhi would be given a waiver from U.S. financial sanctions before a June deadline.

UPI: Outlandish is probably the polite way to describe a claim made by the U.S. State Department during a recent court hearing on the People's Mujahedin of Iran.

New York Times: To the untrained eye it could be an industrial boiler or a storage tank. But an unidentified official says the picture above shows an explosives chamber used by Iran to conduct nuclear weapons-related tests.

CNN: An Iranian delegation met with officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria, on Monday as diplomatic wrangling continues over Tehran's controversial nuclear program.

Bloomberg:‎ A United Nations visit to Iran’s Parchin military complex may top the agenda of a two-day meeting between Iranian diplomats and UN nuclear inspectors.