Iran Times

Iran’s refusal to accept a nuclear deal by the end of the year is setting up a major foreign policy test for both President Barack Obama and Congress.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast on Wednesday rejected a nuclear swap deadline set by the United States, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.

Representatives from Russia, China, Britain, France, the U.S. and Germany adjourned their telephone consultation about Iran’s nuclear program Tuesday without giving guidance on when they will ask the United Nations Security Council to consider measures to increase pressure on Iran.

Crude futures are up 2.2% following reports that Iranian troops crossed the Iraqi border and took control of an oil field in southeastern Iraq. An official of the state-owned South Oil Company in told Agence France Presse that Iranian forces took control of Well 4 in the Fauqa Field, part of a cluster of fields [...]

Iran’s supreme Leader gave a stern warning to the pro-reform opposition yesterday accusing it of violating the law by insulting the memory of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Khomeini.
Declaring that opposition rallies were illegal, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made clear he would not tolerate any more protests by reformers seeking to revive their challenge to President [...]

Iranian students accuse government of faking images of protesters burning photos of Khomeini
Hundreds of students at Tehran University renewed anti-government protests for a second week on Sunday, accusing authorities of fabricating images of demonstrators burning photos of the Islamic Republic’s revered founder.

“Tomorrow will be the executioners’ day of vengeance” – Iranian student writes diary
On Dec. 7, tens of thousands of students marched at universities across Iran, in the most significant anti-government protests in the country for months.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad renewed Iran’s support for the Palestinian “resistance” in a meeting on Sunday with the exiled leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, Khaled Meshaal.
“The Iranian nation and government will always stand by the resistance and the oppressed Palestinian people,” he told Meshaal, state television reported.

Backers of Iranian student say authorities forced him into women’s clothing to humiliate him
Supporters of Iran’s opposition have posted hundreds of photos online of men in women’s clothing to mock what they say was a government attempt to discredit a student leader by photographing him in a head scraf and woman’s robe.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday that he expected the international community to impose significant additional sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.
A senior U.S. official said the United States and its allies would decide early next year whether to pursue more sanctions.

More than $2 billion allegedly held on behalf of Iran in {Citigroup} Inc. accounts were secretly ordered frozen last year by a federal court in Manhattan, in what appears to be the biggest seizure of Iranian assets abroad since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
The legal order, executed 18 months ago by the U.S. District Court for [...]

Is Siemens helping Iran? German customs officials intercepted a Siemens shipment of compressors on its way to Iran, Der Spiegel reported Saturday.
According to the German magazine, the compressors sent by Siemens are worth an estimated 16 million Euros and were apparently meant to be used as part of Iran’s nuclear program.

White House unhappy with Iranian proposal on nukes, says inconsistent with U.N.-backed plan
The White House is expressing unhappiness over Iran’s announcement that it is ready to exchange uranium for nuclear fuel.

Iran agrees to UN proposal for swapping enriched uranium for nuclear fuel, with caveats
Iran is ready to exchange the bulk of its stockpile of enriched uranium for nuclear fuel rods-as proposed by the U.N.-but according to its own mechanisms and timetable, the foreign minister said Saturday.

Iran agrees to UN proposal for swapping enriched uranium for nuclear fuel, with caveats
Iran is ready to exchange the bulk of its stockpile of enriched uranium for nuclear fuel rods-as proposed by the U.N.-but according to its own mechanisms and timetable, the foreign minister said Saturday.