Iran

Sanctions are not the way to resolve the deepening international confrontation over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, China said on Tuesday, while also urging Tehran to be more compromising.

China’s drive to invest in Iran’s biggest undeveloped oilfield in return for gas supplies is being stymied by tough commercial negotiations, not the threat of more sanctions, Chinese oil officials said on Tuesday.

The top U.S. emissary to the crisis-torn Caucasus nation of Georgia said on Tuesday the country would lift a state of emergency in two or three days.

The Kurdistan regional government in northern Iraq on Tuesday denied unconfirmed television reports that Turkish military helicopters seeking Kurdish rebels had bombed two empty villages in the area.

A Turkish soldier was killed and three others injured in clashes with Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas in southeast Turkey on Tuesday, security sources said.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi here on Tuesday reiterated that his country would continue nuclear activities with full transparency.

The Islamic Republic of Iran and Kazakhstan signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) here on Tuesday to further bolster economic, trade, technical and scientific cooperation between the two sides.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki called on all the parties involved in his country’s nuclear issue to support the present trend of constructive interaction between the Islamic Republic and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Iran on Tuesday gave India a four-month deadline to formally agree its participation in a multi-bln dollar project to transport Iranian gas to India via Pakistan.

Iranian Government Spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham underlined Tehran’s resolve to enrichment uranium at an industrial scale, saying that his country aims to provide fuel for its nuclear power plants.