Eurasia Press & News

Pope Benedict XVI and former Iranian president Seyed Mohammad Khatami met at the Vatican Friday as part of ongoing Church efforts to improve relations with Muslims.

Iran will not bow to international pressure to halt its nuclear program, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said, after world powers told Tehran to halt uranium enrichment or face a third round of UN sanctions, Reuters reported.

South Africa proposed a compromise on Friday to prevent a global meeting on the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) from collapsing over Iranian objections to the agenda, and Tehran said it would consider the idea.

Iran on Tuesday objected to a clause inserted in the agenda of the first session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2010 NPT Review Conference, saying that the clause would unjustly single it out as a peril to the NPT.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Thursday underlined that his people are insistent on their inalienable right to fully access and use nuclear energy, assuring that his country would never retreat from its stances even for an inch.

The United Arab Emirates’ Foreign Minister Abdallah bin Zayid al-Nuhayyan viewed establishment of security as Iraq’s top priority.

Iranians are faithful people who wish peace, justice and welfare for the entire mankind, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in Manoujan in the central province of Kerman on the second leg of his 28th tour of the different provinces of the country.

Iran’s visiting Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki Wednesday met with the President of the United Arab Emirates Khalifa bin Zayid al-Nuhayyan and discussed bilateral ties and regional cooperation.

Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh said on Wednesday that Iran is entitled to diversity in using renewable energy sources and that it is determined to materialize such a right.

An international conference will seek solutions to the Iraq conflict on Thursday but possible talks between US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki could grab the limelight.