Iran was upbeat on Wednesday after talks with world powers
about its nuclear work ended with an agreement to meet again,
but Western officials said it had yet to take concrete steps
to ease their fears of a secret weapons programme.
Iran's highest authority, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has slapped
down an offer of direct talks made by US Vice President Joe
Biden this week, saying they would not solve the problem
between them.
Iran has left no doubt that it will do whatever it takes to
protect the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad,
Teheran's staunch ally, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
says.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has drawn his "red
line" for Iran's nuclear programme despite a US refusal to
set an ultimatum, saying Teheran will be on the brink of a
nuclear weapon in less than a year.
Iran has doubled the number of uranium enrichment centrifuges
it has in an underground bunker, a UN report says, showing
Teheran continued to develop its nuclear programme despite
Western pressure and the threat of an Israeli attack.
Iran announced missile tests and threatened to wipe Israel
"off the face of the earth" if the Jewish state attacked it,
brandishing some of its starkest threats on the day Europe
began enforcing an oil embargo and harsh new sanctions.
Iran has detected a planned "massive cyber attack" against
its nuclear facilities, state television says, after talks
with major powers this week failed to resolve a row over
Tehran's disputed nuclear activities.
The UN nuclear watchdog said it made no progress in talks
with Iran to seal a deal on resuming a long-stalled
investigation into suspected atom bomb research by the
Islamic state and it called the outcome "disappointing".
United Nations inspectors have found uranium particles
refined to a higher-than-expected level at an Iranian
underground site where Tehran has installed more than 50
percent more enrichment centrifuges, a U.N. watchdog report
said on Friday.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev warns that military
action against sovereign states could lead to a regional
nuclear war, starkly voicing Moscow's opposition to Western
intervention ahead of a G8 summit at which Syria and Iran
will be discussed.
