Iran's foreign minister has expressed optimism that a visit
by UN inspectors to Iran's nuclear facilities would produce
an understanding, despite world concerns that Iran is trying
to build nuclear weapons.
Fighting sanctions with sanctions in a trial of strength with
the West over its nuclear ambitions, Iran has warned it may
halt oil exports to Europe next week in a move calculated to
hurt ailing European economies.
Iranian politicians said they expected the European Union to
backtrack on its oil embargo and repeated a threat to close
the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping lane if the West succeeds
in preventing Teheran from exporting crude.
The European Union has banned imports of oil from Iran and
imposed a number of other economic sanctions, joining the
United States in a new round of measures aimed at deflecting
Teheran's nuclear development programme.
Police have closed down dozens of toy shops for selling
Barbie dolls in Iran, part of a decades-long crackdown
against "manifestations of Western culture," the semiofficial
Mehr news agency reports.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog says on Friday it did not know an
Iranian scientist who was killed last week, rejecting
Teheran's suggestions it may have been partly to blame for
his death by leaking information about him.
The United Nations nuclear watchdog has confirmed that Iran
has started enriching uranium at an underground site and said
all atomic material there was under its surveillance.
The White House says the United States will seek further
sanctions against Iran in response to an alleged plot to
assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Washington.
US authorities have broken up an alleged plot to bomb the
Israeli and Saudi Arabian embassies in Washington and
assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States, court
documents and a US official say.
