Iran's head of parliamentary delegation, Ali Riaz, (2nd l) talks with the Saudi head of the friendship group, Khalid bin Ebrahim Al-Avad, (2nd r), as Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Hosseini (l) looks on in Riyadh on Saturday.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Jan. 27--Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said Tehran and Riyadh should plan for strengthening bilateral ties.
In a meeting with members of friendship group of Iran-Saudi Arabia parliaments on Saturday, the Saudi foreign minister added that exchanging parliamentary delegations and increasing consultations between officials of the two countries can bring their viewpoints closer, IRNA reported.
Referring to the desire of the heads of two states for expansion of bilateral ties, Prince Saud said, “We should try to materialize this desire.“
He said Iran is an important and effective country in the region, noting that the two countries have always been aware of the conspiracies of enemies.
Iran’s head of parliamentary delegation, Ali Riaz, said political consultation between the two countries is an appropriate and basic approach for promoting bilateral relations.
The members of the first Iran-Saudi Arabia Parliamentary Friendship Group arrived in Riyadh on Saturday.
Riaz also said in the group’s first session Saturday that the two countries have common stances on various issues.
“Iran and Saudi Arabia can expand relations in line with the interests of the two sides and the Islamic world in general through the exchange of political and parliamentary delegations,“ he said.
“The enemies of Islam try to cause discord, insecurity and instability in the region to promote their illegitimate policies,“ Riaz said, adding that thanks to their central position in the region, Tehran and Riyadh can neutralize the enemies’ conspiracies by supporting each other in international forums.
The Iranian official also thanked the Saudi stance on Iran’s nuclear case.
The Saudi head of the friendship group, Khalid bin Ebrahim Al-Avad, underlined expansion of bilateral ties with Iran.
Referring to the determination of the two countries’ officials to deepen bilateral ties, the Saudi awmaker said sincere and brotherly behavior of heads of the two countries in the Doha meeting sent a message to the world. “Creating disunity and religious conflicts in Islamic countries is a dangerous virus which threatens the Islamic world and regional countries,“ he said.

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan. 27--Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said he could envisage the Islamic Republic resuming diplomatic ties with the United States one day, but many hurdles remained to normalize relations.
Mottaki said on Saturday Tehran was not committed to “cutting relations with the United States forever“, despite tensions with Washington over its nuclear program and US accusations that Iran has fomented violence in neighboring Iraq, Reuters reported.
Iran regularly calls for a change in behavior from the United States, which cut diplomatic ties in 1980 after students seized the US Embassy in Tehran and took diplomats hostage during the 1979 Islamic revolution.
“How and when this relationship can take place again, it depends on so many factors,“ Mottaki told reporters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in the Swiss alpine town of Davos.
Asked if this year’s US presidential election could mark a turning point in relations, he said: “We are trying not to look at the individuals, to the parties, but looking...at the policies.“
Mottaki said he had not detected any change in the US approach toward his country, but his measured comments followed a speech to the forum by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice which included a conciliatory note toward Tehran.
After weeks of anti-Iranian rhetoric by the Bush administration, Rice said on Wednesday Washington had no desire for Iran to be a permanent enemy.
Rice said the nuclear standoff could be resolved diplomatically and offered the prospect of normal ties if Iran gave up sensitive nuclear work--a demand Iran has rejected.
“For the time being, we do not see any important changes in the policy of the United States,“ Mottaki said. “Some people here and there send signals but the administration sets its policy which we do not accept.“
In a public discussion at the forum on Saturday, Mottaki angrily accused the United States of fabricating video footage of an incident between American and Iranian vessels in the Strait of Hormuz earlier this month for political purposes.
He also urged US President George W. Bush “to be brave and tell the truth for once“ about Iran after a US intelligence report concluded that Tehran had dumped plans to acquire nukes in 2003, which claim Iran denies.
But in his remarks to journalists on Saturday, he offered a qualified compliment to Washington over recent policy in Iraq.
“The Americans have announced they will reduce their troops in Iraq. I think that will be a good decision,“ he said.
“The British did the right thing when they transferred Basra security to Iraqi officials,“ Mottaki added, referring to Britain’s withdrawal of forces from the center of the southern Iraqi city late last year.

TEHRAN, Jan. 27--Families of several members of the terrorist Mujahideen Khalq Organization on an Italian TV program appealed for the return of their children.
The program, called ’La Rubrica Politica Estera’, was aired by Italy’s state broadcaster RAI1 on Friday.
At the beginning of the program, a number of Iranian families were shown holding pictures of their deceived children, demanding their return to Iran, Presstv quoted.
The MKO, which has carried out numerous terrorist missions in Iran and killed hundreds of Iranian civilians, is on the terror lists of the United States, the European Union and other countries.
Following those images, the commentator of the program explained that the MKO are communists, who were supported by the executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and who later fled to Europe and the United States.
The commentator added that the MKO separated many families by using persuasive techniques similar to those of Pol Pot, the former communist head of Cambodia. The program pointed out that many of the terrorist organization’s staff and senior members have told unsettling tales of insanity about the time they spent with the group.
According to RAI1, MKO’s former financial head has revealed that members of the group live in absolute poverty and in the absence of their families, while the organization’s leaders, Masoud Rajavi and his wife Maryam, live lavishly.
The program said that the group currently seeks to steer the dispute over Iran’s nuclear issue to more dismal corners by writing a letter to the US following the January 4 Strait of Hormuz naval incident.

Head of Iran's Department of Environment, Fatemeh Vaez-Javadi, (2nd r) and Iraqi Minister of Environment Nermin Othman (2nd l) sign an eight-article agreement on cooperation in the field of environment protection in Tehran on Sunday.

TEHRAN, Jan. 27--Iranian and Iraqi officials signed an eight-article agreement on cooperation in the field of environment protection.
The agreement was inked by the head of Iran’s Department of Environment, Fatemeh Vaez-Javadi, and Iraqi Minister of Environment Nermin Othman in Tehran, IRNA reported.
Speaking to reporters prior to signing the agreement, the Iranian official said the document would facilitate Tehran-Baghdad cooperation for further protection of their natural resources.
“Based on the document, the two parties are required to cooperate on industrial pollution control, enforce a ban on hunting along Iran-Iraq borders and campaign against wildlife epidemic diseases,“ she said.
The minister also said the agreement also focuses on promotion of ecotourism, the study of soil, water and air pollution caused by exploitation of oilfields as well as environmental damage caused by wars.
The Iraqi minister said, for her part, the two parties shared common views on environmental issues, hoping that promotion of security in Iraq would further help protect natural resources in that country.

KABUL, Afghanistan,
Jan. 27--Spokesperson of Afghan Interior Ministry Zemaira Bashary on Sunday rejected allegation that Iran supplied mines to the Taliban fighting with government forces in western Afghanistan.
“There is no document to prove Iran supplied 130 mines to Taliban terrorists in Farah province,“ Bashary told IRNA.
Western media reports claimed on Saturday that a number of mines discovered in a military operation on Thursday in Taliban’s cache in Farah province bore Iranian trademark.
It would be “a prejudgment“ to involve Iran in the case, the Afghan spokesperson said.
He added that if it was proved that the mines belonged to a third country, then “the significant point is to find out when they were transferred to Afghanistan“.
He stressed that Afghan military experts were investigating the case and would announce the result later.
Bashary added that the name of the producer country has been removed from the mines.
Of the more than 12 million mines planted in Afghanistan during the country’s three decades of war against the former occupier Soviet Union, only five million have been discovered and defused so far.
Taliban, which led the government from 1996 until their ouster by western forces in 2001, are fighting against the government of President Hamid Karzai.