Iranian technicians are seen at IsfahanÕs Uranium Conversion Facilities, 420 km south of Tehran.

Newly-appointed Secretary of Russia’s National Security Council Nicholas Patrochev said common points in the packages of Iran and G5+1 provide a good base for launching a new round of talks.
In a telephone conversation on Monday with his Iranian counterpart Saeed Jalili, Patrochev expressed satisfaction with the progress of talks between Jalili and EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, IRNA reported.
The official added that Russia supports resumption of talks based on common points in the two sides’ packages.
“A new round of talks can benefit all parties,“ he said, hoping that dialogue will begin at the earliest with a positive attitude.
Welcoming expansion of cooperation between the two countries, Patrochev also called for regular talks between the secretaries of Iranian and Russian security councils.
Jalili briefed his Russian counterpart on latest developments as well as agreements reached with Solana and thanked Russia for its constructive approach toward nuclear talks.
The top Iranian nuclear negotiator also hoped that the new round of talks will be coupled with innovation, creativity and win-win situation.

Major Powers in Videoconference
Also on Monday, senior officials from world powers held a videoconference to discuss Iran’s response to a package of incentives to curb its nuclear activities, said the US State Department.
State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said political directors from G5+1 (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council--the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia--as well as Germany) spoke via telephone on Monday, Reuters reported.
“We are consulting with our partners in the G5+1 on issues related to that response and what we might hear and what we have heard thus far,“ he told reporters after the conference.
The major powers offered Iran a revised package of incentives last month and said Tehran must suspend its uranium enrichment work before formal talks could start on the package, which includes help to develop a civilian nuclear program.
So far, the Iranian government’s formal response to the latest offer has not been made public and there have been mixed signals in statements by its senior officials.
“There is clearly a debate, or at least a discussion, within the Iranian government on how to respond,“ said McCormack.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday his country would not stop enriching uranium and rejected as ’illegitimate’ a demand by major powers that it do so.
However, Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki spoke during the weekend of a “new environment“ for diplomacy over Iran ’s nuclear program.
The offer of trade and other incentives was presented last month by Solana to Jalili.
Solana told reporters in Paris on Monday he hoped to meet Jalili later this month to discuss the formal written response provided by Iran last week.

Iran says the British government lacks the jurisdiction to blacklist the military arm of Lebanon’s resistance movement Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini on Tuesday condemned a decision by Britain to add Hezbollah’s military wing to the list of designated terrorist groups, saying that the stance is ’worthless’, Presstv reported.
“There should be no wonder at such a stance from a government that is one of the founders of the terrorist regime in Israel and has relentlessly supported its policies of occupation and invasion,“ Hosseini said.
The spokesman noted that the decision, coming at a time when Hezbollah’s achievements have been widely praised by the Lebanese people, is proof of “Britain’s complete desperation“.
In view of Britain “conferring knighthood on author Salman Rushdie“ and “removing Mujahideen Khalq Organization (MKO) from its list of terrorist groups“, the British government lacks the moral authority to make any such decision, Hosseini said.
Britain’s Home Office justifies its decision to ban the entire military wing of Hezbollah by accusing the movement’s military branch of providing support to militants in Iraq and Palestinian terror groups.

Egypt summoned a senior Iranian diplomat in Cairo on Monday over an Iranian film on the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, an Egyptian Foreign Ministry official and state media said.
Egypt’s state news agency MENA said the head of the Iranian Interests Office in Cairo was summoned over the film for hurting Egyptian sensibilities. But MENA gave few details of the film’s content.
In another development, an informed Iranian official told Mehr News Agency on Tuesday that the film does not represent Iran’s official stance, noting that the documentary was made out of respect for the country’s freedom of speech policy.
Egypt and Iran have not had full diplomatic relations since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, when Iran cut ties after Sadat hosted the deposed pro-West shah in Cairo.
Iran said in January it was close to restoring full diplomatic relations with Egypt, but Egyptian officials have been more cautious.
The Iranian film on the assassination of Sadat, the Egyptian leader who made peace with Israel, would hurt improvement of ties between the two countries, MENA reported.
“This film will affect any positive development on Egyptian-Iranian relations,“ MENA said.
Cairo has said a Tehran street named after Sadat’s assassin should be changed and murals in the Iranian capital of the assassin removed. Some security issues also need to be resolved, Egyptian officials have said.
Egypt and Iran maintain interests sections in Tehran and Cairo and their ministers work together at international gatherings, but their senior officials do not often exchange visits.

Mohammad Reza Baqeri

A senior Iranian official has accused the United States of trying to sow seeds of discord between Iran and its Arab neighbors.
“Iran is ready to negotiate with the Arab states under the auspices of the Arab League,“ Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Mohammad Reza Baqeri said in an interview with the London-based Asharq Alawsat newspaper, Mehr News Agency reported.
“The collapse of Saddam regime was a turning point in the history of Iran-Arab relations,“ he added.
Baqeri criticized Arab states’ silence on Israel’s atrocities in Palestine and denounced the United States and Israel for their unrelenting hostile propaganda campaign against Iran.
He rejected the existence of any discord between the Islamic Republic and the regional Arab countries.

Islamic Revolution’s Guards Corps (IRGC) has begun military maneuvers in the Persian Gulf, reports released by news agencies say.
The maneuvers, called Payambar-e Azam 3 meaning Great Prophet (PBUH), are conducted by missile units of the IRGC’s naval and air forces, Mehr News Agency reported.
The reports noted that the exercises early Tuesday morning are aimed at improving combat readiness and capability.
The maneuvers come as the head of the IRGC in late June’s remarks said that Tehran would impose controls on shipping in the strategic Strait of Hormuz if it was attacked.
The IRGC held two days of maneuvers in the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman in February 2007.
The Iranian drill came as US and British naval forces wrapped up their military exercises in the Persian Gulf on Tuesday and dismissed that they were related to tensions with Iran, Reuters reported.
The exercises took place against a backdrop of high tensions between Iran and the West over Tehran’s nuclear activities.
Speculation about a possible attack on Iran has risen since a report last month said Israel had practiced such a strike. Iran on Tuesday vowed to strike shipping in the world’s largest oil exporting region if it is attacked.
The US Fifth Fleet, which is based on the Persian Gulf Arab island of Bahrain, claimed “Exercise Stake Net“ took place in the central and southern Persian Gulf and was part of ongoing training aimed at protecting the region’s oil infrastructure from any attack.
“This exercise is in no way related to reported tensions with Iran ... Coalition exercises happen with a great deal of regularity,“ Lieutenant Nathan Christensen, a Fifth Fleet spokesman, told Reuters by telephone.
Fear of an escalation in the standoff between the West and Iran, the world’s fourth-largest oil producer, over its disputed nuclear program has helped push oil prices over $140 a barrel.
“Violent extremists are one of the principal threats, so small boats could be one form of attack. Suicide bombings could be another. There are people who want to come in and do things, and the coalition is here to ensure that they do not succeed. It is about protecting the regional economy and the world economy,“ Christensen said.

Crushing Response
Meanwhile, an aide to Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned on Tuesday that Iran would “set on fire“ Israel and the US navy in the Persian Gulf, as its first response to any American attack over its nuclear program.
“The first US shot on Iran would set the United States’ vital interests in the world on fire,“ said Ali Shirazi, the leader’s representative to the naval forces of IRGC.
“Tel Aviv and the US fleet in the Persian Gulf would be the targets that would be set on fire in Iran’s crushing response,“ he said, according to the Fars News Agency.
Shirazi said “the Zionist regime is pressuring the White House leaders to plan a military assault on Iran“ and Iran would react “if they commit such a stupidity“.
Iran has repeatedly warned of a crushing response to any aggression against its soil but more specific warnings of the kind delivered by Shirazi are relatively unusual.

Mohammad Khazaei

Iran has called on the UN to help secure the release of four Iranian diplomats kidnapped in Lebanon by a pro-Israeli Lebanese group more than a quarter century ago.
The diplomats were kidnapped by Lebanese Christian militiamen during Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon when they were traveling by car to the Lebanese capital Beirut.
The four are Seyyed Mohsen Mousavi, Ahmad Motevaselian, Taghi Rastegar Moghadam and Kazem Akhavan.
In a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Iran’s UN Ambassador Mohammad Khazaei repeated Tehran’s long-standing stance that they were handed over to the Zionist regime at the time and remain imprisoned there.
“No credible piece of evidence has ever been presented to indicate the martyrdom of the said Iranian officials to date,“ said the letter, written two days after the 26th anniversary of their abduction.
It urged Ban and the Security Council “to live up to their responsibilities under the UN charter without further delay by reacting to the illegal abduction and continued unlawful detention of Iranian diplomats by the Israeli regime, and by helping secure their safe and immediate release“.
Last week, Lebanon’s resistance movement Hezbollah said, as part of a UN-mediated prisoner swap with Israeli regime which is expected to take place in mid-July, a German negotiator would receive a report from the Zionist regime on the fate of the four Iranian diplomats.
Christian warlords have said they were abducted by the Lebanese militia forces then allied with the Zionist regime and killed shortly afterward.
The Israeli occupying regime claims they were killed by the militia.

Lebanon Follow Up
Lebanese President Michel Suleiman says he has issued an order to follow up the case of four Iranian diplomats reportedly in Israeli custody.
In a meeting with the families of the abducted diplomats in Beirut, Suleiman expressed his sympathy with the families of the diplomats, saying orders have been issued to follow up the case and determine the fate of the abducted Iranians, Mehr News Agency quoted the Lebanese media as saying.
During the meeting, the families of diplomats handed a letter to Suleiman, calling on the Lebanese government to take prompt action for the unconditional release of the abducted diplomats.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad criticized the Group of Eight nations on Tuesday, saying their policies would take them to a precipice.
President Ahmadinejad said in a letter to Japan’s best-selling broadsheet Yomiuri newspaper that the world has entered an era of fundamental change, ending a world order controlled by a single powerful nation.
His comments came as the eight nations held their annual summit on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, where oil and food prices are topping the agenda, along with climate change, Alalam reported.
“It is possible for people to assemble who are unaware of the state of people’s lives and who do not understand the changing times,“ he said.
“They (G8 members) may imagine they can solve their own problems without respecting others or paying any attention to their interests. But this attitude is just a series of failures that will accelerate them along the road to a precipice.“
The president noted that the looming end of the reign of a single superpower that centered around the United States after World War II is apparent to all countries.
“If they are worried about (the future) of human beings, they have to accept change and straighten themselves,“ he said.
The leaders of the US, Russia, Canada, France, Britain, Germany and Italy are at the meeting hosted by Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda.
In the letter, Ahmadinejad also maintained his stance on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear issue, saying it would not accept “illegitimate demands“ to stop its uranium enrichment program.
Brushing aside western pressure, Iran stresses its nuclear activities are for peaceful purposes, including electricity generation for a growing population.
Tehran has also reiterated that it is open to further talks with world leaders to prove its nuclear program is within the framework of international rules and regulations.

The ringleader of an anti-Iran terrorist group has been arrested in Jordan, announced a website on Tuesday.
Mehr News Agency quoted ’Al-Javar’ website as saying that the head of Mujahideen Khalq Organization (MKO), Masoud Rajavi, was arrested after the Iraqi government issued arrest warrants for some leaders of the Iraq-based group.
Earlier, Iraq’s government spokesman, Ali Al-Dabbagh, told a press briefing in Baghdad that the order was issued because MKO leaders have interfered in the domestic affairs of Iraq and threatened Iraqi officials by phone.
The Iraqi Cabinet and main political parties demand the expulsion of MKO members from the country.
Iraqi officials say the group is playing a significant role in promoting violence and insecurity in the war-torn country.
Dabbagh added that Iraqi security forces have evidence of their criminal activities.
The MKO is blacklisted by many countries, including EU member-states, as a terrorist organization.
Additionally, the group has claimed responsibility for several terror attacks inside Iran. They were also involved in the massacre of Iraqis under the Saddam regime.

Ali Khorram

Iran is optimistic about holding a dialogue with Group 5+1 on its nuclear program, an Iranian international relations expert said on Tuesday.
Ali Khorram added that given the contents of the package of incentives, conditions are favorable for holding talks both from political and international perspectives, especially since US President George Bush’s term in office is coming to an end.
It is predicted that in the few months left to the next US presidential election, American pressures on G5+1 will decline considerably.
Noting that time is now ripe for both Iran and G5+1 to achieve their objectives, Khorram said Iran should seize the opportunity and get closer to G5+1.
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, in his recent interview to the CNN, expressed optimism about holding official talks with the G5+1.
Mottaki said new voices are being heard in the US and he believes negotiations should now take place in a new ambience within a new framework.
“The ambience of talks concerning the package of incentives offered by G5+1 is quite different from the previous rounds of talks,“ he said.
Asked about the attitude of the US presidential candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain, regarding Iran, Khorram said irrespective of who is elected as US president, the new president will bring about new developments in the US.
“I believe if Senator Obama is elected president, conditions for Iran-US talks will improve, but it is the opposite for Senator McCain,“ he said.
Commenting on Iran’s nuclear program, Khorram said Iran has always rejected any precondition for uranium enrichment.
He, however, stated that it is possible that after holding officials talks with G5+1 and receiving assurances that Iranian interests will not be undermined, Iran might reconsider its mode of uranium enrichment.
“We are hopeful that no new sanctions will be imposed in future and Iran will continue with its peaceful nuclear activities,“ Khorram concluded.