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/ 8 September 2008
Iranian Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari said Monday that Opec was oversupplying the market as he arrived for a meeting of the cartel in Vienna.
The UN security council has called on Iran to curb uranium enrichment and reprocessing on the grounds that they could be used to make a bomb.
The price of oil rocketed to a record high past $146 a barrel on Thursday owing to falling reserves of US crude and simmering tensions over Iran.
Oil surged past $145 per barrel for the first time on Thursday as the weak US dollar and Middle East tension stoked its record-breaking run.
Iran on Monday vowed a "very painful" response to any Israeli action after a senior minister of the Jewish state warned of attacks if Tehran did not halt its atomic drive, the ISNA news agency reported.
The soaring guitar solos and haunting keyboard melodies owe more than a nod to Pink Floyd, Yes, Deep Purple and other ageing icons of 70s British rock. But while they may have emulated their heroes’ musical virtuosity, the members of Norik Misakian Band are unlikely to follow their path to world fame and fortune.
Iran came under concerted international pressure on Tuesday to back off from a confrontation with the West over its nuclear programmes as Europe’s main powers sought to salvage an ambitious mediation effort. The Europeans are threatening to ”terminate the dialogue” if the Iranians do not back down.
The main European powers on Friday called an emergency meeting of the United Nation’s nuclear authority to try to chart a way out of an escalating crisis with Iran over its nuclear ambitions. The 35-strong board of the International Atomic Energy Agency is to meet on Tuesday in Vienna.
The European Union warned Iran on Tuesday that it would end two years of negotiations over nuclear projects if Tehran fulfils threats to end its freeze on the enrichment of uranium. A United States intelligence estimate on Iran concluded that it could be 10 years before Tehran had sufficient material to arm a nuclear warhead.
Britain, France and Germany are to promise Iran that it will not face military attack if it abandons enriching uranium, the key to building a nuclear bomb, a senior Iranian official said on Sunday. Both sides in the long-running dispute upped the ante at the weekend, with Tehran saying on Sunday that it would resume some nuclear fuel activities on Monday.