Tehran

Iran is talking to South Africa about assistance with its nuclear programme in a bid to solve a prolonged international dispute over its atomic ambitions, a senior official said on Monday. ”We are in the process of negotiating on the modalities of this participation,” said Javad Vaidi, an official from Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday defended his inflammatory anti-Israeli remarks earlier this week, saying that Israel does not want to hear any criticism. The president was among thousands of people who took part in state-organised anti-Israel rallies on Friday in Tehran and other cities around the country.

Iran’s hard-line president has called for Israel to be ”wiped off the map” and said a new wave of Palestinian attacks would destroy the Jewish state, state-run media reported on Wednesday. In a swipe at some Arab states, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also denounced attempts to recognise Israel or normalise relations with it.

Britain moved quickly on Sunday to condemn a deadly bomb attack in an ethnic-Arab dominated city in south-west Iran and repeated its denial of any link to a wave of unrest in the oil-rich region. Two bombs blamed on ”terrorists” killed four people and wounded 90 on Saturday in a market in Ahvaz.

Nuclear science may not be considered ideal subject matter for a popular song, but the musical boffins in Iran’s state media apparatus think differently. Iran’s airwaves have been buzzing with two new tunes apparently designed to rally public support for the country’s tense stand-off with the West over its nuclear ambitions.

Iran has yet again raised the stakes in its long stand-off with the West over its nuclear programme and the risk of being referred to the United Nations Security Council, but this time the hardline regime does not appear to be bluffing. The Islamic republic’s top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, vowed on Tuesday to respond to being hauled to New York by resuming uranium enrichment work.

At least 43 people have drowned and another 15 are missing in flash floods caused by torrential rains in Golestan province in north-eastern Iran, the official news agency Irna reported on Thursday. About 350 families have lost their homes as a result of the deluge of heavy rain, which began on Tuesday.

Iran on Friday rejected a package of European Union proposals aimed at persuading it to give up nuclear fuel work, instead vowing to resume sensitive uranium-conversion activities. ”The proposals are unacceptable,” nuclear negotiator Hossein Moussavian said.

Iran said on Thursday it will resume sensitive uranium-conversion work within one or two days, defying warnings from the international community over its nuclear programme. Iran agreed in November to suspend its enrichment and conversion work while negotiations with the Europeans were going on.

Iran has given European Union negotiators a deadline of 12.30pm GMT on Sunday to submit proposals aimed at ending a crisis over Tehran’s nuclear programme, Iran’s negotiator said. Ali Agha Mohammadi also warned that Iran will partially resume uranium-conversion activities if the EU proposals fail to recognise its right to do so.

Iranian President-elect Mahmood Ahmadinejad said on Monday he wants to develop ties with all countries, especially in Europe, provided they respect Iran’s ”democratic choice”, the student-run news agency Isna reported. ”We advise Western countries to treat us in a way that does not show prejudice,” he said.

Iran’s new hardline president-elect, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Sunday threw down a challenge to Western leaders by vowing to resist international pressure to abandon the country’s nuclear programme and branding Israel the source of instability in the Middle East.

Iran has tested a new missile using solid-fuel technology that matches the more than 2 000km range of its Shahab-3 rocket, its defence minister was quoted as saying on Tuesday. Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani said the test, carried out on Sunday, was ”100% successful”.

A senior Iranian official said on Monday that this week’s crisis talks with Britain, France and Germany are likely to be the last chance for the two sides to reach a deal on the Islamic republic’s nuclear programme. ”Nothing special would happen” if the talks fail, national security official Ali Agha Mohammadi said.

Iran may be on a high after leaping to the top of their World Cup qualifying group, but their Croatian coach has cautioned that it is too early for celebrations. In Asia’s Group B, they are in prime position for a World Cup finals berth — after an away win against North Korea, a home win against Japan and a goalless away draw with Bahrain.

Freezing temperatures and heavy rain continued to hamper the efforts of rescue and relief workers on Wednesday in Iran’s quake-stricken Kerman province. The death toll has been raised to 450 but was expected to exceed 500 on Wednesday as rescue workers cleared debris and recovered more bodies.

A powerful blast occurred near Iran’s Gulf port of Daylam on Wednesday, Iranian television reported, as witnesses said they saw a missile being fired from an unidentified plane. Local officials have been dispatched to the site to identify the cause of the blast in an uninhabited area in the south of the country.

Nearly 60 people perished and more than 200 others suffered burns on Monday when a fire swept through a Tehran mosque crammed with worshippers, police said. Media reports said the fire was probably caused by a heater, brought into the mosque to protect worshippers from the bitter cold.

Negotiations with the European Union on Iran’s nuclear programme are entering a crucial phase but Tehran will continue to reject calls for it to abandon sensitive fuel-cycle work, Iranian officials said on Monday. ”We are expecting the negotiations to be serious and meaningful,” said Iran’s Vice-President and atomic energy head Gholamreza Aghazadeh.

A government spokesperson said on Monday that Iran will be ready to talk to the United States about its nuclear programme but without preconditions, Isna students’ news agency reported. The US has accused Iran of developing weapons of mass destruction and of trying to undermine its efforts in Iraq.

Iranian human rights activist Shirin Ebadi has been summoned to answer questions by the country’s hard-line judiciary or else risk being arrested, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate said on Thursday. ”I have received a summons to a revolutionary court,” the human rights activist and lawyer said.

A young Iranian conscript has had 15 of his teeth pulled out by a dentist in the false belief that the drastic move would get him out of his military service, the Iran newspaper reported on Wednesday. According to his father, the young man was led to believe that a quick ticket back to civilian life was the loss of 15 teeth.

Iran will resume enriching uranium after a maximum of six months, powerful former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani vowed on Friday, reaffirming that Tehran’s freeze on nuclear fuel cycle work is only temporary. The United States accuses Iran of running a covert nuclear weapons programme, but the Islamic republic insists it only wants to enrich uranium to low levels to produce fuel for a series of atomic power stations.

Iran boasted on Tuesday that it had humiliated the United States at a board meeting of the UN atomic watchdog by agreeing to what it reiterated was only a temporary freeze of its suspect nuclear programme. ”The Islamic republic has not renounced the nuclear fuel cycle, will never renounce it and will use it,” top national security official and nuclear negotiator Hassan Rowhani told a news conference.