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Sat, 25 May 2013 05:55:08 -0400

Sixth night of violence in Sweden, but police say capital calmer STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Community patrols and a beefed-up police presence helped to calm violence around Stockholm overnight on Saturday but 20 to 30 cars were still torched in poor immigrant suburbs and serious incidents were reported outside the capital for the first time. The rioting in Stockholm abated after a week of masked youths vandalizing schools and police stations, setting cars alight and hurling stones at firefighters, police said. In Syria's shadow, Iraq violence presents new test for U.S. ...

In Syria's shadow, Iraq violence presents new test for U.S.

Sat, 25 May 2013 01:05:14 -0400

By Warren Strobel WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Saddled with Middle East problems ranging from Iran to Syria and beyond, President Barack Obama now faces one that is both old and new: Iraq. Unresolved sectarian tensions, inflamed by the raging civil war in neighboring Syria, have combined to send violence in Iraq to its highest level since Obama withdrew the last U.S. troops in December 2011, U.S. officials and Middle East analysts say. A Sunni Muslim insurgency against the Shi'ite-led Baghdad government has also been reawakened. ...

Syria opposition unity talks face specter of collapse

Fri, 24 May 2013 22:15:44 -0400

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis ISTANBUL - Syrian opposition talks aimed at presenting a coherent front at an international peace conference to end the civil war faced the prospect of collapse after President Bashar al-Assad's foes failed to cut an internal deal, opposition sources said on Friday. ...

Syrian regime OKs peace talks amid skepticism

Fri, 24 May 2013 15:37:50 -0400

BEIRUT (AP) — Syria's government has agreed to attend a U.S.-Russian-brokered peace conference, according to Moscow. While this development might seem at first glance to be a step toward ending the civil war, strong skepticism persists on both sides.

Syria opposition seeks to unify as momentum for talks builds

Fri, 24 May 2013 15:00:51 -0400

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Syria's fractious opposition scrambled to agree a new leadership on Friday in a bid to present a coherent front at peace talks which the United States and Russia are convening to seek an end to more than two years of civil war. A major assault by President Bashar al-Assad's forces on a rebel held town over the past week is shaping into a pivotal battle. It has drawn in fighters from Assad's Lebanese allies Hezbollah, justifying fears that a war that has killed 80,000 people would cross borders at the heart of the Middle East. ...

Iran presidential candidate vows to resist West

Fri, 24 May 2013 14:14:19 -0400

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's top nuclear negotiator, a candidate in next month's presidential elections, vowed Friday he will pursue a policy of resistance against the West if elected.

U.S. casts doubt on credibility of Iran election

Fri, 24 May 2013 13:18:11 -0400

By Arshad Mohammed TEL AVIV (Reuters) - The United States on Friday called into question the credibility of Iran's presidential election next month, criticizing the disqualification of candidates and accusing Tehran of disrupting Internet access. On a visit to Israel, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry also warned that time was running out to resolve the deadlock over Iran's contested nuclear program. ...

Bahraini protesters clash with police over raid on cleric's home

Fri, 24 May 2013 12:31:02 -0400

LONDON (Reuters) - Hundreds of Bahraini Shi'ite Muslims angered by a raid last week on a top cleric's home clashed with police on Friday, while thousands more gathered in the cleric's village for a peaceful sit-in against their Sunni-led government. The raid by security forces on the home of Ayatollah Sheikh Issa Qassim on May 17 infuriated the opposition and drew condemnation from neighboring Shi'ite power Iran. Bahrain, home to the U.S. ...

Russia says Syria peace talks in Geneva set, Syrian rebels not so sure

Fri, 24 May 2013 09:04:36 -0400

• A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

UN nuke agency's Iran probe driven by US-led intel

Fri, 24 May 2013 08:27:58 -0400

VIENNA (AP) — The U.N. nuclear agency responsible for probing whether Iran has worked on a nuclear bomb depends on the United States and its allies for most of its intelligence, complicating the agency's efforts to produce findings that can be widely accepted by the international community.

Top Swiss negotiator in tax disputes steps down

Fri, 24 May 2013 07:46:47 -0400

Switzerland's top negotiator in talks to resolve disputes over tax evasion with Europe and the U.S. is stepping down. The Finance Ministry said Friday that Michael Ambuehl will leave his post at the end ...

US lauds India for reducing Iranian oil imports

Fri, 24 May 2013 06:45:09 -0400

A senior American official on Friday praised India for reducing oil imports from Iran and said the U.S. government will decide soon on New Delhi's request to renew a waiver from sanctions on Tehran. U.S. ...

Iran denies it has forces in Syria

Fri, 24 May 2013 06:13:43 -0400

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran denied on Friday it had forces in Syria supporting President Bashar al-Assad's army, one day after foreign backers of his rebel foes demanded Tehran withdraw its fighters from Syrian territory. "The true enemies of Syria make up these accusations to provoke the people of this country," Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Araqchi said, quoted by Iranian state television. At a meeting in Jordan on Thursday, the Friends of Syria grouping of Western and Arab governments called for the immediate withdrawal from Syria of Iranian fighters and Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas. ...

The Battle for Qusayr: What Victory in Syria’s Latest Front Means for the War

Thu, 23 May 2013 14:47:35 -0400

Fighting continued for a fifth straight day in the strategic Syrian city of Qusayr, as opposition forces fighting the regime of President Bashar Assad sought desperately to maintain their slipping grip in a battle that could dictate the direction of the war. As government tanks, artillery and warplanes pounded rebel positions throughout the city, fighters engaged in sniper attacks and small forays against government ground troops seeking to take terrain. Rebel fighters are calling it one of the worst ground battles of the war.

Israel says Iran unaffected by world pressure

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:53:12 -0400

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's prime minister says a new report by the U.N. atomic agency shows that international pressure is having no effect on halting Iran's suspect nuclear program.

Iran's Rafsanjani blasts clerics, says report

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:31:07 -0400

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Banned from upcoming elections, Iran's former president has leveled harsh criticism at the Islamic Republic's clerical rulers, saying they are doing a poor job running the country, an Iranian pro-reform website reported late on Wednesday.

US, Israel raise hopes for Mideast peace restart

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:11:26 -0400

JERUSALEM (AP) — The United States and Israel raised hopes Thursday for a restart of the Middle East peace process, despite little tangible progress so far from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's two-month-old effort to get Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table.

Iran denies its drone violated Bahrain's airspace

Thu, 23 May 2013 12:10:04 -0400

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran denied on Thursday that one of its drones had violated the airspace of Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, Iranian media reported. Bahrain's Information Minister Samira Rajab told Reuters on Thursday that an unmanned spy drone was found in the Gulf waters between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. The incident could further inflame tensions between the two countries. In a report carried by Iran's official IRNA news agency, an unnamed official at the Foreign Ministry denied an Iranian drone had violated the Gulf kingdom's airspace, without giving further details. ...

Report: Rafsanjani blasts Iran's rulers

Thu, 23 May 2013 09:07:06 -0400

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has blasted the Islamic Republic's clerical rulers, declaring it impossible for them to do a worse job running the country, an Iranian pro-reform website reported Wednesday.

Iran denies its drone entered Bahrain's airspace

Thu, 23 May 2013 09:04:22 -0400

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — An Iranian semi-official news agency reports the country is denying that an unmanned drone violated the airspace of Bahrain, the strategic Gulf kingdom that hosts the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.

Iran seeks to speed up nuclear activity: IAEA

Thu, 23 May 2013 06:42:38 -0400

By Fredrik Dahl VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran is trying to accelerate its uranium enrichment program, a U.N. nuclear report showed, but experts said it was unclear when Tehran's new machines could start operating and how efficiently they would work. The Islamic state's progress in introducing next-generation centrifuges is closely watched in the West and Israel as it would enable Tehran to speed up accumulation of material that could be used to build atomic bombs. Iran denies any such aim. ...

U.N. report stokes concern over Iran's nuclear program: EU

Thu, 23 May 2013 06:15:45 -0400

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Iran's expansion of sensitive nuclear activity breaks United Nations resolutions and increases concerns about whether its nuclear program is entirely peaceful, the European Union said on Thursday. A U.N. nuclear agency report released on Wednesday showed Iran was expanding nuclear activities, in clear violation of resolutions of both the U.N. Security Council and of the board of the world body's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the EU said. ...

Barred from poll, Rafsanjani calls Iranian leaders ignorant

Thu, 23 May 2013 05:45:54 -0400

By Marcus George and Yeganeh Torbati DUBAI (Reuters) - Former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has accused Iran's leadership of incompetence and ignorance just days after he was barred from standing in an election next month, the opposition Kaleme website reported on Thursday. Rafsanjani's comments appeared to add to the political conflict between those loyal to the leadership and opposition groups who have been marginalized since post-election unrest in 2009. ...

Exclusive: Glencore, Trafigura deals with Iran may have skirted sanctions - U.N

Thu, 23 May 2013 02:52:59 -0400

By Louis Charbonneau and Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Metals swap deals with Iran by Switzerland-based commodities giants Glencore Xstrata and Trafigura could have been a way of skirting international sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear program, according to a confidential U.N. Panel of Experts report seen by Reuters on Wednesday. Reuters reported on March 1 that Glencore had supplied thousands of tons of alumina to an Iranian firm that has provided aluminum to Iran's nuclear program, an allegation Glencore confirmed as accurate. ...

Iran pushes ahead with nuclear plant that worries West

Thu, 23 May 2013 02:01:37 -0400

By Fredrik Dahl VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran is pressing ahead with the construction of a research reactor that Western experts say could eventually produce plutonium for a nuclear weapon if Tehran decides to make one, a U.N. report showed on Wednesday. In another development likely to worry the United States and its allies, the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran had added to its capacity to refine uranium, which can also provide the fissile core of a bomb if enriched to a high level. The IAEA also said Iran had asphalted a part of a military site, Parchin, that the U.N. ...

European banks stop sending money to North Korea: aid groups

Wed, 22 May 2013 23:16:56 -0400

By Megha Rajagopalan BEIJING (Reuters) - European aid groups said their banks in Europe had stopped sending money to North Korea in the wake of U.S. sanctions on Pyongyang's main foreign exchange bank, leaving them scrambling for a solution short of hand-carrying cash into the impoverished country. Aid groups said if it became impossible to send enough money to operate, donors might withdraw support for their programs. ...

West may boost Syria rebels if Assad won't talk peace

Wed, 22 May 2013 19:52:11 -0400

By Arshad Mohammed and Suleiman Al-Khalidi AMMAN (Reuters) - Washington threatened on Wednesday to increase support for Syria's rebels if President Bashar al-Assad refuses to discuss a political end to a civil war that is spreading across borders. Rebels called for reinforcements to combat an "invasion" by Hezbollah and its Iranian backers, days after Assad's forces launched an offensive against a strategic town that could prove to be a turning point in the war. ...

Friends of Syria demands Hezbollah, Iran fighters withdraw

Wed, 22 May 2013 19:01:10 -0400

AMMAN (Reuters) - The Friends of Syria alliance called on Iran and its Lebanese Hezbollah ally on Thursday to withdraw fighters immediately from Syrian territory and described their armed presence in the country as a threat to regional stability. ...

U.S. Congress moves to tighten sanctions on Iran

Wed, 22 May 2013 18:42:39 -0400

By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. House of Representatives committee approved legislation on Wednesday seeking to impose tighter sanctions on Iran, the latest congressional effort to slow development of the Islamic Republic's disputed nuclear program. The "Nuclear Iran Prevention Act of 2013" passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee by a unanimous voice vote and is expected to easily pass the full 435-member chamber, where it already has about 340 co-sponsors. A vote by the Republican-controlled House is likely within the coming weeks. ...

Iran’s Supreme Leader Tightens Grip After Disqualifying Two Top Presidential Candidates

Wed, 22 May 2013 18:18:44 -0400

For the cleric who runs Iran, there’s no such thing as a pleasant surprise, especially on election day. Ayatullah Ali Khamenei was not pleased when a librarian named Mohammed Khatami was swept into the President’s office in 1997, leading a wave of reformists who challenged the status quo in which Khamenei, as the unelected Supreme Leader of the Revolution, was most heavily invested. In every election cycle since, the self-appointed portion of Iran’s government has done all it can to winnow the choices placed before Iranian voters. ...

Kerry: US, allies ready to step up aid to rebels

Wed, 22 May 2013 17:54:47 -0400

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — The U.S. and several key allies looked again Wednesday for a strategy to end Syria's civil war, their united efforts unable at the moment to stem the Assad regime's military gains and Washington still unwilling to join those providing the rebels with lethal military aid.

General says Israel poised for war on Syria if Assad falls

Wed, 22 May 2013 17:44:59 -0400

By Dan Williams HERZLIYA, Israel (Reuters) - Israel is poised for a large-scale assault on Syria to prevent advanced weapons reaching jihadi rebels or Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon if President Bashar al-Assad is toppled, Israel's air force chief said on Wednesday. But Major-General Amir Eshel, addressing a security conference, said his warplanes could be repelled by Syria's formidable, Russian-supplied anti-aircraft systems - an implicit censure of Moscow echoed by Israel's defense minister. ...

House committee passes Iran sanctions legislation

Wed, 22 May 2013 17:26:11 -0400

WASHINGTON (AP) — A new push to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions by crippling the country's economy gathered momentum on Capitol Hill Wednesday with approval of legislation by the House Foreign Affairs Committee that would impose even tougher economic sanctions against Tehran.

IAEA report: Iran expands nuclear technology

Wed, 22 May 2013 17:24:47 -0400

VIENNA (AP) — The U.N. atomic agency on Wednesday detailed rapid Iranian progress in two programs that the West fears are geared toward making nuclear weapons, saying Tehran has upgraded its uranium enrichment facilities and advanced in building a plutonium-producing reactor.

With Hezbollah coffins, Syria now exporting conflict

Wed, 22 May 2013 16:32:47 -0400

By Erika Solomon HERMEL, Lebanon (Reuters) - On a country road in Lebanon's northeast, traffic is heavy; ambulances screech by, sirens blaring, and cars packed with mourners follow coffins as Hezbollah brings wounded fighters home from Syria, and its dead. ...

Kerry: US, allies, ready to step up aid rebels

Wed, 22 May 2013 16:03:46 -0400

Global, local issues for Iran in upcoming election

Wed, 22 May 2013 14:32:46 -0400

Main domestic and international issues facing Iran ahead of its June 14 presidential election:

Iran's Ahmadinejad looks to outsider options

Wed, 22 May 2013 14:18:29 -0400

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — By now, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is well-accustomed to enduring blows from Iran's ruling clerics as his reputation fell from favored son to political outcast. But their intended parting shot — barring his chief aid from the presidential race — may be just the opening act in Ahmadinejad's reinvention as a self-styled opposition force.

Iran expands nuke technology

Wed, 22 May 2013 14:17:36 -0400

Syria to decide soon on peace talk participation: minister

Wed, 22 May 2013 13:50:58 -0400

By Steve Gutterman MOSCOW (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government will decide soon whether to take part in peace talks with the opposition, a senior Syrian diplomat said after talks in Moscow. Asked whether Damascus had committed to joint Russian-U.S. efforts to hold a peace conference, Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said: "We are still discussing these questions." "A final decision will be taken after our return to Damascus," Mekdad told Russian news agency Itar-TASS following talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. ...