By GEORGE JAHN VIENNA – The U.N. atomic agency says its monitoring of Iran’s nuclear activities is being hampered because Tehran objects to giving some agency inspectors access to its program. The unusual warning is contained in a restricted report on Iran made available to The Associated Press. It follows Iran’s... 

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said on television on Sunday Israel would be to blame if resumed direct talks with Israel failed over the Jewish settlements issue. “I have to say, and we told all parties including the United States before accepting renewed talks, that the Israeli government will bear sole responsibility... 

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – Israel informed the United Nations Friday that it reserves the right to use force to stop a new aid flotilla from reaching the blockaded Gaza Strip. In a letter sent to UN chief Ban Ki-moon, Israel’s UN Ambassador Gabriela Shalev said the stated intention of the Bolivian-flagged all-women cargo... 

Al-Qaida is ready to exploit a war “by the Jews against Iran,” the Sunni group’s second-in-command in Yemen, Saeed al-Shehri, said in an audio message this month, according to the Daily Beast. The mostly Shi’ite nation of Iran is an enemy to Al-Qaida, and al-Shehri predicted that after Israel attacked... 

TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Sunday inaugurated the country’s first domestically built long-range unmanned bomber aircraft, calling it an “ambassador of death” to Iran’s enemies. Speaking to a group of officials, Ahmadinejad said, “The jet, as well as being an ambassador... 

By Bridget Johnson Iran fired up its nuclear reactor on Saturday in a deal that involved Russian help to produce energy yet was painted by Iranian officials as triumphing over Washington-backed sanctions. Iran’s leader warned that attack on the reactor would be met with a global and “painful” response,... 

BUSHEHR, Iran – Trucks rumbled into Iran’s first reactor Saturday to begin loading tons of uranium fuel in a long-delayed startup touted by officials as both a symbol of the country’s peaceful intentions to produce nuclear energy as well as a triumph over Western pressure to rein in its nuclear ambitions. The Russian-built... 

By Tom Perry RAMALLAH West Bank (Reuters) – A resumption of Middle East peace talks inspires little hope among Palestinians who say the prospect of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel seems no more than a dream. “There has been a lot of talk of peace, but we have seen no results. We no longer have hope,”... 

Halliburton Co. said on Wednesday that it has gotten a letter of intent from Shell Iraq Petroleum Development BV that would make Halliburton the project manager for developing the Majnoon field in southern Iraq. Halliburton said it wold be working with Nabors Drilling and the Iraq Drilling Company. The contract needs final approval... 

Activist Post America has not officially declared war on a nation since World War II.  Yet we are now entangled in endless wars with no feasible goals, except sustained military profits and resource grabs. Instead, Congress votes to “authorize the use of force” just in case we may need it, which strategically... 

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A Middle East treaty creating a Palestinian state at peace with Israel can be completed in one year of negotiations, said major powers who were due on Friday to invite both parties to start talks in two weeks. A diplomatic source in the United States said the Quartet of world powers engaged in Middle... 

By Robin Pomeroy TEHRAN, Aug 20 (Reuters) – Iran’s first nuclear power station will be loaded with fuel on Saturday, a showcase for Tehran’s claim that its atomic ambitions are purely peaceful. Experts say firing up the $1-billion Bushehr plant will not take Iran any closer to building a nuclear bomb as Russia... 

Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi said on Tuesday that Iran will unveil next week an array of weapons, including missiles, speedboats and a long range drone, the ISNA news agency reported. Two missiles, Qiam (Rising) and the third generation Fateh 110 (Conqueror) would be tested next week when Iran marks the annual government week,... 

US President Barack Obama personally warned Turkish Prime Minster Recep Tayyip Erodgan that the US will not sell weapons to Turkey if it does not change its position towards Israel, the Financial Times reported on Monday. The ultimatum is particularly important to Turkey, who was reportedly planning to buy American drone aircraft... 

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Israel has “eight days” to launch a military strike against Iran’s Bushehr nuclear facility and stop Tehran from acquiring a functioning atomic plant, a former US envoy to the UN has said. Iran is to bring online its first nuclear power reactor, built with Russia’s help, on August... 

Tehran, Iran (CNN) — Iran plans to begin construction of 10 uranium enrichment centers across the country by next year, state-run media is quoting Iran’s nuclear chief as saying. After a cabinet meeting Sunday, Ali Akbar Salehi told IRIB, a state network, that work on one of the centers will be started by March 2011. Over... 

Jo Adetunji Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli whistleblower who spent 18 years in jail for exposing Israel‘s nuclear capabilities was released today after completing a further three-month sentence. Vanunu, 56, a former technician at a secret nuclear plant near the desert town of Dimona, was convicted after handing over details... 

The Obama administration on Monday welcomed a U.N. investigation into the Israeli raid on a flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip, but downplayed the U.N. panel’s power and cautioned that the international probe should not trump investigations that Israel and Turkey are conducting. The U.S. and Israeli support for the inquiry... 

By Lucian Kim and Stephen Bierman Three Russian state-controlled oil companies, including OAO Rosneft and OAO Gazprom Neft, may begin delivering gasoline to Iran in a month, said the head of the Iran Commission of the Moscow Chamber of Commerce & Industry. Talks are being held on a “working level” and the first delivery... 

By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA (Reuters) – Israel carried out air strikes on targets in the Gaza Strip on Friday after a rocket fired from the Palestinian territory exploded in the city of Ashkelon, witnesses said. The air strikes hit a training camp in Gaza City used by the Islamist group Hamas, which rules the enclave,...