Iran displays nuclear achievements

Loading domestically made fuel rods into its Tehran reactor, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said,"Approximately 6,000 centrifuges were working. 3,000 have been added to that amount. There are 9,000."  a defiant move in response to toughening Western sanctions.

A move by Iran will escalate the confrontation with the West over suspicions that of Iran's nuclear programme  is  aimed at producing atomic weapons, while Tehran has been maintaining that it is geared only for peaceful purposes like energy production.


The President, who has been taking head on the US and other western powers, inserted the first Iranian made rods into the research reactor in northern Tehran at a ceremony.    Speaking on the occasion he also attacked the     western countries for their "double talk" saying these are the countries which are stocking nuclear piles but preaching to others against it.
   
In a bid to blunt criticism of Iran's controversial nuclear programme, Ahmadinejad also unveiled radio medicines produced by Iranian specialists for prevention and treatment of hard to cure cancer diseases.




Iran letter  to EU on resuming talks with world powers
 Iran chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili wrote letter  to  EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton of returning to stalled  talks with world powers on its nuclear prgramme.
 

   

The letter,  reads: "Iran welcomes the readiness of the P5+1 group to return to negotiations in order to take fundamental steps toward further cooperation."
   
The P5+1 consists of the five permanent UN Security Council members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus non-permanent member Germany.

"Iran is ready for the continuation of talks," Jalili's letter said, adding that Iran "welcomed a recent remark by Ms Ashton that the European Union respects Iran's right to peaceful nuclear energy."
   
Western nations, who accuse Tehran of seeking a covert nuclear weapons capability, have ramped up economic sanctions against Iran over the past three months after the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency issued a report saying it had evidence the Islamic republic appeared to be conducting research on atomic warheads.

Tehran insists its nuclear programme is solely for peaceful purposes.



Israel accuses Iran of  jeopardising world peace

 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu  asked the international community to draw a "red line" against Tehran's support to acts of terrorism following a series of blasts in India and Thailand blamed on the Islamic Republic.

"Iran is the biggest exporter of terror in the world.Iran's terror operations are now exposed for all to see,"Netanyahu said during a Knesset (Israeli parliament) plenum.

"Iran is undermining the world's stability and harms innocent diplomats. World countries must condemn Iran's terror acts and draw a red line. This aggression, if not stopped,will eventually spread," the Israeli Premier warned.

Iranian boats  in Gulf
    

Iranian patrol boats and aircraft have shadowed a US aircraft carrier strike group as it transited the Strait of Hormuz.
   

Yesterday's passage ended a Gulf mission that displayed Western naval power amid heightened tensions with Tehran,which has threatened to choke off vital oil shipping lanes.