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AFP: "Iran has made a proposal to Moscow to jointly produce nuclear fuel for its Russian-built Bushehr plant and future facilities, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation was quoted as saying Thursday. 'We have made a proposal to Russia for the creation of a consortium, licensed by that country, to do part of the work in Russia and part of it in Iran,' state news agency IRNA quoted Ali Akbar Salehi as saying." http://bit.ly/ajz2cL

Reuters: "French President Nicolas Sarkozy told Iran on Wednesday that failure to reach a credible agreement over its nuclear program would force world powers to mobilize to protect threatened states in the region. In an annual address to France's ambassadors, Sarkozy laid out his foreign policy objectives as the country prepares to take over the chair next year of the Group of 20 powers and the narrower club of rich countries known as the G8." http://bit.ly/b8sRvW

NYT: "In a further clampdown on Iran's cowed political opposition, the authorities have issued a ban on any news relating to the leaders of the protest movement that arose after the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last year, opposition Web sites reported. A leaked copy of a letter that has appeared on opposition Web sites orders the editors of all domestic newspapers and news agencies to refrain from publishing the names, photographs and statements of two defeated presidential candidates, Mir Hussein Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi, as well as former President Mohammad Khatami, because of the 'probable negative influence' this would have on the public mind." http://nyti.ms/9YYn69
 

Nuclear Program
 
Reuters: "Iran denied on Wednesday reports that sanctions are making it harder to import gasoline, one of the most vulnerable parts of the Iranian economy, which lacks sufficient domestic refining capacity. 'We do not have any problem in securing the country's gasoline and we have not been facing any fuel deficiency,' Oil Minister Massoud Mirkazemi was quoted as saying by the students news agency ISNA. According to Reuters calculations based on trade sources, Iran's gasoline imports for August look set to be around half those of the previous month and down by almost 90 percent from a year ago." http://bit.ly/dt6qy3

AP: "Iran has taken measures to increase domestic production and will soon stop importing gasoline, the country's oil minister said Wednesday, in a show of defiance as U.S. sanctions target Iranian fuel supplies... In remarks carried on the official IRNA news agency, Oil Minister Masoud Mirkazemi dismissed the gasoline-related sanctions as ineffective. 'Soon, domestic gasoline production will increase by 20 million liters (5.3 million gallons)' per day, Mirkazemi said after a Cabinet meeting Wednesday. 'Therefore, we won't need to import gasoline.'" http://bit.ly/bUsxcV

Reuters: "Iran has stockpiled enough low-enriched uranium for 1-2 nuclear arms but it would not make sense for it to cross the bomb-making threshold with only this amount, a former top U.N. nuclear official was quoted as saying. In unusual public remarks about Iran's disputed nuclear programme Olli Heinonen, the former chief of U.N. nuclear inspections worldwide, told Le Monde newspaper that Iran's uranium reserve still represented a 'threat.'" http://bit.ly/cm58Lf

Commerce

FT: "While the Middle East's stock markets languish in the summer heat, still unable to recover from the financial crisis, one bourse has kept on gaining - the Tehran Stock Exchange... This comes in spite of the dire state of the Iranian economy, a tightening international sanctions regime and the most severe global financial crisis in generations... The strong performance has increased speculation among many Iranians that the Tehran bourse is overheating and could be entering bubble territory." http://bit.ly/ai9qKS

Domestic Politics

LAT: "Iranian authorities are cracking down, but this time their target isn't political dissidents or drug traffickers. It's dogs. Or rather, pets in general. This week, Ayatollah Nasser Makkarem Shirazi, a powerful cleric, issued a fatwa that was later passed into law banning any advertisements about pets or alluding to the buying, selling or keeping of pets, according to the Mehr news agency... In June, Shirazi issued a fatwa against keeping dogs as pets, although that ruling was not made into law. At the time, Shirazi slammed dog owners for 'blindly imitating the West,' which, he said, would result in 'evil outcomes.'" http://bit.ly/c4aArm   

Radio Farda: "Iran's intelligence minister, Heydar Moslehi, has repeated the accusation that the leaders of the opposition Green Movement received a billion dollars from Western countries. Moslehi said that the allegations made by Guardians Council head Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati about the financial assistance of foreign countries to the 'leaders of the sedition' is not only true, but that the amount given was probably higher." http://bit.ly/bEgCrk

Foreign Affairs

Reuters: "Iranian natural gas flows to Turkey were halted after an explosion and could take up to a week to resume after repairs are completed, officials at the Turkish pipeline operator Botas said on Wednesday. It was the second time in a little over a month that an explosion halted gas imports from Iran on the key link." http://bit.ly/cw9sw7

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