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AFP: "Hardline Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed on Wednesday the holding of direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, saying the negotiations will fail to resolve conflict in the Middle East. 'Tens of negotiations have been held in more than 30 years and tens of plans have been proposed, but they have all failed,' Ahmadinejad told Iran's Arabic-language Al-Alam Television in an interview." http://bit.ly/c5CAJE

Bloomberg: "President Barack Obama leads Israel and the Palestinian Authority into direct talks starting tomorrow aiming for a big prize: a peace deal that will help stabilize the region and thwart Iran's bid to expand its influence... Dennis Ross, Obama's Middle East adviser on the National Security Council and formerly President Bill Clinton's top negotiator in the region, has said a peace agreement would help counter Iran. The U.S. suspects Iran is trying to develop a nuclear arms capability." http://bit.ly/c6Pxm7

Guardian: "Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning, was told on Saturday that she was to be hanged at dawn on Sunday, but the sentence was not carried out, it emerged tonight. Mohammadi Ashtiani wrote her will and embraced her cellmates in Tabriz prison just before the call to morning prayer, when she expected to be led to the gallows, her son Sajad told the Guardian." http://bit.ly/djW2xl
 

Nuclear Program
 
Guardian: "The west should use force against Iran if it 'continues to develop nuclear weapons,' Tony Blair said today, aligning himself with US hawks who have called for strikes against Iranian nuclear sites. The former prime minister made his comments in a BBC interview to publicise his memoirs, A Journey, which are published today. Blair said it was 'wholly unacceptable' for Tehran to seek a nuclear weapons capability and insisted there could be 'no alternative' to military force 'if they continue to develop nuclear weapons.'" http://bit.ly/cffI4w

Commerce

JPost: "Iran plans to publish a list of multi-national companies with Israeli links that will have sanctions applied against them, an Iranian official said, according to a Tuesday report by semi-official news agency Press TV. Iran's Vice President for Parliamentary Affairs Mohammed-Reza Mir-Tajeddini said that the Israelis run a global economic cartel that is constantly establishing new companies under new brands that the list will expose and mark for embargo." http://bit.ly/bimU5f

Human Rights

LAT: "Amid the controversy and international outcry sparked by the stoning sentence handed down to a 43-year-old Iranian mother of two, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, Iran's supreme court reportedly has sentenced two more people to stoning on charges of adultery. The court's decision came just days after the Iranian judiciary revealed fresh details about Ashtiani's case." http://bit.ly/cG3tKj

Domestic Politics

Reuters: "Iranian paramilitaries surrounded the house of leading opposition figure Mehdi Karoubi Tuesday to prevent the cleric from participating in a religious ceremony, his website said. 'Right now there are more than 50 members of the Basij (a volunteer force fiercely loyal to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei) and plainclothes men who covered their faces around his house,' the Saham News website said." http://bit.ly/bOBRqy

Foreign Affairs

BBC: "But Kayhan, the paper which made the original comments, went on to call for Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy's death. In a statement, the French foreign ministry said: 'We are letting the Iranian authorities know that the insults put out by the daily newspaper Kayhan and taken up by Iranian websites regarding several French personalities, including Mrs Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, were unacceptable.'" http://bbc.in/bL4OH0

WT: "The call in Iran's state-run media for the execution of France's first lady, the Italian-born model and actress Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, sent shock waves through the French and Italian embassies in Washington on Tuesday." http://bit.ly/aEiRbG

AFP: "Iran has dismissed as 'unacceptable' the continued deployment of American troops in Iraq as US President Barack Obama was to announce on Tuesday the end of combat operations in the country. 'You see in practice that the massive presence of US forces under different pretexts such as training (Iraqi) forces is not acceptable,' foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters." http://bit.ly/dD0TGQ

Reuters: "The Iraqi government has warned neighboring countries thinking they can fill the vacuum once U.S. troops withdraw not to interfere in its affairs, Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said Tuesday. Shi'ite Iran has gained considerable influence in Iraq since the fall of Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein in the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and Iraqi officials also complain of meddling by Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Syria." http://bit.ly/9Rh3df