UANI

According to the AP, an IAEA report due next week will say that "it has been unable to make much progress with Iran in its investigation into allegations that the country was involved in studies to make a nuclear warhead. The IAEA 'regrettably has not been able to make any substantive progress on the alleged studies and other associated key remaining issues which remain of serious concern,' it said in its latest report on Tehran's disputed nuclear programme. 'On this particular issue, we've arrived at a gridlock,' a senior official close to the IAEA told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity." Read More

According to the AP, 2 prominent Iranian officials criticized Amhadinejad over his handling of the economy. "The biting criticism of Ahmadinejad from Iran's former top nuclear negotiator Hasan Rowhani and former parliamentary speaker Mahdi Karroubi are a reflection of the growing discontent with a president who has isolated Iran internationally, brought on the threat of an Israeli or U.S. attack and weakened the economy" Read More

The Telegraph reported on comments by a senior Taliban official who said that his forces were being armed by Iran. "A Taliban commander has credited his successful operations against coalition forces in Afghanistan to weapons supplied by Iran. The comments by the commander, who would not be named but who operates in the south-east of the country, were a rare admission of co-operation between elements within the Iranian regime and forces fighting Nato troops." Read More

Iranian press reported that the Rusian president pledged no war or sanctions against Iran. "Russian President Dmitry Medvedev says he will not accept military action or new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear activities.... This is while the UN nuclear watchdog has confirmed that Iran enriches uranium-235 to a level of 3.7 percent - a rate consistent with the construction of a nuclear power plant. Nuclear arms production requires an enrichment level of above 90 percent. The Russian president says Moscow only supports negotiations over Tehran's nuclear program, Reuters reported." Read More

AFP reported that Iran's Foreign Minister will be traveling to Germany to discuss his country's nuclear program. "The Berlin talks are part of a series of meetings between the European Union and Iran over Tehran's nuclear work and were initiated by Mottaki, German foreign ministry spokesman Jens Ploetner said. 'The option of new measures from the UN Security Council remains on the table if we are unable to reach an accord or make progress,' Ploetner told a regular government news conference." Read More

Accroding the the AFP, Russian and Iranian nuclear officials met over "concerns over the two countries' nuclear cooperation heightened by the Georgia crisis. Lavrov said he and Manouchehr Mottaki would discuss Russia's conflict with Georgia and the imminent completion by a Russian company of the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran, the country's first, Interfax news agency reported." Read More

A former UAE official who has defected claimed "Shiite Iran's Revolutionary Guards started to set up the sleeper cells right after the 1979 Islamic revolution in Tehran. 'Iran has an undercover presence in the six GCC countries,' he told the Gulf News, referring to the grouping of Sunni-ruled Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates." Read More

According to APF, Russia and Georgia discused Iran's nuclear program in light of the situation in Georgia. "Lavrov said he and Manouchehr Mottaki would discuss Russia's conflict with Georgia and the imminent completion by a Russian company of the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran, the country's first, Interfax news agency reported.... The head of the Russian company working on the facility, Atomstroiexport, said earlier this week that the start-up of the first reactor at Bushehr would be 'irreversible' by February next year." Read More

Senators Graham and Talent wrote in the Miami Herald on the prevention of the prolifertation of nuclear weapons. "Faced with the possibility of a mushroom cloud over Manhattan, many people are paralyzed by a combination of denial and fatalism. The president is the best position to rally the resilience and patriotism of Americans to this threat. We have been asked by Congress to lead a bipartisan commission to assess the current state of our nation's policies to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction into the hands of rogue states and nonstate terrorists. Our final report will be released in November." Read More

The Christian Science Monitor reported in the "Barbie" blackmarket in Tehran. "Illegally imported Barbie dolls are 'destructive culturally and a social danger,' Iranian prosecutor Ghorban Ali Dori Najafabadi warned in a letter last April. Barbie, Batman, Spiderman, and Harry Potter toys, he wrote, are a 'danger that needs to be stopped.' He added: 'Undoubtedly, the personality and identity of the new generation and our children, as a result of unrestricted importation of toys, has been put at risk and caused irreparable damage.'" Read More