Alerts: Iran

6/13/07, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said "substantial" quantities of Iranian weapons are finding their way into Afghanistan. Speaking on a visit to Germany, Mr Gates said it was difficult to believe the Iranian government was unaware, given the scale of arms involved.

6/3/07, Iran's president said on Sunday the Lebanese and the Palestinians had pressed a "countdown button" to bring an end to Israel. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who triggered outrage in the West two years ago when he said Israel should be "wiped off the map", has often referred to the destruction of the Jewish state but says Iran is not a threat. "With God's help, the countdown button for the destruction of the Zionist regime has been pushed by the hands of the children of Lebanon and Palestine," Ahmadinejad said in a speech. "By God's will, we will witness the destruction of this regime in the near future," he said.

5/25/07, Iran's hard-line president warned Israel on Thursday that other nations in the region would "uproot" the Jewish state if it attacked Lebanon in the summer.

5/15/07, Iran should be attacked before it develops nuclear weapons, America's former ambassador to the United Nations said yesterday. John Bolton, who still has close links to the Bush administration, told The Daily Telegraph that the European Union had to "get more serious" about Iran and recognise that its diplomatic attempts to halt Iran's enrichment programme had failed. Iran has "clearly mastered the enrichment technology now...they're not stopping, they're making progress and our time is limited", he said.

5/14/07, Inspectors for the International Atomic Energy Agency have concluded that Iran appears to have solved most of its technological problems and is now beginning to enrich uranium on a far larger scale than before, according to the agency’s top officials. The findings may change the calculus of diplomacy in Europe and in Washington,

5/14/07, The Iranian president said Monday Iran will retaliate if the U.S. strikes the country militarily. The Iranian president made a tough response to recent comments by the Vice President Dick Cheney that Washington would prevent the Islamic republic from dominating the Middle East. Ahmadinejad said the Americans had overextended their welcome in the region and were advocating tough actions that reached beyond what their Arab allies wished.

5/13/07, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad led a raucous anti-American rally in the United Arab Emirates a day after a low-key visit by US Vice President Dick Cheney there in an attempt to counter Tehran's influence in the region. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a cheering Dubai crowd Sunday that America was to blame for creating instability and robbing the region of its wealth. ''Every time your name is mentioned, hatred builds up.''

5/11/07, North Korea's "debts to Tehran are among the obstacles in the way of cooperation," the official IRNA news agency quoted Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki as saying Friday. "The two countries can find a formula to remove this obstacle." North Korean acting Foreign Minister Kim Yong Il. He added that Iran was still interested in improving ties with North Korea "in the fields of politics, economics and culture" with North Korea.

5/11/07, Vice President Dick Cheney used the deck of an American aircraft carrier just 240 kilometers off Iran's coast as the backdrop Friday to warn the country that the United States was prepared to use its naval power to keep Tehran from disrupting oil routes or "gaining nuclear weapons and dominating this region."

5/9/07, Diplomatic sources said the U.S. military has been bolstering its presence in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan in what could mark preparations for air strikes against Iran. The sources said the U.S. Air Force has been particularly active in the Kyrgyz base of Manas near Bishkek.

5/9/07, An Iranian cleric said his country would fire "tens of thousands" of missiles at Israel in response to an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear program. "Several days ago, the stupid Israeli prime minister said: 'We can attack the Iranian nuclear industry with 10,000 cruise missiles, and delay it for another 10 years.' Our response is that if he is planning to fire 10,000 missiles, we will fire tens of thousands of missiles on Tel Aviv and Israel."

5/4/07, Having repeatedly vowed to "cut off the hand" of any attacker, Iran's president shifted to the leg on Friday to underline his determination to resist Western pressure over its nuclear program. "You, the enemies of the Iranian nation, know that this nation will break the leg of anyone who wants to violate its rights," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a rally in the southeastern province of Kerman.

5/3/07, Iran will not bow to international pressure to halt its nuclear program, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday, after world powers told Tehran to halt uranium enrichment or face a third round of U.N. sanctions.

5/2/07, Iranian authorities have reportedly arrested the country's former nuclear negotiator on charges of espionage.

5/1/07, Iran will not negotiate with the United States until it stops its "evil approach," the government spokesman was quoted as saying on Tuesday, two days before the two foes were due to attend a meeting on Iraq.

4/26/07, Iran will strike U.S. interests around the world and Israel if attacked over its disputed nuclear program.

4/21/07, A former engineer at the largest U.S. nuclear power plant was arrested on suspicion of taking software codes and using them to download details of plant control rooms and reactors while in Iran