US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Iran on Monday of not being serious at weekend talks about its disputed nuclear program despite the presence of a senior US diplomat, and warned it may soon face new sanctions. In her first public comments since Saturday's meeting in Switzerland, Rice said Iran had given the run-around to envoys from the US and five other world powers. She said all six nations were serious about a two-week deadline Iran now has to agree to freeze suspect activities and start negotiations or be hit with new penalties. [Read More.]

Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, who stands a good chance of becoming prime minister shortly after September's Kadima primary, defended his hawkish statements about a prospective attack on Iran this week in an interview with The Jerusalem Post. Mofaz was blamed for a record rise in gas prices worldwide after he told Yediot Aharonot on June 6 that Israel would attack Iran if it did not cease nuclear development. [Read More.]

The Pentagon said on Tuesday that Iran has the ability to launch a ballistic missile capable of hitting sections of eastern and southern Europe.  Air Force Lt. Gen. Trey Obering, director of the Missile Defense Agency, told reporters he believes Iran now has a missile with a range of 1,250 miles (2,000 km), but he declined to say whether the weapon has been test-fired. [Read More.]

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad threatened on Sunday to "cut off the hands" of any would-be attackers of the Islamic Republic. "Before the enemies touch the trigger, the armed forces will cut off their hands," the state-run IRNA news agency quoted the leader as saying. Ahmadinejad said that missile tests conducted last week exhibited "only a small part" of Iran's defense capabilities, and that, if necessary, further capabilities would be revealed. [Read More.]

In a series of consultations apparently aimed at coordinating policies against the Iranian nuclear threat, Defense Minister Ehud Barak will head to the US on Monday for talks at the Pentagon, days after Mossad chief Meir Dagan was in Washington for meetings with key intelligence officials. Sources say Israel is urgently trying to convince the US that Iran is closer to passing the nuclear threshold than Washington believes. [Read More.]

Israel Air Force (IAF) war planes are practicing in Iraqi airspace and land on US airbases in the country as a preparation for a potential strike on Iran, sources in the Iraqi Defense Ministry told a local news network on Friday. The report, which was also carried by Iranian news outlets, claimed that recently massive IAF overnight presence was detected in several American held airbases. [Read More.]

Iran today test-fired missiles in the Gulf for a second consecutive day, Iranian state media reported. The tests are likely to infuriate Israel and the US, who called on Iran to refrain from further tests after yesterday's war games. "Deep in the Persian Gulf waters, the launch of different types of ground-to-sea, surface-to-surface, sea-to-air and the powerful launch of the Hout missile successfully took place," state radio said without giving further details of the missiles. [Read More.]

Iran test-fired nine long- and medium-range missiles Wednesday during war games that officials said aimed to show the country can retaliate against any U.S. and Israeli attack, state television reported. Gen. Hossein Salami, the air force commander of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, said the exercise would "demonstrate our resolve and might against enemies who in recent weeks have threatened Iran with harsh language," the TV report said. [Read More.]

Israeli troops in jeeps swooped down on the West Bank town of Nablus early Monday, shutting down a girls' school, a medical center and two other facilities of a Hamas-affiliated charity, witnesses said. Computers, documents, cash and furniture were seized, the witnesses said. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the Palestinian reports. But the raid appears to have been part of an intensified crackdown on Hamas in the West Bank by Israel and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The violently Islamist Hamas wrested control of the Gaza Strip from Abbas' forces a year ago, and neither Israel nor Abbas want that takeover reprised in the West Bank. [Read More.]

Privacy rights vs. terror fights: The EU and the United States are close to agreeing on how to protect personal and private data while still letting law enforcement officials share information to combat organized crime and terrorism. Eighteen months of closed-door talks between European and American officials have already led to agreement on key principles for data-sharing, according to Jonathan Faull, director of the European Commission's justice and interior affairs department. [Read More.]

An attack on Iran would provoke a fierce response, the country's oil minister warned Wednesday at the World Petroleum Congress in Madrid. Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari, however, said Tehran would not cut oil deliveries and would continue supplying the market even if struck by Israel or the United States. [Read More.]

A senior Western diplomat said Tuesday that he did not think Israel would feel the need to attack Iran before year's end. Earlier, senior US defense officials reportedly voiced concern that Israel would target the Islamic Republic's nuclear installations before the end of 2008. The Western official said that the US was not taking the military option off the table, but stressed the need for economic and diplomatic sanctions, and getting the Europeans to implement further sanctions.  [Read More.]

Iran has moved ballistic missiles into launch positions, with Israel’s Dimona nuclear plant among the possible targets, defence sources said last week. The movement of Shahab-3B missiles, which have an estimated range of more than 1,250 miles, followed a large-scale exercise earlier this month in which the Israeli air force flew en masse over the Mediterranean in an apparent rehearsal for a threatened attack on Iran’s nuclear installations. Israel believes Iran’s nuclear programme is aimed at acquiring nuclear weapons. [Read More.]

Israel is no match for Iran and cannot stop its nuclear program, the chief of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards Mohammad Ali Jafari said in an interview to Iranian daily Jam-e Jam Saturday. "This country (Israel) is completely within the range of the Islamic republic's missiles. Our missile power and capability are such that the Zionist regime -- despite all its abilities -- cannot confront it," Jafari said. [Read More.]

The United States has begun preparing for the possibility that a terrorist could detonate a nuclear device in a major American city. U.S. officials appeared before a Senate panel Thursday to discuss the effort. VOA's Deborah Tate reports from Capitol Hill. The Senate Homeland and Governmental Affairs Committee heard sobering testimony about the impact of a nuclear attack on the United States. [Read More.]