Syria threatened today to retaliate for an Israeli air strike and its ally Iran said there will be repercussions over the attack.

Iran and Russia have joined the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in condemning a rare Israeli air strike on Syria.

Syrian rebels claimed they captured a large special forces base on a main road between the city of Aleppo and the Turkish border yesterday.

Syrian fighter jets screamed through the sky over a rebel-held town, dropping bombs that levelled the better part of a poor neighbourhood and wounded scores of people, many of them women and children buried under piles of rubble.

Syrian president Bashar al-Assad won a pledge of support yesterday from Iran as his forces tried to choke off rebels in the northern city of Aleppo.

The government of Bashar al-Assad has declared victory in a hard-fought battle for Syria’s capital Damascus, and pounded rebels who control parts of the country’s largest city Aleppo.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has suggested ending his country’s conflict on a step-by-step basis, starting with districts that have suffered the worst violence, international mediator Kofi Annan has said.

Syrian president Bashar Assad has agreed to a new UN-brokered peace plan focusing on containing the most violent areas of the country, then expanding to the entire nation, international envoy Kofi Annan said.

International envoy Kofi Annan has warned of a disaster if his peace plan for Syria fails.

Activists are reporting fresh violence in different parts of Syria today less than 24 hours before a UN-brokered ceasefire is to take effect.

Senior UN inspectors arrived in Iran yesterday to push for transparency about its disputed nuclear programme, and several European states halted purchases of Iranian oil as part of Western moves to pile pressure on a defiant Tehran.

The next round of talks between Iran and six world powers on the country’s nuclear program will be held in Istanbul, Iran’s foreign minister said today.

Iran said it was very optimistic over a visit by UN nuclear inspectors aimed at shedding light on suspected military aspects of Tehran’s atomic work, but suggested Tehran would curb cooperation if the experts became a “tool” for outside powers.

Iran deliberately delayed its announcement that it had captured an American surveillance drone to test US reaction, the country’s foreign minister said today.

IRAN accused Israel and the United States of seeking world support for a military strike on its nuclear facilities, which Russia warned yesterday would be “a very serious mistake”.

Syrian security forces kept up a violent crackdown on dissent today as the embattled regime faced surprising calls to end the violence from its closest ally, Iran.

Two American men arrested more than two years ago while hiking along the Iraq-Iran border have been sentenced to eight years in prison for espionage and illegally entering Iran, state TV reported today.

A Saudi-led military force crossed into Bahrain to prop up the monarchy in the tiny island nation against widening demonstrations, launching the first cross-border military operation to quell unrest since the Arab world’s rebellions began in December.

Iran is expanding its covert global search for the uranium it needs for its nuclear activities and a key focus is Zimbabwe, says a new intelligence report.

Hezbollah supporters gathered in the streets of Beirut early today after a UN tribunal filed indictments over the assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri, prompting several schools to close as nervous parents withdrew their children from class.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief appeared to signal a rejection of Iran’s invitation to visit its nuclear sites when she said the job should be done by the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency.

Iran's president abruptly fired his foreign minister and gave his job to the country's nuclear chief today in the latest sign of a power struggle over its atomic programme.

NUCLEAR weapons only bring disaster and the world would do well to denuclearise, Iran’s foreign minister said yesterday as Tehran opened talks with the West in Geneva over its contested atomic project.

Iran insisted today that its nuclear project was not affected by a mystery computer virus attack.

Iran began loading fuel into the core of its first nuclear power plant today, moving closer to the start-up of a facility that has provoked controversy in the international community.

The head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency made a dangerous mistake by criticising Iran for not fully co-operating with it, Tehran’s nuclear chief said today.

Iran has submitted a proposal to Russia to jointly produce nuclear fuel for its Bushehr nuclear power plant and any future facilities, Iranian media reported today.

RUSSIA will load fuel into Iran’s first nuclear power plant next week despite US demands to prevent Iran obtaining nuclear energy until the country proves that it’s not pursuing a weapons capacity, officials said yesterday.

Iran will launch its first nuclear power plant next week, Russia’s nuclear agency announced today.

Iran has banned two UN nuclear inspectors from entering the country, a state media report said today.

Iran is designing a new atomic research reactor in another snub to international efforts to curb the Islamic Republic's nuclear ambitions, officials in Tehran said today.

Iran will begin construction of a new uranium enrichment plant by March of next year, the country’s nuclear chief said today in a defiant announcement days after the UN approved tougher sanctions.

Iran unveiled a third generation of domestically built centrifuges today as the country pushed ahead with plans to accelerate a uranium enrichment programme that has alarmed world powers fearful of Tehran’s nuclear aims.

US SECRETARY of State Hillary Clinton has said Iran is becoming a military dictatorship, a new accusation in the midst of rising tensions over Iran’s nuclear ambitions and crackdown on anti-government protesters.

THE Pentagon said yesterday that the US wanted a UN Security Council resolution “within weeks” to tackle Iran’s nuclear programme as Iran said it had begun making higher-grade nuclear fuel.

Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered his country’s atomic agency to begin the production of higher enriched uranium.

Iran’s vice president said today his country needed 20 industrial-scale uranium enrichment facilities, a potentially dramatic expansion of its nuclear program in defiance of UN demands.

THE head of the UN nuclear watchdog said yesterday there is a “shifting of gears” in Iran’s confrontation with the West to more co-operation and transparency and he announced that international inspectors would visit Tehran’s newly revealed uranium enrichment site on October 25.

The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog has set the date for the inspection of Iran’s newly revealed uranium processing facility for October 25.

IRAN yesterday said it would refuse to discuss a newly declared nuclear plant at forthcoming international talks and cautioned Western powers it could curb co-operation further if they repeated “past mistakes”.

Iran’s nuclear chief said his country will allow the UN nuclear agency to inspect its newly revealed, still unfinished uranium enrichment facility.

IRAN yesterday agreed to hold talks next month with six world powers on its latest proposals to allay concerns over its nuclear programme, in a move Washington welcomed as an “important first step”.

Iran’s official Irna news agency said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has appointed a new chief for the country’s nuclear programme.