HOW do you solve a problem like Iran? As Richard Haas, president of America’s Council on Foreign Relations, and once the US envoy to Northern Ireland states, “what happens in the Middle East does not stay in the Middle East”.

In a fresh appeal directly to the Iranian people, US President Barack Obama said in an online video that the US wants more educational and cultural exchanges for their students and better access to the internet to give them a more hopeful future.

Five sailors including an Irish journalist who were detained after apparently straying into Iranian waters have been released, it was reported today.

AN Iranian who swallowed a condom containing €30,000 worth of heroin was taken to hospital yesterday and given medication so he could “pass on” the evidence to gardaí.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad confirmed today that his government will attend a major regional conference on Iraq set for this week in Egypt, the Iraqi prime minister's office said.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today that Iran to step up its nuclear development even further if additional UN sanctions are implemented, the country's state broadcaster reported.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insisted today that 15 captured British sailors trespassed in Iranian waters and called world powers “arrogant” for failing to apologise, the country’s official news agency reported.

THE Iranian who stitched his mouth together on hunger strike in protest at his asylum appeal has begun drinking water after removing the stitching.

The Iranian president had expressed support for a 2002 Arab peace initiative during talks with Saudi officials, it was reported today.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki today reiterated his country would never suspend uranium enrichment, a move the US says is essential for Washington-Tehran negotiations.

Belgian investigators are questioning an Iranian man who handed himself in to police claiming he’d been approached to blow up a passenger plane on the Charleroi-Dublin route, it was reported today.

A top Revolutionary Guards commander said today that Israel would be Iran’s first retaliatory target in response to any US attack, a provocative threat that reinforced the Iranian president’s past call for Israel to be “wiped off the map”.

Iran’s hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today vowed that Iran would not back away from uranium enrichment and said the world must treat Iran as a nuclear power.

US administration officials say they remain committed to a diplomatic solution to ensure Iran does not obtain nuclear weapons, but they will not rule out military action as an option, even as they try to calm down talk about military planning.

Iran’s president today said his country would not surrender its “inalienable rights” to have a nuclear programme, which the West fears is geared toward making atomic bombs.

IRAN ended all voluntary cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog yesterday but said it was open to a proposal to enrich Iranian uranium in Russia, softening its earlier response to being reported to the UN Security Council over fears it wants to produce nuclear arms.

IRANIAN President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday mocked international calls for Iran to rein in its nuclear programme after US President George W Bush said the world must prevent it from making a nuclear bomb.

The Iranian president’s recent remarks denying the Holocaust could be grounds for sanctions against Iran, EU leaders have warned.

Iran’s hard-liner president, who once called for Israel to be “wiped off the map”, again sparked a barrage of international criticism yesterday, saying the Jewish state should be moved to Europe and questioning whether the Holocaust took place.

IRANIAN reformists urged their dejected supporters to rally behind pragmatic cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani to prevent hard-line challenger Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from winning a presidential run-off.

Tehran tonight delayed the release of eight British sailors and Royal Marines it captured when they entered Iranian territorial waters.

BRITISH Foreign Secretary Jack Straw yesterday urged Iran to open up itsnuclear programme to international inspectors as soon as possible.

An Iranian who allegedly threatened to ‘‘kill all Americans’’ when he was caught smoking on an international flight was remanded in custody in Los Angeles after a prosecutor argued that his actions threatened thousands of lives.

OPEC is to cut crude production at its extraordinary meeting on January 17, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh says.