U. S. experts on Iran have said that a refusal by Tehran to hand over the bodies of five executed prisoners is a stark warning to the opposition movement.

It has been reported that the Iranian government is refusing to return the bodies of five people executed for alleged ties to terrorist organization to their families. Authorities are said to be concerned their return would spark unrest in the Kurdish provinces of northern Iran.

Tehran, Mar. 21 : Hundreds of Taliban insurgents have been trained in Iran to launch attacks on NATO forces in Afghanistan, two Taliban commanders have revealed.

The Times quoted the commanders as saying that Iranian officials paid them to learnt to mount complex ambushes and lay improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to kill western forces.

The commanders attended three-months’ training after being smuggled across the border to the city of Zahidan, an hour’s drive from training camps in the desert.

According to them, instructors in plain clothes provided daily exercises in live firing.

Tehran, Jan 11 : Iran has decided to screen all American citizens seeking entry to the country on tourist visas, in response to a similar decision taken by the US.

Iran will screen all Americans applying for tourist visas to enter the country, in response to similar treatment being given by the US to Iranian travellers, MP Alaeddin Boroujerdi said Sunday.

The decision comes days after the US government issued instructions to all its airport authorities to screen visitors from certain countries, including Iran, Mehr News reported.

Tehran, Jan 8 : The car of one of Iran's opposition leaders, Mehdi Karroubi, was hit by gunfire but the cleric was unharmed, opposition websites reported Friday.

Karroubi is believed to have attended a mourning ceremony Friday in the city of Qazvin, west of the capital Tehran, when some 500 government supporters attacked the ceremony. The pro-government protesters were believed to have been armed.

Police eventually succeeded to move Karroubi, a former speaker of parliament, from the venue but when the cleric's car was leaving the area, it was hit by gunfire.

Tehran, Jan 7 : Iran and Syria plan to create a new world order, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday.

"Iran and Syria have a joint mission to create a new world order on the basis of justice, humanity and belief in God," Ahmadinejad told visiting Syrian Parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Abrash.

Syria is Iran's main ally in the Middle East and both countries consider Israel to be their political arch-foe.

Tehran, Jan 7 : Iran has assured its neighbours that its nuclear activities are solely for defensive purposes and pose no threat to any country in the region.

The Islamic Republic's military capabilities are only based on preventive and defensive purposes, Majlis speaker Ali Larijani said Wednesday in a meeting with his visiting Bahraini counterpart Khalifa al-Dhahrani.

Voicing Majlis support for promotion of all-out bilateral cooperation with Bahrain, he said the enemies could not damage the existing friendly ties between the two states.

Tehran, Jan 5 : Accusing European and US-based organisations of inciting post-poll violence in the country, Iran has restricted its citizens from having ties with such foreign groups, media reports said Tuesday.

Iran's deputy intelligence minister for foreign affairs said that 60 European and US institutions played a role in inciting post-election violence in the Islamic Republic.

Tehran, Dec 30 : Iran Tuesday again rejected a deadline for the end of this year set by the world powers on a uranium enrichment deal.

"Actually we have a deadline and our deadline is that if no proper response is received (from the world powers) on the deal, then we will go on with further uranium enrichment for our Tehran medical reactor," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters.

Tehran, Dec 30 : Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Tuesday blamed the latest unrest in his country on the US and Israel, the ISNA news agency reported.

"This is a play staged by the US and Zionists (Israel) which just makes us puke," said Ahmadinejad in his first reaction to Sunday's protests against him and his government.

"Both those who staged and those who acted in this play are making a mistake, as the Iranian nation has seen many such plays and will not be affected," the president added.

Tehran, Dec 28 - The nephew of Iranian reformist opposition leader Mir-Hossein Moussavi was among those killed during protests in Tehran, the opposition claimed Sunday - one of several people apparently killed during a day of demonstrations across the country which also saw at least 300 people arrested.

After a confusing day of rumour, denial and counter-rumour, there was no official confirmation of the death of Ali Moussavi. Some reports said he died after being shot in the chest.

Tehran, Dec 26 : There were renewed political protests on Saturday in Tehran and police fired tear gas shells to disperse the crowds, an Iranian opposition website reported.

The Jaras website, which is close to the Green Movement led by former prime minister Mir-Hossein Moussavi, said clashes between an unspecified number of protesters and police broke out in a public square in eastern Tehran.

The official news agency IRNA confirmed the protests in eastern Tehran but said there were at most 150 people.

Tehran, Dec 26 :Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Saturday termed European politicians "one more stupid than the other".

"These (European) politicians neither know anything about politics nor about history," Fars news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying in a speech at at Arak mosque in Tehran.

Cairo/Tehran, Dec 25 : Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Thursday that Iran could not confirm whether the woman in the Saudi Arabia embassy in Tehran was the daughter of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

"We have been informed by the Saudi embassy in Tehran that thedaughter of bin Laden was in the embassy and intended to leave the country," Mottaki told state television.

"We can, however, neither confirm her identity nor do we know how she entered the country and the Saudi embassy," the Iranian chief diplomat said.

Tehran, Dec 23 : The judiciary commission of the Iranian parliament Wednesday threatened providers of dating websites in the Islamic state with harsh penalties, Fars news agency reported.

The commission's spokesman Farhad Tajari said that those running such websites should know that they were committing a crime and could face legal action and harsh penalties.

Tajari called on all relevant organisations and ministries to harshly confront what he called illegal and immoral websites.

He added that the telecommunications ministry should cooperate to identify such websites.

Tehran, Dec 22 - Iranian dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri was buried in the religious city of Qom Monday, a day after he died at the age of 87.

According to witnesses and opposition websites, tens of thousands of people, including a large number of local opposition figures, attended the funeral and turned it into a political rally.

Witnesses said there was a massive police deployment in Qom, 130 km south of the capital, Tehran.

Tehran, Dec 18 : The new generation of Iran's uranium-enrichment centrifuges is to be ready by March 2011, the head of Iran's Atomic Organiszation said Friday.

Ali Akbar Salehi told the Fars news agency that the new centrifuges - named IR3 and IR4 - were currently being produced and that after a test period, they would be ready for use by the end of the next Persian year - in March 2011.

Iran has been planning since last year to upgrade the technology of its centrifuges to speed up its uranium enrichment.

Tehran, Dec 16 : Iran Wednesday test fired an indigenous missile, an Iranian TV reported.

Iran successfully tested the "optimised version of the solid-fuel Sejjil-2 deterrent missile as part of its long-term plans to defend the country's borders", the state-funded Press TV said.

The initial version of the two-stage Sejjil-2 missile was tested in May. (IANS)

Tehran, Dec 15 :Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called on the Palestinian militant group Hamas Tuesday to continue resistance against Israel as the only way to save Palestine, state media reported.

"The only way to save Palestine is resistance and victory belongs to those who believe in God and Jihad (holy war) in God's way," the Ayatollah told visiting Hamas politburo head Khaled Meshaal.

Tehran, Dec 14 : The three US hikers detained in Iran for more than five months on charges of espionage are to be tried, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Monday.

Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal were arrested by Iranian security forces in July near the Iran-Iraq border.

Mottaki told reporters that the case of the three US citizens would be dealt with by the judiciary, a trial be held and verdicts issued without giving further details.

At the time of their arrest, Iran accused the trio of working for pro-Israeli news websites.

Tehran, Dec 9 : Iran does not want further escalation in the dispute over its nuclear programmes and wants talks with the world powers, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday.

"We do not welcome any escalation and are ready to hold further talks [with world powers] over global issues," Ahmadinejad said after a cabinet session in Tehran, reiterating previous offers of talks, which, however, did exclude the nuclear issue in the past.