EU warns Iran of being referred to UN Security Council
"Britain, France and Germany are seeking to hold ministerial talks with Iran to prevent the country from restarting its uranium conversion programme. The offer of a ministerial level meeting within the next two weeks was reportedly made in an EU letter warning Iran that if it proceeded with its threat to resume its fuel cycle program they will support the US in seeking UN Security Council action," IRNA reported today.

"We are waiting to hear but we will be happy to talk with Iran to work our way through this," a Foreign Office spokesman in London told IRNA.

In an interview with BBC Radio Four's News At One programme, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said that: US cooperation had also been secured "for lifting embargoes and sanctions for example on things like material related to air transport safety and plenty of other things." "We don't want this situation, it's the last thing we want," Straw said with regard to Iran's threat, IRNA reported.

"We want these negotiations to produce a satisfactory conclusion where Iran as its right under the Non Proliferation Treaty is able to run its nuclear energy power programme but is not able to produce material which, given its previous record of non disclosure, has raised very strong suspicions that it could be used for a nuclear weapons," he said.

IRNA reported: Straw admitted that in relation to US claims that Iran was intent on developing nuclear weapons "there is no conclusive evidence that that is what they're up to." On Thursday, former Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Hans Blix warned that he was "not sure much will be gained from taking to the Security Council, except more escalation and getting into more dangerous situation."

Iran had repeatedly stressed its right to enrich Uranium for peaceful(?) purposes and that if the issue ever reaches the UN Security Council, then Iran was able to tuff the situation out if forced to.

Anti-American Protests Spread in Afghanistan; 8 Killed
Mood:  on fire
(AP News)
KABUL, Afghanistan - Security forces opened fire and protesters stoned government and relief agency buildings as clashes in four Afghan cities left at least eight people dead Friday amid growing anti-American sentiment over the alleged desecration of Islam's holy book at Guantanamo Bay.

It was the the biggest outpouring of anti-American sentiment since the fall of the Taliban in 2001 — a deepening worry for the government of U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai.

A call for mass street protests from a coalition of hard-line religious parties in Pakistan fell flat, but firebrand Muslim clerics lashed out at the United States.

"By insulting the Quran, they have challenged our belief. We are hurt ... If we don't rise against Americans, if we don't give them a strong message today, they will do it again," cleric Hafiz Hussain Ahmad told worshippers at a mosque in the Pakistani capital.

Operation Matador - U.S. Assault Intensifies at Syria Border
Mood:  on fire
(AP News)
American fighter jets flattened a suspected insurgent safe house near the Syrian border, the U.S. military said Friday, and hundreds of U.S. troops conducted house-to-house searches in remote desert villages for followers of Iraq's most-wanted militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

American forces have met little resistance since the first two days of Operation Matador, which began Saturday, aimed at clearing a region believed to be a haven for foreign fighters slipping into Iraq from Syria, the military said. American intelligence indicates the insurgents are either in hiding or have fled, U.S. Capt. Jeffrey Pool said.

Villagers reached by telephone said gunmen still roamed some areas and they continued to be hit by U.S. shelling.

The U.S. offensive — one of the largest since militants were forces from Fallujah six months ago — came amid a surge of militant attacks that have killed more than 420 people in just over two weeks since Iraq's first democratically elected government was announced.