Russia's Chief of Staff General Nikolai Makarov Moscow is making preparations to respond to a possible Israeli or US military strike against Iran in 2012, report says. According to World Tribune, the Kremlin has ordered the military to draft options for a Russian response to any foreign attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. The report added that the Russian Defense Ministry has set up a facility... 

Israel's Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Ehud Barak (L) meets with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda at the latter's official residence in Tokyo on February 15, 2012. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has warned Israel against the ramifications of launching a military strike on Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program. Noda told visiting Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak... 

Nikolai Makarov Russia’s top military boss says an attack against Iran, which the west suspects of developing nuclear weapons, could begin as early as summer. Thus far, tensions between Tehran and the west have been confined to the battlefield of heated rhetoric. Russia’s highest ranking military officer, however, predicts it may be just a matter of time before the verbal grenades get real. The... 

Oil refinery of Swiss firm Petroplus in Petit-Couronne, near Rouen, northwestern France. A senior Iranian lawmaker says a number of Eastern European countries have called on the Islamic Republic not to approve a bill which will stop the country’s oil exports to the European Union member states. Member of Iran Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Mohammad-Karim Abedi said on Tuesday... 

This file photo shows an Iranian submarine in the Persian Gulf. A top US commander says that the Iranian military has beefed up its naval forces in the Persian Gulf by increasing submarines and preparing suicide boats. “They have increased the number of submarines… they increased the number of fast attack craft,” the head of the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, Vice Admiral Mark Fox, said... 

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum has criticized the administration of Barack Obama for what he calls choosing Iran over Israel in fear of losing Iranian oil. “We’re (the US government) throwing Israel under the bus because we know we’re going to be dependent upon OPEC [the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries],” Santorum... 

According to a 2009 Wikileaks cable, IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano asserted that "he was solidly in the US court on every key strategic decision, from high-level personnel appointments to the handling of Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program." The UN nuclear agency is expected to publish a report “harsher” than its November edition on Iran next month, possibly triggering a military... 

The regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria is expecting up to 15,000 Iranian troops to help maintain order in the country’s provinces, a Chinese newspaper reports. Iran has yet to confirm or deny the news. According to the central Chinese daily Renmin Ribao, the Iranian special task troops are due to be deployed in Syria’s key provinces. The Syrian opposition announced earlier that commander of Iran’s... 

President of the Somali Red Crescent Society has expressed gratitude to Iran for Tehran’s significant contribution of humanitarian aid to the famine-stricken African nation, Press TV reports. “[We are here] to express our appreciation and thanks to the Iranian Red Crescent for the assistance they have provided for the Somali people,” Ahmad Mohammad Hassan told Press TV after a meeting with... 

US President Barack Obama US President Barack Obama has warned against the serious risks of a military campaign against the Islamic Republic and underlined diplomacy as the favored solution to the impasse over Iran’s nuclear issue. Speaking in an interview with the NBC television network on Sunday, Obama said he did not believe Tehran had the intentions to attack the United States, dismissing Israeli... 

A senior Iranian military official says Tehran will attack any country used by “enemies” to launch a military strike against his country. The statement comes amid growing tensions between Iran and the West. ­”Any spot used by the enemy for hostile operations against Iran will be subjected to retaliatory aggression by our armed forces,” the deputy head of Iran’s elite... 

Iranian warships in the Saudi port city of Jeddah, Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari Two Iranian naval ships have docked in the Saudi port of Jeddah. Iranian officials say the move aims to project the country’s “power on the open seas” and “confront Iranophobia.” ­The supply ship Kharg and destroyer Shaid Qandi docked on Saturday in the Red Sea port in line... 

Indian business delegation will visit Tehran in the end of February to boost oil imports from the Islamic Republic. India plans to send a business delegation to Iran to hold talks aimed at increasing the volume of Tehran’s oil exports to New Delhi, a report says. “We will need to lead a business delegation there, taking potential exporters across a range of sectors, and go out there and... 

Iran successfully launches new 'Navid-e Elm-o Sanat' satellite into orbit on February 3, 2012. The Islamic Republic of Iran has successfully launched its domestically-built Navid-e Elm-o Sanat satellite into orbit following a decree by Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The satellite, completely designed and built by Iranian experts, blasted into orbit late Thursday on the third day... 

A senior lawmaker says Iran’s Majlis is considering a plan to cut off the country’s economic transactions with South Korea’s Samsung in reaction to the company’s anti-Iran teaser. Head of Majlis Energy Committee Arsalan Fat’hipour said the double-urgency plan, aimed at imposing a complete ban on buying all Samsung products, would make the company regret making the insulting...