Rebel News - Independent News and Analysis

The Islamic Republic could reconsider its economic ties with the European Union in response to EU's unilateral sanctions against Iran's nuclear work, a senior Iranian MP says.

“The European Union will receive an appropriate response [from Iran] should it put into practice [new] sanctions against the Iranian nation,” Head of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi told IRNA Saturday.

A top Iranian oil official says sanctions imposed on Iran have made the nation more reliant on domestic producers, hence companies which abide by sanctions have 'harmed themselves.'

"European and American markets have compromised their financial interests for the past few years because of such policies" said Managing Director of Iran's National Petrochemical Company Abdolhossein Bayat.

The United Nations has renewed its call for an international investigation of the Israeli deadly attack against the Gaza Freedom Flotilla aid convoy.

A UN diplomat said that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon repeated the call in his meeting with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Friday.

Leaders of Syria and Saudi Arabia have called on Lebanon to avert the crisis concerning charges by a tribunal, which accuses Hezbollah of involvement in the assassination of the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri.

Hariri, who was the Arab state's premier from 1992 to 1998, and again from 2000 until his resignation on October 20, 2004, was assassinated along with 21 others in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, on February 14, 2005.

The United Nations Human Rights Committee has told Israel to end the blockade of the Gaza Strip and to take action about its human rights violations.

On Friday, the committee also told Israel to end extra-judicial executions of terrorist suspects, make torture illegal, end construction of settlements in the occupied territories, stop building a wall cutting off some of the territories from other regions, and stop destroying homes as a collective punishment, Reuters reported.

Israeli warplanes have carried out airstrikes on three separate sites in the Gaza Strip, injuring nine Palestinian policemen.

Witnesses said they heard three successive explosions late on Friday evening in western Gaza City.

Israeli warplanes have carried out airstrikes on three separate sites in the Gaza Strip, killing one Palestinian and wounding 13 others.

Witnesses said they heard three successive explosions late on Friday evening in western Gaza city.

Hamas political chief Khaled Meshaal says the Arab League's endorsement of direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians indicates the body's ineffective leadership.

Describing the decision made by the Arab Peace Initiative committee as an attempt to mitigate the negativity of Arab political positions, Meshaal said on Friday that the Arab leaders were suffering from a lack of "leadership that can push their nations forward."

Repeating its accusations against Tehran's nuclear program, Israel says sanctions cannot stop a determined Iran from pursuing its nuclear goals.

"They're determined to get nuclear military capability. We see it," Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program on Friday, AFP reported. "I don't believe that sanctions will work," he told the US-based cable news channel.

Iranian Parliament (Majlis) Speaker Ali Larijani says the Islamic Republic has influence in the Middle East region but does not use it to build an empire.

"If the Zionist regime (Israel) bullies Palestine we will stand against it and if it decides to attack Lebanon Hezbollah will confront it," IRNA quoted Larijani as saying on Friday.