French envoy condemns Iran statements

PARIS (AP) — A French ambassador summoned by Iran's Foreign Ministry condemned recent comments by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad implying Israel would be destroyed, a French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said Monday.

Pascale Andreani confirmed that France's ambassador to Iran had been summoned over the weekend as part of a continuing dispute between the two countries — largely over Iran's nuclear program. Iranian news reports Sunday said the Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned the ambassador, Bernard Poletti, to protest France's policy toward Iran's nuclear activities.France has been a vocal supporter of new sanctions against Iran because of the country's refusal to suspend uranium enrichment, a process that can produce fuel for a nuclear reactor or fissile material for a bomb.Andreani said Poletti took advantage of the summons to protest "unacceptable" comments Ahmadinejad made last week during a speech in the southern port of Bushehr implying that Israel would be destroyed.Poletti reiterated the French position that "the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Israeli-Lebanese relations cannot serve as a pretext to question Israel's right to exist," Andreani said in an online briefing Monday.She said the ambassador also emphasized the "very negative impact of these comments on the international community's perception of Iran."

Last week, France's Foreign Ministry summoned the Iranian ambassador to Paris, Ali Ahani, to protest Ahmadinejad's comments.

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This is important because once again it shows that another country, France, is also concerned and arguing with Iran mostly about the nuclear program in Iran.

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Iran claims to have Nuclear Weapons

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said that Iran is approaching the "summit" of nuclear development after Russia finished delivering all the nuclear fuel.

In his speech, Mr Ahmadinejad said Iran had overcome the bullying of the West and changed the political climate of the world.

Mr Ahmadinejad invited the West to come forward and join Iran in building new nuclear power plants. Otherwise, he said that Iran would push ahead on its own.

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Ahmadinejad has made many threatening words towards the west. Now that Iran is ready to make nuclear weapons, the US and other countries believe they have more to worry about. Soon, they could have weapons and maybe become a leading power of the world.

Iran Fires Rocket

Iran fired a rocket from its newly inaugurated space center Monday, laying the groundwork for what it says will be the future launch of its first domestically produced satellite, the semi-official FARS news agency reported.The report said the rocket was launched "into space." But similar previous technological achievements announced by the Islamic republic have been greeted with doubt by analysts.

Amid fears in the West that Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons, some experts believe Iran's space program is possibly a cover to improve its military ballistic missiles.

In February 2007, Iran announced the launch of "its first satellite into space," the state-run Iranian Students News Agency reported at the time. But the satellite did not reach orbit.

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This could cause some controversy with Iran's missiles that they claim not to have. Some may fear that they will be able to send out a nuclear bomb towards the United States and others will believe that they are just going out into space like everyone else does all the time. This is a big step for Iran when the space center was inaugurated.

Iran discovers new gas field

TEHRAN, Feb 2: Iran has discovered a gas field in the Gulf with estimated reserves of some 11 trillion cubic feet, Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari said on Saturday.There is a low possibility that it is a joint field (with a neighbouring country), Nozari told a news conference.Despite sitting on the world’s second-largest gas reserves after, analysts say Iran has been slow to develop the sector due to sanctions, politics and construction delays.

Iran’s daily gasoline imports have fallen about 57 per cent since the country introduced fuel rationing last June, a senior oil official was quoted on Saturday as saying.The world’s fourth-largest oil producer lacks refining capacity and must therefore import large amounts of fuel, which it then sells at heavily subsidised prices. It introduced rationing to curb soaring consumption.

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This article is significant because Iran's gasoline import has dropped because of various reasons and now the country will be picking up more oil and producing more gas which will help the country become more productive and prosperous.

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Assessment Complete