A senior member of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government suggested Wednesday that his country is running out of patience with a U.S.-backed diplomatic overture to head off Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Cyclone Gonu, the worst tropical storm to hit the Gulf in decades, made landfall in Iran on Wednesday afternoon, packing winds of 200 kilometres an hour and forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of people, officials said.
Parnaz Azima, one of several Americans detained in Iran, said yesterday that her lawyers and Iranian officials have warned that her case could take years to resolve and appealed to the State Department to keep pressure on Tehran over the fate of the imprisoned or detained Americans.
Cyclone Gonu lashed Oman on Wednesday as thousands of people were evacuated in the Gulf state and neighbouring Iran for the strongest tropical storm to hit the region in 30 years.
Iran seized three Finnish men on a fishing trip near a disputed Persian Gulf island and held them incommunicado for several days before agreeing Wednesday to release them, the men's employer said.
A weakened Cyclone Gonu battered Oman's capital Wednesday with fierce winds and torrential rains, flooding streets, disrupting oil exports, shutting down air service and forcing thousands from their homes. Oil traders tracked the course of the storm as it veered north toward Iran and the Strait of Hormuz the world's most important crude oil tanker route.
June 6 (Bloomberg) -- Iran is increasing its fleet of small attack boats capable of challenging warships and disrupting oil traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, the sea route for two-fifths of the world's daily supply of crude oil, the U.S. Navy says.
Iran has not yet crossed the threshold of being able to make nuclear weapons but may be only two years away, Israeli ambassador Sallai M. Meridor said Wednesday.
The strongest cyclone ever recorded by scientists in the northwestern Arabian Sea churned up the coast of Oman today and was on track to hit land in southern Iran, sending high winds and waves through a region that is used for oil exports and civilian and military shipping traffic.
Iran has agreed to release three Finnish employees of Nokia Siemens Networks who were detained Saturday after straying into Iran's territorial waters during a fishing trip in the Persian Gulf, the company said Wednesday.