Iranian and Russian engineers began loading fuel into Iran’s first nuclear power plant on Saturday, a major milestone as Teheran forges ahead with its atomic program despite UN sanctions. Read the full story

A former US envoy to the UN has hinted that as of next week any Israeli attack on a nuclear power plant in southern Iran could trigger a humanitarian disaster. Read the full story

As the US and its European allies are trying to increase unilateral sanctions against Iran, other major states show bold resistance to the punitive measures. Read the full story

Washington is worried that Iran continues to attract investment from China despite a new round of UN Security Council sanctions imposed on Tehran, a US official says. Read the full story

An Arab man convicted in Israel of rape because he pretended he was a Jew when he had consensual sex with a Jewish woman has called the verdict racist. Read the full story

Israel must go beyond easing its blockade of Gaza and throw open its long-closed border, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has said. Lady Ashton urged the international community to pressure Israel to end the blockade. Read the full story

Fidel Castro warned of the threat of global nuclear war involving the US, Israel, and Iran Friday, in his fifth public appearance this week following a four-year hiatus from political life. Read the full story

Turkey has for the first time threatened to break diplomatic ties with Israel over its raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in May. Turkey’s foreign minister said a break could only be averted if Israel either apologised or accepted the outcome of an international inquiry into the raid. Read the full story

Iran has provided Syria with an advanced radar system which could provide it with early warning of an Israeli strike on its nuclear facilities, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, quoting Israeli and US officials. Read the full story

Turkey has barred an Israeli military flight from Turkish airspace, in apparent retaliation for Israel’s raid on an aid convoy bound for Gaza. Turkey’s prime minister confirmed that a “ban” had been implemented following the 31 May raid, in which nine Turkish citizens on the flotilla were killed. Read the full story

Israel’s prime minister and defense chief will be called to testify in an investigation into a deadly raid on a Gaza aid flotilla, the leader of an Israeli commission of inquiry said in an opening statement Monday. Read the full story

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez described Israel on Saturday as a genocidal state that acted as an assassin for the United States, predicting the Middle East nation would one day be “put in its place. Read the full story

Saudi Arabia has conducted tests to stand down its air defences to enable Israeli jets to make a bombing raid on Iran’s nuclear facilities, The Times can reveal. Read the full story

Under President Barack Obama, the United States no longer provides Israel with automatic support at the United Nations where the Jewish state faces a constant barrage of criticism and condemnation. Read the full story

Strategic ties between Jerusalem and Washington are slowly changing, Mossad chief Meir Dagan told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday. Read the full story

A top Iranian lawmaker has called for “serious measures” against possible Israeli threats, amid reports that Tel Aviv is to deploy submarines in the Persian Gulf. Read the full story

Israel was sharply rebuked and accused of war crimes and serious breaches of international law in Amnesty International’s annual report, published on Wednesday. Read the full story

Former chief United Nations weapons inspector Scott Ritter joined Press TV in an interview to talk about Iraq’s situation before the US invasion of the Arab country in 2003. Read the full story

Apartheid-era documents declassified by South Africa have revealed the nation was offered nuclear weapons by Israel in 1975. Read the full story

Australia’s government said on Monday it had ordered the expulsion of an Israeli diplomat over the use of fake passports in the assassination of a top Hamas militant in Dubai in January. Read the full story

China welcomes a nuclear fuel declaration Iran issued after talks with Brazil and Turkey, signaling that it may oppose a US-led drive to impose sanctions on Tehran. Read the full story

Noam Chomsky was denied entry into Israel via the Allenby Bridge border crossing on Sunday, according to various Palestinian reports. Read the full story

Western concerns about Iran’s nuclear programme have so far dominated the latest UN conference on the treaty aimed at stopping the spread and stockpiling of nuclear weapons. Read the full story

Israel is yet to replace a diplomat expelled after forged British passports were used in the killing of a Hamas leader, it has emerged. Read the full story

The U.S. is negotiating with Egypt a proposal to make the Middle East a region free of nuclear weapons, as the U.S. seeks to prevent Iran from derailing a monthlong U.N. conference on nuclear nonproliferation that begins Monday. Read the full story

While Israel and the Palestinian Authority are finally expected to begin US-mediated indirect “proximity” talks in the very near future, concern is growing among some in the Israeli government that the PA is planning to marginalize the diplomatic process and instead unilaterally seek UN recognition for a Palestinian state along the pre-1967 lines. Read the full story