Word: tehran
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...Tehran...
...Iran's top prosecutor announced espionage charges against three American hikers who were arrested in July for illegally crossing the border from Iraq. Shane Bauer, Joshua Fattal and Sarah Shourd, who say they strayed into the country unwittingly, have spent more than 100 days in Tehran's Evin prison and have twice met with Swiss diplomats tasked with negotiating their release. The charges, which carry the death penalty, come amid stalled talks with the U.S. over Iran's controversial nuclear program, just months after the espionage conviction of American-Iranian journalist Roxana Saberi was overturned after heavy diplomatic pressure...
...pictures of terror in Tehran...
Moscow is, however, using its own leverage to press Tehran to be more accommodating. Last Monday, its energy minister Sergei Shmatko announced that the nuclear reactor being built by Russia at Bushehr won't go online by its December 2009 deadline. (The reactor was first scheduled to begin producing electricity in the year 2000, and has been delayed five times since then.) Moscow has further annoyed Tehran by stalling on the delivery of the sophisticated S-300 air defense system ordered by Iran, whose deployment would make life difficult for any air force to attack the Islamic Republic. (See pictures...
Such arrangements are anathema to the key Western powers, of course. But the key leaders in Tehran don't appear to feel a wall at their backs on the nuclear issue. Mottaki's insistence that Iran accepts the "framework" of the deal and Ahmadinjead's declaration last weekend that the Islamic Republic is committed to "nuclear cooperation" with the international community suggests that they know they'll have to show flexibility and deal, but they may still believe they can strike a more favorable agreement - or withstand the level of pressure the U.S. and its allies can muster...