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United States troops arrested at least five people in a raid on Iran's consulate in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil on Thursday, state media reported.Those arrested were embassy staff, the report by the official news agency IRNA said, adding that the U.S. forces confiscated computers and documents from inside the consulate building.Tehran filed an official compliant with the Iraqi Foreign Ministry over the action.Washington and Iraqi officials routinely blame Tehran for aiding Shiite militias responsible for dozens of assassinations in Iraq on a daily basis.In December, U.S. forces arrested at least five Iranian agents in Baghdad, later handing them over to Iraqi authorities.
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A small earthquake shook parts of the south-west town of Haftgol on Thursday, the official news agency IRNA reported.The quake, measuring 3.7 on the Richter scale, occurred at 10:45 a.m. local time.No casualties or damages were reported.Haftgol is situated in the oil-rich province of Khuzestan.
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Associated France Press reported that Commerz bank, the second-biggest bank in Germany, is to join other European banks in curtailing its activities with Iran, a spokesman said on Wednesday, as the United States seeks to isolate Teheran economically. Commerz bank will stop handling dollar transactions for Iran its its New York branch by the end of this month, the spokesman said, confirming a corresponding report in the Wall Street Journal Europe on Wednesday. But the German bank would continue to handle euro transactions for Iranian clients, he added. A number of European banks, such as Credit Suisse and UBS, have already taken similar decisions, paring back or ceasing altogether their operations with Iran. The US says Iran's state-controlled banks support terrorism and Washington is also seeking to financially quarantine Iran because of Teheran's vows to press ahead with its nuclear programme in defiance of international will.
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Belgium has been appointed as the head of the United Nations Security Council committee to oversee the imposition of sanctions on Iran.The sanctions committee was established after the Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1737 on December 23 to slap sanctions on Tehran for its refusal to suspend its uranium enrichment activities.The Security Council's five permanent members – Britain, China, France, Russia, and the United States – agreed on Thursday to appoint Belgium as head of the sanctions committee.On January 1, Belgium began a two-year term as one of the Security Council's 10 non-permanent members.
