The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman says US President Barack Obama's threat to use military force against Iran over the country's peaceful nuclear program is only meant for propaganda purposes.

Presidential election campaigns in the United States have not only already started, but also intensified. Republican hopefuls are engaged in a dog fight over firstly being nominated by the party for presidential race and, secondly, defeating the incumbent President Barack Obama and occupy his place at the White House. In two party meetings which have been held over the past few weeks in Iowa and New Hampshire, Republican nominees have been entangled in heated debates over various issues, the most important of which was the issue of Iran.

The EU defends its strategy of an oil embargo on Iran - or economic war - as the only way to avert "chaos in the Middle East". Yet the move may end up sparking the full-blown war it is theoretically trying to avert; talk about an array of unintended consequences waiting in the wings.

A series of covert operations against Iran in order to stall its nuclear program has turned into very ugly terrorist attacks against Iranian scientists. The latest case was last week that has created broad uproar not only in Iran but in the international community.

The recent visit to Iran by the Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu took place in the height of the ongoing media cold war between Iran and the West. It also took place at a time that news about imposing sanctions on Iran's oil export by the United States and the European Union tops newswires. After US President Barack Obama signed into law the new sanctions against Iran's Central Bank and oil sector, the Turkish government announced that the country’s prime minister will ask Obama to exempt Turkey from those sanctions in view of Ankara’s extensive relations with its eastern neighbor.

The past few weeks have made me scratch my head about the dramatically dissonant signals coming out of Washington. One possible conclusion is pure chaos and incompetence, with no one in control of the message. But there is an alternative explanation that intrigues me. Perhaps messages are being delivered to multiple audiences more or less simultaneously, in a complicated effort to have your cake and eat it too. Or as I would like to believe, undertaking a new initiative with Iran while trying to disarm the political opposition.

Member countries of the European Union (EU) have reportedly reached an agreement to impose sanctions on Iran's oil sector. After the agreement enters into force, the European countries will stop buying oil from Iran. Media reports are, of course, contradictory and this proves that EU member states have not achieved a final agreement yet. However, what if they reached an agreement? Will that agreement be actually enter into force?

After meeting with Soviet leaders in Moscow, then U.S. president Richard Nixon, along with National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger arrived in Tehran, May 31, 1972 and met with the Shah and friendly negotiations were conducted. Evidence proved the unprecedented expansion of friendly relations between the Shah and the United States.

Iranian scientist Professor Ardeshir Qavamzadeh has won the 2012 award of the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR). An Iranian professor Babak Amir Parviz from the University of Washington managed to design electronic contact lenses with glucose sensor, capable of monitoring blood sugar levels wirelessly. Iran's Deputy Minister of Health and Medical Education Mostafa Qanei says the country has ranked first in scientific progress in the world in 2011. Iranian and German researchers have succeeded in indentifying 50 new mental retardation genes...

The forthcoming article in Foreign Affairs entitled, “Time to Attack Iran: Why a Strike Is the Least Bad Option” has had an impact upon the intellectual and policy-making atmosphere of the United States in recent days. Matthew Kroenig, the author of the article, deems the danger of Iran’s nuclear program urgent and encourages the U.S. government to launch a preventive surgical strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.