Tehran

From L to R: Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan pose for a picture with their hands together after the Islamic republic inked a nuclear fuel swap deal in Tehran on May 17, 2010 under which 1,200 kilos of low enriched uranium will be shipped to Turkey, potentially ending a standoff with world powers gearing for new sanctions against Tehran. The agreement, under which Iran will in turn receive nuclear fuel for a Tehran reactor, was signed in the Iranian capital by the foreign ministers of Iran, Brazil and Turkey.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) takes a picture of (from L to R): Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu holding hands after Iran inked a nuclear fuel swap deal in Tehran on May 17, 2010 under which 1,200 kilos of low enriched uranium will be shipped to Turkey, potentially ending a standoff with world powers gearing for new sanctions against Tehran. The agreement, under which Iran will in turn receive nuclear fuel for a Tehran reactor, was signed in the Iranian capital between the foreign ministers of Iran, Turkey and Brazil. Iran's Nuclear Chief Ali Akbar Salehi (2nd R) is seen on the right next to Erdogan.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad flashes the V-sign for victory as he stands between his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (L) and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) after the Islamic republic inked a nuclear fuel swap deal in Tehran on May 17, 2010 under which 1,200 kilos of low enriched uranium will be shipped to Turkey, potentially ending a standoff with world powers gearing for new sanctions against Tehran. The agreement, under which Iran will in turn receive nuclear fuel for a Tehran reactor, was signed in the Iranian capital by the foreign ministers of Iran, Brazil and Turkey Ahmet Davutoglu.

From L to R: Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan pose for a picture with their hands together after the Islamic republic inked a nuclear fuel swap deal in Tehran on May 17, 2010 under which 1,200 kilos of low enriched uranium will be shipped to Turkey, potentially ending a standoff with world powers gearing for new sanctions against Tehran. The agreement, under which Iran will in turn receive nuclear fuel for a Tehran reactor, was signed in the Iranian capital by the foreign ministers of Iran, Brazil and Turkey.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad flashes the V-sign for victory as he stands between his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (L) and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) after the Islamic republic inked a nuclear fuel swap deal in Tehran on May 17, 2010 under which 1,200 kilos of low enriched uranium will be shipped to Turkey, potentially ending a standoff with world powers gearing for new sanctions against Tehran. The agreement, under which Iran will in turn receive nuclear fuel for a Tehran reactor, was signed in the Iranian capital by the foreign ministers of Iran, Brazil and Turkey Ahmet Davutoglu.

Brazilian President Lula Inacio de Silva is pictured in a car upon his arrival to Tehran on May 16, 2010. The Brazilian leader, heading a delegation of 300, was welcomed on the two-day visit by Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, for a nuclear summit that major powers have said might prove to be Tehran's last chance to avoid tough new UN sanctions.

EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton looks on as she arrives for talks on Tehran's controversial nuclear programme, on December 6, 2010 in Geneva. World powers and Iran have begun talks in Geneva on Tehran's controversial nuclear programme, 14 months after negotiations broke off, a Swiss organiser of the meeting said today.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki speaks during a press conference in Tehran, 16 August 2006. Mottaki said that Iran is ready to discuss suspension of its sensitive nuclear enrichment work. The five UN Security Council members plus Germany expect Tehran's response on August 22 to a package of incentives in return for suspending uranium enrichment work.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki speaks during a joint press conference with his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr al-Thani (not seen) in Tehran, 21 January 2007. Thani said today that Tehran's controversial nuclear program should be solved through talks, since attacking Iran will threaten the region's security.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (C) and officials from Iran's atomic organization applaud during a ceremony to mark the National Nuclear Day in Tehran on April 9, 2010. Ahmadinejad said that any threats from the West against Iran will meet with more determination and reiterated that his government was not seeking an 'inhuman' atomic bomb. The hardline president, whose comments came a day after China joined five other major powers in agreeing to further talks on a new round of UN sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme, gave instructions on February 7 for the Islamic republic to begin enriching uranium to the 20 percent level required for a Tehran medical research reactor.

EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton looks on as she arrives for talks on Tehran's controversial nuclear programme, on December 6, 2010 in Geneva. World powers and Iran have begun talks in Geneva on Tehran's controversial nuclear programme, 14 months after negotiations broke off, a Swiss organiser of the meeting said today.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (R) welcomes his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at the presidential offices in Tehran on May 16, 2010. Lula, who heads a 300-strong delegation, is visiting the Islamic republic for a nuclear summit that major powers have said might prove to be Tehran's last chance to avoid new UN sanctions.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (C) and officials from Iran's atomic organization applaud during a ceremony to mark the National Nuclear Day in Tehran on April 9, 2010. Ahmadinejad said that any threats from the West against Iran will meet with more determination and reiterated that his government was not seeking an 'inhuman' atomic bomb. The hardline president, whose comments came a day after China joined five other major powers in agreeing to further talks on a new round of UN sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme, gave instructions on February 7 for the Islamic republic to begin enriching uranium to the 20 percent level required for a Tehran medical research reactor.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki speaks during a joint press conference with his Omani counterpart Yussef bin Alawi bin Abdullah during a meeting in Tehran, 17 July 2007. Iran said today it was in favour of a second round of talks with the United States on Iraq and that there was a chance such discussions could take place in the near future. Mottaki said Iraq had officially asked Iran to take part in a second session of discussions with US officials and Tehran had then asked Baghdad to instruct Washington to make an official request.

Brazilian President Lula Inacio de Silva is pictured in a car upon his arrival to Tehran on May 16, 2010. The Brazilian leader, heading a delegation of 300, was welcomed on the two-day visit by Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, for a nuclear summit that major powers have said might prove to be Tehran's last chance to avoid tough new UN sanctions.

A portrait of US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton is seen cut in half during an anti-Israeli demonstration outside the United Nations building in Tehran on May 31, 2010, after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said a deadly Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship was an 'inhuman' act that brought Tehran's archfoe 'closer than ever to its end.'

Iranian men perform the weekly Friday prayer at Tehran University on February 12, 2010. The White House has blasted Iran's nuclear declarations as based on politics not physics, doubting Tehran's claims to have broken through with its first stocks of highly enriched uranium.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki speaks to journalists during a joint press conference with Guinean Foreign Minister Fatoumate Kaba Sidibe (not in picture) in Tehran, 04 March 2006. Mottaki said that Tehran would press on with its controversial nuclear programme despite a call by the UN Security Council to suspend its activities.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki speaks during a joint press conference with United Nations General Assembly chief Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann in Tehran on March 7, 2009. Brockmann, who is on his first visit to the Islamic republic as president of the assembly, will hold meetings with top Iranian officials and attend an international economic summit in Tehran on March 11.

Armed Forces chief Hasan Firouzabadi salutes during an annual military parade which marks Iran's eight-year war with Iraq, in the capital Tehran on September 22, 2010. Iran's top commander said Tehran's military power is only a 'deterrent' against attacks, as provincial parade marking the same occassion was hit by a bomb attack which left nine people dead.

File picture dated Dcember 25, 2006 shows Iranian hardline students holding anti-British slogans during a protest outside the British oil company Shell in Tehran. Under threat of US sanctions, European oil firms Total, Shell, Statoil and Eni have pledged to stop investing in Iran in what amounts to a 'significant setback' to Tehran, a US official said on September 30, 2010.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki (R) shakes hands with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu (L) after their joint press conference in Tehran on April 20 2010. Davutoglu said diplomacy is the best way to resolve the row over Iran's atomic programme and that Ankara is ready to mediate between Tehran and world powers.

Brazilian President Lula Inacio de Silva is pictured in a car upon his arrival to Tehran on May 16, 2010. The Brazilian leader, heading a delegation of 300, was welcomed on the two-day visit by Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, for a nuclear summit that major powers have said might prove to be Tehran's last chance to avoid tough new UN sanctions.

An Iranian opposition supporter holds a picture of Neda Agha Soltan, who was killed during post-election riots, as he takes part in an anti-government demonstration at Tehran University in the Iranian capital on December 7, 2009. Iranian police firing tear gas clashed with crowds of protesters in central Tehran as opposition supporters used Students Day commemorations to stage fresh anti-government demonstrations.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (C) and officials from Iran's atomic organization applaud during a ceremony to mark the National Nuclear Day in Tehran on April 9, 2010. Ahmadinejad said that any threats from the West against Iran will meet with more determination and reiterated that his government was not seeking an 'inhuman' atomic bomb. The hardline president, whose comments came a day after China joined five other major powers in agreeing to further talks on a new round of UN sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme, gave instructions on February 7 for the Islamic republic to begin enriching uranium to the 20 percent level required for a Tehran medical research reactor.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki addresses worshippers before the weekly Friday prayer at Tehran University 02 February 2007. Mottaki said that US 'militaristic' policies in the region were to blame for the raging violence in neighbouring Iraq and denounced again the arrest of the five Iranians there which Tehran had asked the Iraqi government and the United Nations to act to free them. Washington has repeatedly accused Shiite Iran of fomenting the violence in Iraq, where tens of thousands of people were killed last year alone in insurgent attacks and sectarian violence.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki speaks on a mobile phone as he waits with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for the arrival of Lebanese President Michel Sleiman in Tehran on November 24, 2008. Sleiman arrived in Tehran today on a two-day visit for economic and political talks with Ahmadinejad and other senior officials.

French controversial humorist Dieudonné M'Bala M'Bala gives a press conference on September 16, 2010, following a visit to Tehran to plead for clemency in the case of Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, who has been sentenced to death by stoning for adultery.

French controversial humorist Dieudonné M'Bala M'Bala gives a press conference on September 16, 2010, following a visit to Tehran to plead for clemency in the case of Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, who has been sentenced to death by stoning for adultery.

A picture taken on June 12, 2009 shows Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi speaking after voting at Ershad mosque in southern Tehran. Iranian security agents raided the office of Mousavi late on September 15, 2010 his website Kaleme.com reported on September 16.

Iranian demonstrators carry posters picturing US pastor Terry Jones in Tehran's Enqelab Square during a demonstration against earlier threats by Jones to burn copies of the Muslim holy book, the Koran, after Friday prayers on September 17, 2010.

Iranian demonstrators carry effigies of US pastor Terry Jones and the Statue of Liberty as they fill Tehran's Enqelab Square to demonstrate against earlier threats by Jones to burn copies of the Muslim holy book, the Koran, after Friday prayers on September 17, 2010.

Iranian soldiers of the Revolutionary Guards pose next to a display long-range surface-to-surface Shahab-3 missile in a main square outside the parliament building in southern Tehran on September 23, 2010 as the Islamic republic marks the 'Sacred Defence Week', which commemorates its 1980-88 bloody war with Iraq.

An Iraqi municipal worker clears shattered glass from the scene of a bomb attack which targeted a bus carrying Iranian pilgrims in central Baghdad early in the morning on October 19, 2010, one day after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki paid a short visit to Tehran, where he sought to drum up support for a second term in office.

Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi (R) and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki review an honour guard upon the latter's arrival in Tehran on October 18, 2010 to garner support for his premiership bid, as his chief rival Iyad Allawi accused Iran of meddling in Baghdad's political affairs.

US-Iranian journalist Roxana Saberi, who was held in Iran for more than 100 days last year, smiles after giving a speech on the freedom of press at the Northwestern University in Doha, Qatar on September 19, 2010. The 33-year-old US-born journalist walked free from the notorious Evin prison in Tehran on May 11, 2009 after a court reduced her prison term for spying to a two-year suspended sentence, ending a four-month ordeal.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (R) shakes hands with Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki during an official meeting in Tehran on October 18, 2010, during a one-day visit in a bid to win support for his premiership after an inconclusive March 7 general election.

Photographers are seen at the unveiling on the Cyrus Cylinder, at the National Museum of Iran in Tehran on September 12, 2010. The artefact dating from the 6th century BC has been returned on loan to Iran by the British Museum in London under tight security measures. It will be displayed at the museum for four months.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (R) shakes hands with his Ecuadorian counterpart Rafael Correa during a welcoming ceremony in Tehran on December 6, 2008. Correa is an official visit to Iran, the first ever of a leader from the small South American nation. Ecuador, which like Iran is a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), has little trade with the Islamic republic. But shares with it an opposition to US government policies, even if some critics see that as a poor basis for closer diplomatic relations.

Iranian women step on a US flag while holding cartoons depicting US President Barack Obama outside the former US embassy in Tehran on November 4, 2010 during a rally marking the 31st anniversary of the capture of the embassy by Islamist students.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki speaks during a press conference in Tehran on November 9, 2010. Mottaki said that the venue and date for the upcoming talks with the six powers was still to be fixed, but added there was 'enough flexibility' in both the sides to decide on this matter.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (L) and his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad shake hands during their bilateral meeting on the sidlines of a Caspian regional summit in Baku on November 18, 2010. Iranian President was to meet Medvedev during one of the lowest points in relations between the two traditional allies. Once a reliable backer of Tehran throughout the nuclear standoff, Moscow has scrapped a controversial missile deal with Iran and backed United Nations sanctions against the country, which Russia now admits is nearing the ability to develop a nuclear bomb.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks during a press conference in Tehran on November 29, 2010 where he said that Iran's right to enrich uranium and produce (nuclear) fuel is 'non-negotiable', as six major powers prepare to hold a new round of talks with Iran on its nuclear programme next month.

Iran's chief negotiator Saeed Jalili arrives in the foyer of the conference center near the Swiss mission to the United Nations on December 6, 2010 in Geneva. World powers and Iran have begun talks in Geneva on Tehran's controversial nuclear programme, 14 months after negotiations broke off.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton delivers a speech following two days of scheduled discussions on Iranian nuclear talks on December 7, 2010 in Geneva. Talks between world powers and Iran on Tehran's nuclear ambitions were 'detailed, substantive,' said Ashton.

Iran's chief negotiator Saeed Jalili leaves the conference center near the mission of Switzerland to the United Nations on the second day of nuclear talks on December 7, 2010 in Geneva. World powers and Iran began talks in Geneva on Tehran's controversial nuclear programme, 14 months after negotiations broke off.

A picture released by Iran's state-run Press TV shows Iranian 43-year-old Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, who has been sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, sitting at her home, where her husband was killed, in the city of Osku, northwestern Iran, on December 5, 2010 as part of an interview with the English-language channel. A German-based campaign group claimed on December 9 that Mohammadi-Ashtiani has been released but there was no confirmation from Tehran and it was unclear whether its report was based on the release of the photographs.

A picture released by Iran's state-run Press TV shows Iranian 43-year-old Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, who has been sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, meeting with her son Sajjad at an undisclosed location in the city of Tabriz, northwestern Iran, on December 4, 2010 as part of an interview with the English-language channel. A German-based campaign group claimed on December 9 that Mohammadi-Ashtiani has been released but there was no confirmation from Tehran and it was unclear whether its report was based on the release of the photographs.

File picture dated November 27, 1999 shows prominent Iranian reformist journalist Mashallah Shamsolvaezin talking to reporters outside Tehran's press court. Shamsolvaezin, who heads the Journalists' Association of Iran and was the editor of several reformist dailies closed in a crackdown on the press between 1998 and 2000, was sentenced to 16 months in jail on charges of insulting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and undermining the Islamic regime, he told.

Iranian demonstrators, mainly members of Iran's hardline Islamist Basij militia, hold up portraits of assassinated Iranian nuclear scientist Majid Shahriari during a demonstration outside Britain's embassy in downtown Tehran on December 12, 2010 to protest his murder last month. Iranian leaders have pointed an accusing finger at the British intelligence service the MI6 as well as US and Israeli intelligence over the killing.