Tehran - An Iranian-chartered cargo vessel which was hijacked last November by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden has been released, Iran's Shipping Company said Saturday.

Havana  - Cuban President Raul Castro expressed confidence in building stronger ties with Iran, after a meeting with a special envoy of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, local media reported Thursday.

Iranian Industry and Mining Minister Ali Akbar Mezharabian met Castro late Wednesday and delivered a message from Ahmadinejad for the Cuban president and his brother Fidel, Cuban Communist Party daily Granma reported.

Tehran - Iran has started extensive diplomatic efforts to stop the conflict in the Gaza Strip, Mehr news agency on Wednesday quoted Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hassan
Ghashghavi as saying.

Ghashghavi said that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has dispatched 22 envoys to several Asian and European states with the aim of "an immediate stop of Zionists'
(Israeli) aggressions and blockade of Gaza."

The spokesman did not clarify to which countries the president's envoys would be dispatched but said that the diplomatic operation would be directed by the foreign
ministry.

Tehran - Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi was safe and there was no need for any international concern over her well-being, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi said Monday.

The spokesman was referring to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon who on Saturday urged Tehran to secure Ebadi's safety after Islamists gathered outside her residence in Tehran last week, accusing her of having sympathy for Israel in the Gaza crisis.

Tehran - Iraq wants Iran's assistance in reconstructing the country, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Sunday at the end of his two-day visit to Tehran.

"We are interested in availing ourselves of Iran's experience and expertise for Iraq's reconstruction and further want expansion of ties in all fields," the website of Iran's state television network IRIB quoted al-Maliki as saying.

The Iraq premier, on his fourth visit to Iran within the last two and a half years, said his talks with Iranian officials, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, were positive and constructive and voiced optimism towards the future trend of relations with Iran.

Tehran - Tehran on Sunday called the Israeli ground offensive in Gaza Strip a "strategic mistake" and said Israel could never eliminate the Hamas group, ISNA news agency reported.

"The ground offensive by the Zionist regime (Israel) is a strategic mistake and the aim of eliminating Hamas is unachievable as Hamas is a nation and a nation can never be eliminated," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was quoted as saying in a telephone conversation with some of his European counterparts.

According to ISNA, Mottaki had contacted his counterparts in the Czech Republic, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland.