Tehran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday that Tehran would be patient with the incoming US president Barack Obama.

"If the changes (as proclaimed by Obama) were real and the new approach was based on respect and friendship, then we would welcome it," Ahmadinejad said at a press conference in Tehran.

"We have time and enough patience and will wait and see," he added.

Ahmadinejad ruled out the carrot-and-stick tactic as a worn-out policy and said the US should stop its hostile approach towards Iran.

Tehran - Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said Thursday that a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip was possible, official news agency IRNA reported.

"Some countries have changed their approach and have now a better understanding of the issue which makes us approaching ceasefire in Gaza," Larijani said after returning to Tehran from am emergency meeting of the Islamic Inter-Parliamentary Union (IIPU) in Turkey.

"There is room for optimism," the speaker said.

Tehran  - Islamist students in Tehran on Tuesday staged a protest in front of the Swiss embassy, shouting slogans in solidarity with Palestine and burning pictures of US president-elect Barack Obama and Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak.

According to the ISNA news agency, the students hoisted the Palestinian flag in front of the Swiss embassy which acts as a intermediary of the United States with Iran, as Washington and Tehran have had no diplomatic ties for three decades.

Tehran  - Iran's former president Mohammad Khatami indicated Monday he could still take part in next June's presidential election, ISNA news agency reported.

"I swear to God that my hesitance and thorough evaluations to run in the election does not mean that I am running away from responsibility or consider my own expediency," Khatami said in a speech in Ilam, western Iran.

"The main issue is solely how to serve the people best," he said.

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.

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.