Tehran - The formation of the new US cabinet was in no way compatible with president-elect Barack Obama's slogan of change, state-run Iranian television network IRIB said in a commentary on Tuesday.

The network said that appointing Hillary Clinton as secretary of state and keeping Robert Gates as defence secretary had nothing to do with change but was continuing the same policies as the current US administration.

Calling the two warmongers, IRIB said that Clinton voted in favour of the military strike against Iraq and no changes could be expected in Iraq under Gates as defence secretary.

Tehran - Iran primarily invests in education to combat AIDS, Iranian Health Minister Kamran Baqeri-Lankrani said Monday on the occasion of World AIDS day.

Iran puts priority on public education by cultural and religious figures to fight the disease, the minister said in a speech carried by ISNA news agency.

Baqeri-Lankrani said parents were being educated to pass on all necessary information on AIDS to their children.

Tehran - Iran has once again warned that it would blockade the oil export route in the Persian Gulf if its nuclear sites were attacked, Iranian media reported Saturday.

"We are capable of blockading the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf and whoever does not believe this should ... see what happens in reality," Navy Commander Admiral Habibollah Sayari told IRNA news agency.

Tehran - Iraq was forced to approve a security agreement with the United States that sets a schedule for the withdrawal of US forces, an Iranian cleric said Friday.

"The security bill was eventually approved but the Iraqi side (which) acted rather out of expediency because they were told (by the US) to either accept it or face the consequences," Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, spokesman of the senate-like Guardian Council, said at the Friday prayer ceremony.

Under the security agreement, US troops would withdraw from Iraqi cities by the end of June 2009 and from the rest of the country by the end of 2011.

Tehran - Iran harshly condemned Thursday the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, ISNA news agency reported.

Tehran - Iran has summoned the British ambassador to Tehran over remarks by Foreign Minister David Miliband who had called on the Persian Gulf Arab sheikhdoms to increase pressure on Iran with regards to its nuclear ambitions, ISNA news agency reported Thursday.
The foreign ministry told Ambassador Geoffrey Adams that Milband's remarks on Monday were hostile, provoking and aimed at distorting Iran's brotherly relations with the regional countries and demanded an immediate halt to what it called London's interfering policies.