UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — The United Nations has added two Iranians and a company to its sanctions blacklist over their involvement in arms smuggling through Nigeria, officials said Friday.All were linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, said which the United States said is “the group that directs Iranian support for terrorism and extremism worldwide.”An alleged Iranian Revolutionary Guard member is on trial in Nigeria over an attempt to bring in rockets, explosives and grenades falsely declared as building materials. The arms were seized in October 2010 in Lagos port.The individuals were named by the UN sanctions committee as Azim Aghajani and Ali Akbar Tabatabaei, both members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Qods Force.The blacklisted company was named as Behineh Trading Co. The committee said it was “one of the two Iranian companies that played key roles in Iran’s illicit transfer of arms to West Africa.”

United Press International

LONDON, April 20 (UPI) — When six world powers met with Iranian officials last week for the first time in 15 months, the talks were hailed in Europe as the first step toward a “negotiated solution” over fears of Tehran’s nuclear program.But was this really anything more than a public relations event?Two days after the talks in Istanbul, Iran’s foreign minister made clear what game he was playing — saying only a quick end to the West’s sanctions would bring them closer to the negotiating table.And then a day later, in a show of defiance, Iran flexed its “military might at a parade to mark National Army Day and its president warned against “foreign interference” from “the enemy.”The sad truth is that these talks, and the further meeting tabled in Baghdad next month, are nothing more than a smokescreen from the Iranian regime, while behind the scenes it pushes ahead with the uranium enrichment program.

BBC News

Brazil says it will seek an explanation from Iran after an Iranian diplomat was accused of molesting underage girls at a swimming pool in Brasilia.The Iranian official was questioned by police following complaints from parents but released after invoking diplomatic immunity.Iran’s embassy denied the allegations, and said they were the result of a “cultural misunderstanding”.Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota called them “very worrying”.The un-named Iranian diplomat was accused of inappropriately touching girls between 9 and 15 years old at a pool in a private club last weekend, Brazilian media reported.The father of one of the girls told the G1 website that the diplomat was almost lynched by angry parents before security staff intervened.“People wanted to kill him,” the unnamed father said.

‘Unacceptable’

The strongest message out of the nuclear talks with Iran over the weekend was that western powers are willing to tolerate even the most egregious violations and intransigence by a pariah state only if it agrees to talk nicely. For merely agreeing to talk about talking Tehran was rewarded with less pressure and more time, with the second round of negotiations to be held in late May in Baghdad, of all places. But, clearly, expecting Iran to comply with UN Security Council resolutions and its obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty should not require any convincing at all, let alone a decade of negotiations.It defies common sense that the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany) has once again been lured by Tehran into repeating the same mistakes while expecting different results (Einstein called this the very definition of insanity). Almost 10 years of failed negotiations and constant concessions have given no reason to pin hopes on further negotiations.

CBC-The wife of a Canadian on death row in Iran says she spoke with her husband on Sunday, as he waits to learn his fate and the Canadian government pleads for his release.Antonella Mega has been fighting since 2008 to free her husband, Hamid Ghassemi-Shall.“He was in tears,” Mega told CBC News on Monday. She said he’s been told that his execution may be coming soon.The Iranian-born Ghassemi-Shall, 43, emigrated to Canada after Iran’s 1979 revolution, and most recently lived in Toronto.He was arrested four years ago while visiting family, and was later charged with espionage. He was sentenced to death in 2009.‘It seems that the level of sensitivity in Iran towards people who live in the West is increased.’—Antonella Mega

Mega said her husband has been told by a judge that he is waiting for instructions from a prosecutor. “And it seems that the prosecutor of Tehran is the person who controls Hamid’s life,” she said.