Bahraini press condemned the comments printed in the prominent Iranian newspaper Kayhan about Iran's claims to this tiny Gulf archipelago. Earlier in a week a managing director of Kayhan, Hossein Shariatmadari, who is appointed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had written that "public demand in Bahrain is the reunification of this province with it's motherland, Islamic Iran". He also added that "such indisputable right for Iran and the people of this province can not be overlooked".

The rationing announcement from the oil ministry ignited violent protests. Enraged Iranians revolted by burning gas stations, looting government-owned businesses and rioting. Senior government officials, initially tried to play down the riots, but later had to admit to attacks on dozens of gas stations, government buildings, government banks, police vehicles, mass transit buses and chain stores. The chief of gas stations of Iran told the state-run media that nearly 30 percent of all gas stations in the country were destroyed or severely damaged.

Iran said on Saturday that it has uncovered spy rings organized by the United States and its Western allies, claiming on state-run television that the Intelligence Ministry "has succeeded in identifying and striking blows at several spy networks comprised of infiltrating elements from the Iraqi occupiers in western, southwestern and central Iran." No details were provided.

Iranian authorities confirmed that that they detained a prominent Iranian-American academic Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Middle East Program at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars. She has been held at Tehran's notorious Evin Prison since early May and charged with seeking to topple the government in Tehran. She traveled to Iran in December to visit her 93-year-old mother. Several other Iranian-Americans who have also been prohibited from leaving Iran in recent months are: Parnaz Azima, who works for the U.S.-funded Radio Farda; Ali Shakeri, a founding board member at the University of California, Irvine's Center for Citizen Peace-building; Kian Tajbakhsh, a consultant working for George Soros' Open Society Institute.

Islamic authorities issued warnings that women who refuse to wear a veil and otherwise adhere to the strict Islamic dress code will be arrested and banished from the capital. The morality police is on the lookout for women wearing head scarves deemed too colorful or small. Already more then 3200 women were officially warned and 200 arrested. Police are also cracking down on barbers giving Western-style haircuts and shop owners wearing T-shirts with English slogans.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that his country was now capable of producing nuclear fuel on an 'industrial scale' in an expansion of the uranium enrichment program that the United Nations has demanded it halt. Ahmadinejad did not specify how many centrifuges were now operational as he spoke at a ceremony at the facility, marking the one-year anniversary of Iran's first success in enriching small amounts of uranium.

In a surprise announcement on Iran's state television, president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad has announced that he pardoned 15 British soldiers taken captive by the Iranians 11 days earlier. In the lengthy speech Ahmedinejad criticised Britain’s attitude to the diplomatic row before pausing to award the medal of honor to the Iranian guards who captured the sailors on March 23. He also said "although Iran has the right to prosecute them by following the model of the prophet the 15 people were pardoned and their freedom given as a gift to the British people".

The Iranian military questioned 15 detained British soldiers, who were transferred to Tehran, and said they confessed to illegally entering the country's territorial waters as Iran accused Britain of "blatant aggression." The British sailors had just searched a merchant ship when they and their two inflatable boats were intercepted by Iranian vessels Friday at around 10:30 a.m. near the disputed Shatt al-Arab waterway. The Iranian vessels surrounded them and escorted them away at gunpoint. We demand the immediate release of the British soldiers," Frank-Walter Steinmeier, foreign minister of Germany which holds the EU presidency, said on Saturday.

Iran's top nuclear negotiator deplored Russia's decision not to ship nuclear fuel to Iran as agreed, a move that delays the start of Iran's Bushier nuclear power plant. Russia's federal nuclear agency, Rosatom, said it was postponing the March shipment of nuclear fuel to Iran because the country made no payments since January 17. Iranians rejected the link between the U.N. demands to suspend the uranium enrichment and Russia's decision to delay fuel shipments.

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad condemned the "enemy's schemes against the Sudanese people and it's government" in a show of solidarity with Sudan. He also added that "there is no place in the world that suffers from divisions unless American or Zionist fingerprints are seen there". In return the Sudanese president, Omar al-Bashir publicly announced that he fully supports the Iranian nuclear program.

A car loaded with explosives blew up near the bus carrying members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards in southeastern Iran, killing 18 of them. The passenger car stopped in the middle of the road at around 6:30 a.m. in Ahmadabad district on the outskirts of Zahedan. After the bus stopped, the car's occupants fled and the vehicle exploded. Zahedan, which lies near Iran's borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan, has been the scene of clashes between police and drug smugglers in the past. 

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned the United States that Iran would retaliate against American interests worldwide if it was attacked. Ayatollah Khamenei also brushed off the effect of the U.N. sanctions against Iran as insignificant. He added that "the United States and some other countries have imposed sanctions on Iran for many years now, but we achieved great scientific and technological progress under such circumstances. So they cannot scare this great nation with sanctions.”

The head of IAEA, Mohammed El-Baradei, announced that sometime next month Iran expects to begin a process of installing 3000 centrifuges in their underground nuclear facility in Natanz. Iran is believed to have a grand plan of installing a total of 54,000 centrifuges which would pave a way to the large scale uranium enrichment that will allow a mass production of the nuclear weapons.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad condemned the U.N. resolution aimed at restricting the Iranian nuclear program from enriching uranium. Ahmedinejad promised that those who backed the sanctions will soon "regret this superficial act". He called the resolution a "piece of torn paper" and vowed to continue with the uranium enrichment at the accelerated pace. Ali Larijani, Iranian chief negotiator, added that they are planning to install 3,000 centrifuges by March of 2007 in their Natanz nuclear plant.

The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to impose sanctions against Iran. The resolution bans the import and export of materials and technology used in uranium enrichment and reprocessing and puts a freeze on the the assets of 22 Iranian officials and institutions linked to the country's most controversial nuclear programs.