Tehran

Russia has offered Iran advanced surface-to-air missiles after scrapping a similar deal in 2010 because of UN sanctions over Tehran's nuclear programme, the state defence company said on Feb. 23.
      
Any such a deal is likely to go down badly in Washington as Western countries seek to keep up the pressure on Iran to agree a comprehensive deal on its nuclear activities.

 A senior Iranian official in talks on the country's disputed nuclear programme has said differences remain on key questions at the ongoing negotiations in Geneva, state media reported on Feb. 23.
      

US Secretary of State John Kerry was set to arrive in Geneva Feb. 22 for renewed talks with his Iranian counterpart on Tehran's nuclear programme, after warning "significant gaps" remain ahead of a key deadline.
      

BELGRADE - The year 2015 will be a significant year for enhancing the economic cooperation between Tehran and Belgrade, says Majid Fahimpour, the ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Serbia.

Turkey has decided to shut down its embassy in Yemen and evacuate its staff because of the worsening situation in the capital Sanaa due to intensified clashes between Shiite militia and Sunni opposition groups.

Jafar Panahi, the Iranian dissident director who is banned from making films by the Iranian state has won this year's Berlinale Golden Bear for his film "Taxi."

In his film, that was described as a masterpiece by the critics, the Iranian director stars as a taxi driver engaging his passengers in dialogue as he drives them through the streets of Tehran.

China is against another extension of the deadline for Iran to reach a deal with world powers in talks on its nuclear programme, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in Tehran on Feb. 15.
      
"They have been extended twice, we hope that they will not be for a third time," Wang said at a joint news conference with Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif.
      

An influential Iranian general who has reportedly been near the front line against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) was quoted Feb. 12 saying the jihadists are "nearing the end of their lives".
      

BELGRADE - The International Theatre Festival Slavija 2015 will be staged from March 9 to 16 in the Theatre Slavija, theatre founder and director and festival selector Batric Zarkovic said.

Iranian dissident director Jafar Panahi's latest picture defying an official ban, "Taxi", will premiere Friday at the 65th Berlin film festival, marking a new chapter of his career in the shadows.
      
The 54-year-old's work is celebrated in the world's arthouses but outlawed in Iran where the regime considers his gritty, socially critical productions to be subversive.