Iran

WASHINGTON -- Israeli officials say they won't warn the U.S. if they decide to launch a pre-emptive strike against Iranian nuclear facilities. The pronouncement, delivered in a series of private, top-level conversations with U.S. officials, sets a tense tone ahead of meetings in the coming days at the White House and on Capitol Hill.

TEHRAN, Iran -- U.N. nuclear inspectors starting a two-day visit to Tehran on Monday sought to meet Iranian nuclear scientists and visit a key military facility as they try to gauge allegations that Iran is pushing toward making an atomic weapon.

BANGKOK  — Three Iranians detained after accidentally setting off explosives in Bangkok were planning to attack Israeli diplomats, Thailand’s top policeman said Thursday in the first confirmation by local officials that the group was plotting attacks in Thailand.

BANGKOK  -- An Iranian man carrying grenades blew off his own legs and wounded four civilians in a trio of blasts that shook a busy Bangkok neighborhood on Tuesday, Thai authorities said.

The explosions came a day after an Israeli diplomatic car was bombed in India -- an attack Israel blamed on Iran. Authorities say its unclear whether Tuesday's Bangkok explosions were linked to the New Delhi attack, but Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said, "we can't rule out any possibility."

BRUSSELS -- The European Union adopted an oil embargo Monday against Iran and a freeze of the assets of the country's central bank, part of sanctions meant to pressure the country to resume talks on its nuclear program.

PARIS -- France is temporarily downsizing its embassy in Iran and will bring some employees and their families home, a French official said Saturday. The move is the latest fallout from protesters' storming of the British embassy in Tehran and adds to the international pressure on the Iranian government.

WASHINGTON — Republican presidential hopefuls are focusing on Iran as a weak spot in President Barack Obama’s foreign policy record, and they’re reviving many of the arguments that neoconservative proponents of armed intervention against Tehran lost in the latter years of George W. Bush’s presidency.