Spokesman of the US State Department Alan Air said last night that Washington’s sanctions had forced Iran to stop oil extraction at some fields. The sanctions were a response to Tehran’s refusal to fulfill its obligations of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the official explains, Trend reports.
Russian and Israeli specialists have detected a new computer virus called Mahdi, possibly developed for espionage missions in the Middle East. Some peculiarities show that it may belong to Iran. Israel’s Seculert says that the virus exchanges files in Tehran. It uses e-mail to infect systems. It was named after imam Mahdi.
Over 800 cases of the virus have been registered in Iran, about 8 times fewer cases in Israel. Most infected computers were in Afghanistan, UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Kaspersky Labs and Seculert say that the virus targets computers of major industrial facilities, embassies, universities and financial organizations, ITAR-TASS reports.
The virus was first sighted in winter.
Foreign ministers of 27 EU states met in Brussels on January 23 and approved the embargo on Iranian oil exports. The new package of sanctions includes a gradual ban on imports of petroleum from Iran. The embargo came into full force on July 1.
The US, Israel and a set of other Western states accuse Iran of developing nuclear arms on the background of peaceful atom. Tehran denies all accusations and insists that the nuclear program is to fulfill demands for electricity.
