UN Nuke Team Presses Iran; Oil Embargo Vote Tomorrow

A UN nuclear inspection team is headed to Tehran today with a blunt message: You've been stonewalling for too long. "We're looking forward to the start of a dialogue," said atomic energy chief Herman Nackaerts. "A dialogue that is overdue since very long." The International Atomic Energy Agency recently compiled 13 pages of evidence that Iran is aiming to build nuclear weapons, the AP reports. Iran's only concession so far: letting the IAEA team include two senior weapons experts.

In another AP story, Iran's lawmakers plan to vote tomorrow on a bill stopping all oil exports to Europe. Tehran is upset over Europe's economic sanctions and a freeze on Iran's central bank assets. "As long as the EU doesn't lift the oil embargo, we won't give them a drop of oil," an official said. Backers of the bill argue it will hurt the EU's 27 nations more than Iran, because Europe only accounts for 18% of Iran's oil sales. (More Iran stories.)