Government Spokesman Gholamhossein Elham in a letter to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday offered to resign.
“I voice my readiness to withdraw from all government positions,“ said Elham, a key aide of the president, in a letter to Ahmadinejad released by the presidency and quoted by Fars News Agency.
It was not clear if Ahmadinejad would accept his resignation.
The letter comes two days after a state television news report blamed Elham’s handling of the reshuffle plans and his holding of several jobs, which also include the post of justice minister and a seat on the Guardians Council.
Elham has also been under pressure after the parliament introduced a bill proposing that members of the Guardians Council, Iran’s vetting body, cannot hold posts in the government.
“After my appointment as justice minister and especially as government spokesman, criticism by some critical anti-government media, including state broadcasting, and some MPs, has intensified,“ he said, noting that this has created doubts in people’s minds.
Although Elham was quoted as saying last week Economy Minister Davoud Danesh-Jafari and Interior Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi were set to step down, their resignations have still not taken place.
The decision to replace the key ministers--which would be the ninth changes to the Ahmadinejad cabinet since he came to power in 2005--have been sharply criticized in the media and by MPs.
Ahmadinejad cancelled a planned televised interview late Sunday on the economy at the last minute, media reports said, amid speculation that he is considering a cabinet reshuffle.

Delegates sit down at the start of the meeting on the Iranian nuclear issue in Shanghai on April 16.

The five veto-wielding members of the UN Security Council, plus Germany and the EU, failed Wednesday to agree on an agenda for negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, an official said.
But the envoys agreed to continue to work on a joint proposal aimed at bringing Tehran back to the negotiation table and in line with UN resolutions.
“We discussed how to conduct dialogue and negotiations with Iran... we have agreed on most points in the proposal, however there are some outstanding issues that remain to be resolved,“ China’s assistant foreign minister He Yafei said, AFP reported.
The envoys discussed a package of proposed political, security and economic incentives designed to coax Tehran into stopping a uranium enrichment program.
“As soon as an agreement is reached on this proposal..., it will be referred to the Iranian side and at that time we hope the Iranian side will respond positively to it and make its own contributions to a proper settlement.“
Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany and the European Union took part in the talks.
He did not give a timeline for when they hoped to resume negotiations with Tehran, but he said the agenda for the talks should lay out “a comprehensive, durable and proper solution“ that covers nuclear energy, political security and economic areas.
The other representatives didn’t attend the announcement and avoided questions.
Iran insists its program is intended only to produce energy and has refused to suspend it, despite three rounds of UN Security Council sanctions.
Wednesday’s one-day deputy-ministerial-level meeting was held after Tehran announced last week it had begun installing hundreds of new centrifuges at its uranium enrichment plant.

Iran plays a key role in regional developments and Japan wants comprehensive relations, said the Japanese ambassador in Tehran.
In a meeting with Secretary of Supreme National Security Council Saeed Jalili, Akio Shirota said the Japanese government is keen on developing relations with the Islamic Republic, IRNA reported.
The Japanese envoy noted that Iran and Japan have cultural and historical commonalities that serve as a great source for enhancing ties.
“Iran is a strategic country with great capacity for economic and trade cooperation,“ he said.
Shirota said Iran serves as a center for promoting regional peace and security.
Jalili welcomed Japanese interest in developing ties with Iran and said the two countries are major players on the international scene.
“Iran and Japan enjoy high capacities for bilateral, regional and international cooperation, which should be utilized through adequate management,“ he said.
Jalili said there are important international subjects on which the two countries would hold consultations.

Iran called for restructuring the United Nations and the Security Council at the 118th Inter-Parliamentary Union session in Cape Town, South Africa.
“As two major international bodies, the UN and the Security Council have seriously suffered from US unilateralism,“ said Majlis Vice Speaker Mohammad Hassan Abu-Torabifard on Wednesday, IRNA reported.
The weeklong IPU meeting opened on Sunday with some 1,500 representatives from 140 countries.
Abu-Torabifard said IPU member-states could “resist the US unilateralism and help reinforce the UN“.
He stressed that the IPU member-states, through cooperation and joint efforts, could help international security and find solutions for challenges facing the contemporary world.

Globalization
Another lawmaker Mirmorad Zehi said on Tuesday the phenomenon of globalization has widened the gap between the poor and rich nations.
Zehi, a member of Iran’s delegation to the Inter-Parliamentary Union meeting in Cape Town, added that globalization has worsened living conditions in poor nations.
“The process of globalization has unfortunately brought a windfall for wealthy countries in recent decades, but poor nations have become poorer,“ he said.
Pointing to the uncontrolled immigration of manpower of poor countries to rich states, he noted that the phenomenon has impacted xenophobic tendencies and human trafficking.

Unjust World Order
Also on Tuesday, an Iranian MP said world peace will be established if dialogue prevails over the international community on the basis of justice.
Mohsen Yahyavi, who heads the Iranian delegation, added that poverty is the outcome of injustice.
“If justice is not included in the definition of international relations, measures to combat poverty will not work,“ he said.
He added that an unjust world order is prevailing, which violates the rights of nations and threatens sovereign states.
Yahyavi criticized the performance of states vis-ˆ-vis the international law and said their meddling has made the world community gloomy.
“It is unacceptable that nuclear states are banning other signatories to the Non-Proliferation Treaty from setting up the fuel cycle and from undertaking the civilian application of nuclear energy,“ he said.
The Iranian delegate also blamed European states for allowing blasphemy in their media in the name of freedom of expression and said they are committing these heinous actions to stir tensions in the Muslim world.
Yahyavi called on the IPU to adopt measures against desecration of Islamic sanctities in order to prevent animosity in the international community.

Iran’s bid to join Shanghai Cooperation Organization depends on whether the Euro-Asian alliance decides to expand, its leader said on Tuesday.
Secretary-General Bolat Nurgaliyev said at a Moscow-Beijing video conference that members disagree about whether to add more states, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported.
India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan have observer status, and Pakistan has also applied to become a full member.
The current member-states include Russia, China and the Central Asian states of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
Tajikistan is the current rotating president.
The organization, conceived as a counterweight to NATO, is mostly concerned with defense and energy issues.
A meeting of SCO’s head of states is scheduled for August in Tajikistan.

Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mohammad Reza Sheibani, discussed regional and bilateral developments in a meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting on Tuesday, Sheibani said the two discussed ways of promoting Tehran-Beirut relations, IRNA reported.
Stressing Tehran’s support for resolving the Lebanese political crisis over the election of a president through diplomatic efforts, the ambassador said Iran respects all official institutions and the constitution of Lebanon.
Commenting on Siniora’s possible visit to Iran, Sheibani said Iran will welcome it if such a visit helps find a solution for the country’s problem.

People inspect the site of an explosion inside a mosque in the southern city of shiraz, 950 km south of Tehran, on April 12.

An Interior Ministry body on Wednesday denied that a bomb attack caused a blast that killed 12 people at a mosque in the southern city of Shiraz.
The National Security Council also declared that the blast late Saturday had been set off by munitions displayed in the mosque as part of an exhibition commemorating the 1980-88 Iraq-imposed war, IRNA reported.
“The explosion of a bomb or any explosion carried out by opposition elements, be they internal or foreign, is ruled out,“ it said.
“The blast was caused by munitions used in an exhibition for the (Iran-Iraq war) martyrs in the mosque.“
Doubts had been raised in Iran about the authorities’ insistence that the blast, which also wounded over 200 people, was not an attack.
A deadly militant strike of this magnitude would have been unprecedented in recent years in a stable city like Shiraz, a tourist magnet that does not lie near border zones or have significant ethnic minority populations.
Reports just after the blast described it as a bomb attack but by Sunday, local officials said it was an accident and not sabotage.
The Interior Ministry’s council indicated that the investigation was still not finished, saying that the final results would be announced “in the near future“.
One of Iran’s most famous cities, Shiraz is popular because of its proximity to important ancient sites from the Achaemenid Empire that ruled much of Asia from 550-331 BC.

Alireza Jamshidi

Judiciary Spokesman Alireza Jamshidi has warned that Iran would file a lawsuit against those who distort its historical documents.
Jamshidi’s comments were made in reaction to an attempt by Google Earth to distort the name ’Persian Gulf’, Presstv reported on Wednesday.
Talking to reporters, Jamshidi said offending the Iranian people and Iran’s territorial integrity is considered a criminal act.
Noting that the laws concerning security offenses are deficient, Jamshidi proposed that such laws be subjected to reviews. “Insulting Iran and distorting its geographical documents need to be confronted,“ he said.
The Google Earth recently distorted the historically-verified designation ’Persian Gulf’ and used the fake title ’Arabian Gulf’.
Iranians are signing a petition to include one million signatures to protest Google’s act at the following address: www.petitiononline.com/sos02082/petition.html.

Government Spokesman Gholamhossein Elham in a letter to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday offered to resign.
“I voice my readiness to withdraw from all government positions,“ said Elham, a key aide of the president, in a letter to Ahmadinejad released by the presidency and quoted by Fars News Agency.
It was not clear if Ahmadinejad would accept his resignation.
The letter comes two days after a state television news report blamed Elham’s handling of the reshuffle plans and his holding of several jobs, which also include the post of justice minister and a seat on the Guardians Council.
Elham has also been under pressure after the parliament introduced a bill proposing that members of the Guardians Council, Iran’s vetting body, cannot hold posts in the government.
“After my appointment as justice minister and especially as government spokesman, criticism by some critical anti-government media, including state broadcasting, and some MPs, has intensified,“ he said, noting that this has created doubts in people’s minds.
Although Elham was quoted as saying last week Economy Minister Davoud Danesh-Jafari and Interior Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi were set to step down, their resignations have still not taken place.
The decision to replace the key ministers--which would be the ninth changes to the Ahmadinejad cabinet since he came to power in 2005--have been sharply criticized in the media and by MPs.
Ahmadinejad cancelled a planned televised interview late Sunday on the economy at the last minute, media reports said, amid speculation that he is considering a cabinet reshuffle.

Delegates sit down at the start of the meeting on the Iranian nuclear issue in Shanghai on April 16.

The five veto-wielding members of the UN Security Council, plus Germany and the EU, failed Wednesday to agree on an agenda for negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, an official said.
But the envoys agreed to continue to work on a joint proposal aimed at bringing Tehran back to the negotiation table and in line with UN resolutions.
“We discussed how to conduct dialogue and negotiations with Iran... we have agreed on most points in the proposal, however there are some outstanding issues that remain to be resolved,“ China’s assistant foreign minister He Yafei said, AFP reported.
The envoys discussed a package of proposed political, security and economic incentives designed to coax Tehran into stopping a uranium enrichment program.
“As soon as an agreement is reached on this proposal..., it will be referred to the Iranian side and at that time we hope the Iranian side will respond positively to it and make its own contributions to a proper settlement.“
Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany and the European Union took part in the talks.
He did not give a timeline for when they hoped to resume negotiations with Tehran, but he said the agenda for the talks should lay out “a comprehensive, durable and proper solution“ that covers nuclear energy, political security and economic areas.
The other representatives didn’t attend the announcement and avoided questions.
Iran insists its program is intended only to produce energy and has refused to suspend it, despite three rounds of UN Security Council sanctions.
Wednesday’s one-day deputy-ministerial-level meeting was held after Tehran announced last week it had begun installing hundreds of new centrifuges at its uranium enrichment plant.

Iran plays a key role in regional developments and Japan wants comprehensive relations, said the Japanese ambassador in Tehran.
In a meeting with Secretary of Supreme National Security Council Saeed Jalili, Akio Shirota said the Japanese government is keen on developing relations with the Islamic Republic, IRNA reported.
The Japanese envoy noted that Iran and Japan have cultural and historical commonalities that serve as a great source for enhancing ties.
“Iran is a strategic country with great capacity for economic and trade cooperation,“ he said.
Shirota said Iran serves as a center for promoting regional peace and security.
Jalili welcomed Japanese interest in developing ties with Iran and said the two countries are major players on the international scene.
“Iran and Japan enjoy high capacities for bilateral, regional and international cooperation, which should be utilized through adequate management,“ he said.
Jalili said there are important international subjects on which the two countries would hold consultations.

Iran called for restructuring the United Nations and the Security Council at the 118th Inter-Parliamentary Union session in Cape Town, South Africa.
“As two major international bodies, the UN and the Security Council have seriously suffered from US unilateralism,“ said Majlis Vice Speaker Mohammad Hassan Abu-Torabifard on Wednesday, IRNA reported.
The weeklong IPU meeting opened on Sunday with some 1,500 representatives from 140 countries.
Abu-Torabifard said IPU member-states could “resist the US unilateralism and help reinforce the UN“.
He stressed that the IPU member-states, through cooperation and joint efforts, could help international security and find solutions for challenges facing the contemporary world.

Globalization
Another lawmaker Mirmorad Zehi said on Tuesday the phenomenon of globalization has widened the gap between the poor and rich nations.
Zehi, a member of Iran’s delegation to the Inter-Parliamentary Union meeting in Cape Town, added that globalization has worsened living conditions in poor nations.
“The process of globalization has unfortunately brought a windfall for wealthy countries in recent decades, but poor nations have become poorer,“ he said.
Pointing to the uncontrolled immigration of manpower of poor countries to rich states, he noted that the phenomenon has impacted xenophobic tendencies and human trafficking.

Unjust World Order
Also on Tuesday, an Iranian MP said world peace will be established if dialogue prevails over the international community on the basis of justice.
Mohsen Yahyavi, who heads the Iranian delegation, added that poverty is the outcome of injustice.
“If justice is not included in the definition of international relations, measures to combat poverty will not work,“ he said.
He added that an unjust world order is prevailing, which violates the rights of nations and threatens sovereign states.
Yahyavi criticized the performance of states vis-ˆ-vis the international law and said their meddling has made the world community gloomy.
“It is unacceptable that nuclear states are banning other signatories to the Non-Proliferation Treaty from setting up the fuel cycle and from undertaking the civilian application of nuclear energy,“ he said.
The Iranian delegate also blamed European states for allowing blasphemy in their media in the name of freedom of expression and said they are committing these heinous actions to stir tensions in the Muslim world.
Yahyavi called on the IPU to adopt measures against desecration of Islamic sanctities in order to prevent animosity in the international community.