'Tehran seizes 7 US troops' report denied

By Yu Miao

Officials in Iran, the United States and Pakistan Sunday all denied reports that Iranian security forces had seized seven American troops near the border between the two Islamic republics.

The denials came after news website Javanonline.ir reported that seven US soldiers had been seized in Iran's Kuhak area near the border with Pakistan.

"No American troops have been arrested. We deny it," Ali Mohammad Azad, the governor general of Iran's Sistan-Baluchestan Province, told the Arabic language Tehran-based Al-Alam network.

The United States also rejected the Javanonline report as "false."

On the same day, in another television interview, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton claimed that Ahmadinejad's victory in the last presidential election was "very flawed," and people inside Iran are looking for "responsible" leaders.

She said the administration of US President Barack Obama was trying to be effective by helping those inside Iran, adding she has had meetings with Iranian experts.

"Besides ceasing Iran's nuclear drive, Washington also hopes its sections against Iran will topple the Ahmadinejad administration," Zhu Weilie, the dean of the Middle East Studies Institute at Shanghai International Studies University, told the Global Times. "However, to say Iranians are thinking the same way as the Americans is a bit overstretched."

"Although Ahmadinejad's government is facing pressures both domestically and internationally, it is far from being overthrown," Zhu added.

Tehran's Mehr News Agency quoted Iranian Oil Minister Masoud Mirkazemi as saying Saturday that Iran had stopped importing petrol, a commodity targeted by Western sanctions, as it now produces 66.5 million liters per day, more than the national requirement of 64 million liters.

"It is doubtful that Iran has reached self-sufficiency in petrol production, but Mirkazemi's remarks once again demonstrated Tehran's defiance toward Western sanctions," Zhu said.

Ahmadinejad earlier claimed that Western sanctions would not affect Iran's economy.

"The trade volume with the countries that declared sanctions against us are at most $23 billion (per year), which is nothing compared with our total global trade volume of $800 billion," Ahmadinejad told Israel's Haaretz newspaper.

Clinton is set to hold talks with leaders from Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia on Wednesday on Iran's nuclear program. But Ahmadinejad told Haartez that the talks "would be meaningless if the other side wanted to force Iran to accept anything."

Agencies contributed to this story