Iran said on Tuesday it is yet to decide on appointing an ambassador to Egypt, but added that developing ties with Arab world's most populous country is in the interests of both nations.

"The information on appointment of ambassador or other positions are predictions made in a rush, although we are ready to take steps when the Egyptians are willing" to resume relations with Iran, foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters at his weekly press conference.

Iran and Turkey opened a third border crossing Saturday, with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu proclaiming the two neighbors "friends for eternity," Anatolia news agency reported.

Davutoglu inaugurated the new crossing at Kapikoy in eastern Turkey's Van province with his Iranian counterpart Ali Akbar Salehi, and said a fourth would open in June at Esendere in the southeast.

The National Struggle Front leader, MP Walid Jumblat, urged Lebanese officials to steer clear of regional conflicts and return to the dialogue table.

“It would be better to stay away from regional conflicts as much as possible and resume dialogue,” Jumblat told As Safir daily in remarks published Friday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi reiterated that Tehran backed an inter-Lebanese agreement to solve the country’s political crisis and stressed that Premier-designate Najib Miqati’s cabinet would not be one-sided.

“We support any agreement that the Lebanese achieve” among themselves, Salehi told al-Akhbar daily in an interview published Monday.

Clashes erupted Wednesday between regime backers and "apparent" supporters of Iran's opposition at a funeral in Tehran of a student killed in anti-government protests, state television reported.

"Students and people participating in the funeral of martyr Sane'e Zhale in Tehran Fine Arts University are clashing with a few apparently from the sedition movement," the television website said.

Iran plans to launch several home-built satellites by March 2012, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday after the unveiling of four new prototypes.

"I think from the end of this (Iranian) year (to March 20) and through the next year, we will see many launches" of domestically-built satellites, Ahmadinejad said at a ceremony in Tehran.

Tehran has warned it will cut cultural ties with France if renowned Paris museum The Louvre fails to set up an exhibition of Persian artifacts in Iran as agreed, an official was Monday cited as saying.

"If this museum (The Louvre) fails to fulfill its commitment with the (Iranian) Cultural Heritage Organization in the next two months, then we will cut cultural ties with France," head of the organization Hamid Baghai was quoted as saying by Tehran Emrouz newspaper.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad led a chorus of defiant Iranian criticism of new U.N. sanctions imposed on the Islamic republic on Wednesday, saying they deserved to be "thrown in the trash bin."

"These resolutions are not worth a dime for the Iranian nation," he said.

Russia is freezing a contract to deliver S-300 air defense missiles to Iran after the adoption of the new UN sanctions against Tehran, a Russian source told the Interfax news agency on Thursday.

"It is compulsory to fulfill a decision by the U.N. Security Council and Russia is not an exception here," said the source in the Federal Service for Military Technical Cooperation, which supervises Russian arms sales.

Israel hailed the U.N. Security Council's decision on Wednesday to slap a fourth set of punitive sanctions on Iran but said more must be done to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons.

"It's an important step in the right direction, but the new sanctions are not sufficient," Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom told public radio.