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Analysts say Total's move will be a big blow to the Iranian energy industry.

Total was the last major Western energy group to have seriously considered investing in the country's huge gas reserves. It was also one of the few companies in the world to have the technology needed to exploit Iran's huge, but untapped gas reserves.

Jon Leyne in Tehran says it has been particularly galling for Tehran to watch as Qatar pumps vast amounts of gas from the South Pars field to its side of the Gulf, helping it become one of the world's major energy suppliers.

Gordon Johndroe, the deputy White House press secretary, said in a statement at the Group of 8 summit meeting in Japan that Iran's development of ballistic missiles was a violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.

In case that they commit such foolishness, Tel Aviv and the U.S. fleet in the Persian Gulf would be the first targets to burst into flames receiving Iran's crushing response," said Ali Shirazi, a representative of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, according to the Iranian news agency.

"Ahmadinejad recognizes that the urban sophisticates in Tehran don't like him," he says. "He doesn't like them. And therefore he's been traveling nonstop to the provinces to appeal to people outside of Tehran for the votes.

"This comes at a convenient time to point the finger to these fat-cat clerics to send a signal to the Iranian public they're the reason why Iran is not developed, they're the reason why we're not progressing economically.