TEHRAN | 
 
 TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian authorities have delayed the trial of two Americans arrested near the Iraqi border in July 2009, a judiciary spokesman said on Monday, less than a week before they were due their first day in court. “Those claims are illogical and unsubstantiated. Iran, which says its nuclear ambitions are peaceful, has said it is ready to restart the talks which stalled last year, but has yet to agree a date and has even suggested the talks should not address the nuclear issue. Shourd was released shortly before President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attended the U.N. General Assembly in New York. "Due to the absence of the third person, the court has delayed the trial time so that in between this time the third person can return to Iran or, in the event of her refusal to appear, her case be dealt with differently," Qolamhossein Mohseni-Ejei was quoted as saying by the semi-official Fars news agency.
– The three American hikers detained by Iran weren’t captured in Iraq, says Sarah Shourd: They were beckoned over the border by an armed soldier, she tells the New York Times in an effort to set the WikiLeaks version of the story straight. “We did not actually enter Iran until he gestured to us. We were confused and worried and wanted to go back." In Shourd's fullest account of her ordeal to date, she goes into detail about their fateful overnight camping trip, describing "scores of campfires" near the waterfall they were hiking to—which abutted Iran. “I think we were extremely unlucky,” says Shourd. “I guess I never believed there would be so many hundreds of people close to a border.” Her interview with the Times comes ahead of a court date for her fellow hikers, which was set for Saturday but has been delayed by Iran until Shourd “can return to Iran or,” if she refuses, her case can “be dealt with differently,” said an Iranian official. But her lawyer says the trial should go forward; neither he nor Shourd, he tells Reuters, were notified of the change.