Tag Archives: sanctions

The U.S. Commerce Department plans to issue an order Friday that will bar people in the United States from downloading Chinese-owned messaging app WeChat and video-sharing app TikTok starting on September 20, three officials told Reuters. The officials said the ban on new U.S. downloads of TikTok could be still …

The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday announced charges against three Iranians over allegations they stole information from aerospace and satellite technology firms on behalf of the Islamic republic’s Revolutionary Guards. The indictments follow a flurry of recent actions against alleged Iranian cyber spies including the announcement, earlier on Thursday, …

The United States said on Wednesday it plans to impose sanctions on those who violate a U.N. arms embargo on Iran, which Washington says will now stay in place instead of expiring in October as agreed under a 2015 nuclear deal. U.S. Special Representative for Venezuela and Iran Elliott Abrams …

In 1973, Arab members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries brought the U.S. economy to its knees. Now, the cartel created 60 years ago is more likely to do Washington’s bidding. Since Saudi Arabia and other Arab OPEC members imposed their famous oil embargo as retribution for U.S. support …

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in Damascus on Monday for talks with President Bashar al-Assad and Syria’s foreign minister, the RIA news agency reported. Following his meeting with the Syrian president Lavrov said that Syria needed international help to rebuild its economy. For his part Syrian President Bashar al Assad …

Two high-profile Venezuelan opposition leaders are in talks with the government of President Nicolas Maduro to participate in the upcoming legislative elections despite a planned boycott, a Turkish official involved in the talks said on Tuesday. Opposition parties had agreed to sit out the parliamentary vote slated for December, arguing …

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday Lebanese political leaders had agreed to form a government of experts in the next two weeks and that he expected the government to start delivering on a roadmap of reforms within six to eight weeks. “There is no blank cheque,” Macron told a …

Iran’s central bank said on Saturday it was taking legal steps to counter a lawsuit filed in a U.S. court by creditors seeking to seize $1.7 billion of its assets held by Deutsche Boerse’s (DB1Gn.DE) Clearstream unit. The German stock exchange operator said earlier the creditors had filed the suit …

The EU on Friday urged Turkey to halt its drilling activities in contested waters in the Mediterranean and ordered EU officials to speed up work aimed at blacklisting some Turkish officials linked to the energy exploration. Tensions are mounting to breaking point between Turkey and Greece over Turkey’s drilling work …

TikTok Chief Executive Officer Kevin Mayer has left short video app firm just three months since joining – and days after TikTok sued the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump over an executive order banning transactions with it in the country. He will be replaced by U.S. General Manager Vanessa …

The president of the U.N. Security Council, Indonesia, said on Tuesday it was “not in the position to take further action” on a U.S. bid to trigger a return of all U.N. sanctions on Iran because there is no consensus in the 15-member body. Thirteen council members expressed their opposition …

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said during a visit to Khartoum on Tuesday that Sudan’s democratic transition was a “once in a generation opportunity”. In a tweet, Pompeo also said that he looked forward to discussing “how to deepen the U.S.-Sudan relationship”. The Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said …

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday said it would be a “good idea” to look into buying missiles from Iran, a day after Colombia said Venezuela was considering such a plan amid growing ties between Caracas and Tehran. Iran in May supplied gasoline to Venezuela to ease chronic shortages, triggering …

Iran inaugurated a surface-to-surface ballistic missile with a range of 1,400 km and a new cruise missile, Iranian Defence Minister Amir Hatami said in a televised speech on Thursday, ignoring U.S. demands that Tehran halt its missile program. “The surface-to-surface missile, called martyr Qassem Soleimani, has a range of 1,400 …

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will likely travel to New York on Thursday to seek a return of all U.N. sanctions on Iran and meet with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, diplomats and a U.N. official said. To trigger a return of the sanctions, the United States will submit a …

Gaza rapper Abdel-Rahman Al-Shantti may only be 11 years old but his rhymes on war and hardship in the Palestinian enclave have reached thousands of people, conveying in English what he calls “a message of peace and humanity”. A video of Shantti rapping outside of his school in Gaza City, …

Israel on Thursday said it will stop shipments of fuel into Gaza in response to Palestinians in the enclave launching incendiary balloons that have torched tracts of farmland on the Israeli frontier. Palestinians in Islamist Hamas-ruled Gaza in recent days have launched dozens of helium balloons laden with incendiary material …

The six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has asked the United Nations to extend an international arms embargo on Iran, a move pushed strongly by the United States. The secretariat of the GCC, made up of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, said in a statement …

French President Emmanuel Macron has told President Donald Trump that U.S. sanctions that have targeted Iran-backed Shi’ite group Hezbollah are playing into the hands of those they are meant to weaken, an Elysee official said on Saturday. The official, speaking ahead of a donors conference on aid to Lebanon co-hosted …

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday said he was expanding the scope of Iran metals sanctions, targeting 22 specific materials that he said were used in connection with Iran’s nuclear, military or ballistic missile programs. Pompeo in a statement called it a “major expansion” of the Iran metals-related …

The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on Syrian President Bashar Al Assad’s son Hafez and Syrian businessman Wassim Al Qattan under the recently-passed Caesar Act. Hafez Al Assad, born in 2001, is the eldest son of the Syrian leader who has ruled since 2000. He is being sanctioned to …

U.S. Special Envoy Brian Hook said on Sunday a deep rift among Gulf Arab states had gone on for too long and he urged them to rebuild trust and unity. Gulf states Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and non-Gulf state Egypt cut ties with Qatar in mid-2017 over …

Several passengers on an Iranian airline were injured on Thursday over Syria after the pilot changed altitude to avoid collision with a U.S. fighter jet, according to Iranian media, but the U.S. military said its F-15 was at a safe distance. The Iranian plane, belonging to Mahan Air, was heading …

Syria held a parliamentary election on Sunday, gripped by a collapsing economy and new U.S. sanctions after President Bashar al-Assad clawed back control of most of the country. People voted across government territory at more than 7,000 polling stations, including for the first time in former rebel bastions that the …

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi will travel to Saudi Arabia and Iran back-to-back next week, carefully balancing ties to regional rivals in his first foreign trip as premier, officials said Saturday. On Sunday, Al-Kadhimi will host Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Baghdad, before traveling with Iraq’s ministers of oil, electricity, …

A group of Iranian parliamentarians has abandoned an attempt to impeach President Hassan Rouhani, the Tasnim news agency reported on Wednesday, marking the end of a move sparked by growing economic hardship. Approximately 10 parliamentarians who were seeking to impeach the president, and rally other members of the 290 seat …

A Lebanese man accused of financing Hezbollah was freed from jail in the United States last month as a result of indirect contacts between Tehran and Washington that are expected to yield more releases, three senior Middle East officials said. Kassim Tajideen was released on June 11, according to the …

Several companies that certify vessels are seaworthy and ship insurers have withdrawn services to tankers involved in the Venezuelan oil trade as the United States targets the maritime industry to tighten sanctions on the Latin American country. U.S. sanctions have driven Venezuela’s oil exports to their lowest levels in nearly …

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Wednesday that U.S. and partner forces seized a boat in June carrying Iranian weapons to Houthi rebels in Yemen as he renewed his call for the U.N. Security Council to extend an arms embargo on Iran. “The Security Council must extend the …

The powerful Hezbollah group said on Tuesday it is in talks with the Lebanese government about the possibility of Iran supplying the country with refined oil products in exchange for Lebanese pounds. Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Iran-backed Hezbollah, said a “calm discussion” was underway with the Beirut government …

Iran will retaliate against any country that carries out cyber attacks on its nuclear sites, the head of civilian defence said, after a fire at its Natanz plant which some Iranian officials said may have been caused by cyber sabotage. The underground Natanz Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP) is one of …

An “incident” has occurred at Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility but no damage was caused and the site is operating as usual, the national Atomic Energy Organisation said on Thursday. The Natanz Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP), covering 100,000 square meters and built eight meters underground, is one of several Iranian facilities …

Iran plans to export oil from a port on its Gulf of Oman coast by March, the president said on Thursday, a shift that would avoid using the Strait of Hormuz shipping route that has been a focus of regional tension for decades. Tensions have spiked between Tehran and Washington …

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro on Sunday said he was in the room with President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping when they met, but never heard the U.S. president ask for China’s help in winning re-election. Navarro told CNN’s “State of the Union” that the explosive allegation …

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Friday accused France, Germany and Britain of serving Iran’s arch-foes the United States and Israel by drafting a nuclear resolution against Tehran. “Behind (the) facade, E3 are accessories to (U.S. President Donald) Trump & (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu—& in no position to …

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted on Thursday that “an agreeable solution is possible” for the U.N. nuclear watchdog’s request for access to two nuclear sites in the country. France, Britain and Germany, all parties to Iran’s nuclear deal with major powers, have submitted a draft resolution to the …

France, Germany and Britain on Saturday criticised a U.S. decision to end sanctions waivers allowing work on Iranian nuclear sites designed to prevent weapons development. “We deeply regret the U.S. decision to end the three waivers,” the three European countries said in a joint statement. “These projects, endorsed by U.N. …

The United States’ decision to end sanctions waivers that had allowed some work to proceed at Iranian nuclear sites will only provoke Tehran into developing nuclear weapons, Interfax cited Russian Senator Vladimir Dzhabarov as saying on Thursday. “The U.S. is pushing them and in the end they are provoking Iran …

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned on Saturday of retaliatory measures against the United States if Washington caused problems for tankers carrying Iranian fuel to Venezuela, the semi-official news agency Mehr reported. “If our tankers in the Caribbean or anywhere in the world face trouble caused by the Americans, they (the …

Venezuela’s military will escort Iranian tankers bringing fuel to the gasoline-starved country as soon as they enter its exclusive economic zone, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said on Wednesday. His comments came after Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido said the shipment should “alarm” Latin America. Both OPEC members are U.S. adversaries …

With the United States weighing a response to a gasoline shipment from Iran to Venezuela, people waiting in line outside service stations in the country’s capital said they were eager to fill their tanks, regardless of how the fuel arrived. OPEC members Venezuela and Iran both are U.S. adversaries. A …

The U.S. Navy on Tuesday issued a warning to mariners to stay 100 meters (yards) away from U.S. warships or risk being “interpreted as a threat and subject to lawful defensive measures.” Reuters is first to report the new warning, issued in detail in a notice to mariners. It follows …

The United States is considering measures it could take in response to Iran’s shipment of fuel to crisis-stricken Venezuela, a senior official in President Donald Trump’s administration told Reuters on Thursday. The United States has a “high degree of certainty” that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government is paying Iran tons …

Washington has yet to respond to Iran about a prisoner swap, Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei was quoted as saying by the government’s website on Sunday, reiterating that Tehran was ready for a full prisoner exchange with the United States without preconditions. If a swap goes ahead, it would be …