Tag Archives: sanctions

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Several companies that certify vessels are seaworthy and ship insurers have withdrawn services to tankers involved in the Venezuelan oil trade as the United States targets the maritime industry to tighten sanctions on the Latin American country.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 …

U.S. President Donald Trump Wednesday vetoed a measure that would limit his authority to launch military strikes against Iran absent congressional approval — a long-expected move from the commander in chief that had been delayed due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The measure, earned bipartisan support on Capitol Hill and …

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani threatened a “crushing response” on Wednesday if the United States goes ahead with plans to extend an embargo on Iranian trade of conventional arms, which the United Nations is set to lift later this year. Under Iran’s deal with world powers to accept limits to its …

Iran dismissed as “illegitimate” efforts by the United States to extend the U.N. Security Council arms embargo on Tehran, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Monday. “Iran is not seeking to exit the 2015 nuclear deal with six powers … America’s move is illegitimate and our reaction will be …

Sanctions-hit Syrian tycoon Rami Makhlouf on Sunday said that security forces were arresting employees at his diversified companies in what he said was “mounting pressure” on him days after Syrian authorities asked him to pay hefty taxes. Makhlouf, a maternal cousin of President Bashar al-Assad and widely considered part of …

The two million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip face insurmountable obstacles in attempting to prevent the novel coronavirus from spreading throughout the isolated enclave. Israel’s continued siege and blockade severely limits their ability to test for the virus and provide healthcare to those who become infected. By Zaha Hassan …

By James M. Dorsey A podcast version of this story is available on Soundcloud, Itunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spreaker, Pocket Casts, Tumblr, Podbean, Audecibel, Patreon and Castbox. Populated by fluent Hebrew speakers, the Israel desk of Armenia’s foreign ministry waited back in 1991 in the wake of the collapse of …

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday that Tehran was closely following U.S. activities, but would never initiate a conflict in the region. Rouhani’s comments, which come at a time of rising tension between Washington and Tehran, were made during a telephone call to Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad …

The United Kingdom said on Friday that an Iranian satellite launch earlier this week was of significant concern and inconsistent with a United Nations Security Council resolution. “Reports that Iran has carried out a satellite launch – using ballistic missile technology – are of significant concern and inconsistent with UN …

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards force said on Wednesday it had launched the country’s first military satellite which had gone into orbit. It said a “Messenger” satellite carrier was used to launch the Noor (light) satellite, without going into further detail on the technology used. The launch took place at a time …

Iran will give a decisive response to any mistake by the United States in the Gulf, the Revolutionary Guards navy said in a statement published on the Guards’ news site Sepah News. The U.S. military said on Wednesday that 11 vessels from the Revolutionary Guards navy had come dangerously close …

The Iranian armed forces have acquired three bomb-carrying drones with a range of 1,500 kilometers (932 miles), Defense Minister Amir Hatami said on state television on Saturday. The drones could monitor “enemy movements from a considerable distance” and were capable of combat missions, he said at the delivery ceremony in …

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will pardon 10,000 prisoners including political ones in honor of the Iranian new year on Friday, state TV reported. “Those who will be pardoned will not return to jail … almost half of those security-related prisoners will be pardoned as well,” judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein …

The United States on Wednesday identified seven companies that it has blacklisted for trade in Iranian petrochemicals – three based in mainland China, three in Hong Kong and one in South Africa – the State Department said in a statement. Separately, the department also named five Iranian nuclear scientists who …

A U.S. Senate committee backed legislation on Wednesday to impose sanctions on Turkey after its offensive in Syria and purchase of a Russian S-400 missile system, the latest move in the chamber to push Republican President Donald Trump to take a harder line against Ankara. The Republican-led Senate Foreign Relations …

Iran said on Monday it would take another step away from the 2015 nuclear deal by developing centrifuges to speed up its uranium enrichment, its nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi said. “Today, we are witnessing the launch of the array of 30 IR-6 centrifuges,” Salehi, who heads Iran’s Atomic Energy …

Iran will use every possible way to export its oil, Iranian Oil Ministry’s website SHANA quoted Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh as saying on Sunday, adding that exporting crude was the country’s legitimate right. “We will use every possible way to export our oil and we will not succumb to America’s …

Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to discuss Iran’s nuclear deal and situation in the Strait of Hormuz with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at their bilateral meeting in Armenia on Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Source: Reuters

British-flagged tanker Stena Impero, detained by Iran in July, is still in the country despite Iranian officials saying it was free to leave, Stena Bulk CEO Erik Hanell said on Tuesday. Iran’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, Hamid Baeidinejad, said on Twitter on Monday the Swedish-owned vessel was free to …

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman on Sunday said an Iranian oil tanker at the center of a dispute between Tehran and Western powers had reached its destination and sold its oil, state television reported. “The tanker has gone to its destination, the oil has been sold,” spokesman Abbas Mousavi told the …

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged world powers on Thursday not to open a dialogue with Iran, after U.S. President Donald Trump said he may meet his Iranian counterpart to resolve a crisis over Tehran’s nuclear program and sanctions against it. “This is not the time to hold talks with …

Russia and Iran are planning to hold joint naval drills in the Indian Ocean, the TASS news agency quoted Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as saying on Monday. Earlier on Monday, Zarif said after talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov that Tehran welcomed a Russian proposal for ensuring …

The presence of America and Britain in the Gulf region brings insecurity, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards navy, Alireza Tangsiri, was reported as saying by the ILNA news agency. Tensions have spiked between Iran and the U.S. and Britain in the Gulf after the Islamic Republic shot down …

President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday Iran and other Gulf states could protect the region’s security and foreign forces were not needed, state TV reported, repeating a longstanding rejection of a U.S. maritime security mission in the region. The United States has launched a maritime security mission in the Gulf …

Gibraltar said on Tuesday it was seeking to de-escalate issues arising with Iran since the detention of the Grace 1 tanker. British Royal Marines seized the Iranian oil tanker on July 4 off the coast of the British Mediterranean territory of Gibraltar on suspicion of violating EU sanctions by taking …

P&O Cruises has canceled cruises around Dubai and the Arabian Gulf after Iran seized a British-flagged tanker in the region. Citing increased tensions, the company said it has canceled its planned program in the region from October until at least March next year and all guests be issued a full …

Peace with Iran is the mother of all peace and war with Iran is the mother of all wars, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday in a speech broadcast live on state TV. If the United States wants to have negotiations with Iran then it must lift all sanctions, …