Tag Archives: sanctions

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, …

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Monday that the United States was isolated in the world and was unable to create a coalition with its allies in the Gulf. “The U.S. is standing alone in the world..it cannot create a coalition (in the Gulf),” he told a news …

Iranian Revolutionary Guards seized a foreign oil tanker in the Gulf that was smuggling fuel and detained seven crewmen, Iran’s state media reported on Sunday, in a show of power amid heightened tension with the West. The vessel was intercepted near Iran’s Farsi Island in the Gulf, Iran’s semi-official Fars …

Iran is prepared for dialogue if Saudi Arabia is also ready, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Wednesday, according to the IRIB news agency. Tensions have spiked between Iran and Saudi Arabia, arch-rivals for predominance in the Middle East, since Riyadh accused the Islamic Republic of carrying out …

The United States is set to announce this week it will renew sanctions waivers for five Iran nuclear programs that allow Russia, China and European countries to continue civilian nuclear cooperation with Iran, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday. President Donald Trump, in an Oval Office meeting last week, sided …

By Seyed Hossein Mousavian The underlying assumptions on the part of Trump administration to withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) were the following: 1) by implementing the “maximum pressure” policy, Iran’s oil exports would reach zero; its financial transactions would be fundamentally hindered and Iran’s economy would collapse; …

Iran was to revive maritime security talks on Tuesday with traditional foe the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in an apparent bid to calm tensions in the Gulf, although a Gulf official described the discussions as routine and technical. The talks follow weeks of heightened political friction around the strategic waterway …

Parties to Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal met in Vienna on Sunday for emergency talks called in response to an escalation in tensions between Iran and the West that included confrontations at sea and Tehran’s breaches of the accord. Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China and Iran have been trying to salvage …

Japan’s top government spokesman said on Tuesday that there was no change in the country’s stance that it was not considering sending its Self-Defence Forces for a U.S.-proposed maritime coalition in the Middle East. Asked if there was a change in the position previously stated by Defence Minister Takeshi Iwaya, …

Britain said Iran’s seizure of a British-flagged vessel and a Liberian-flagged vessel in the Strait of Hormuz was unacceptable and called for freedom of navigation in the Gulf. “I’m extremely concerned by the seizure of two vessels by Iranian authorities in the Strait of Hormuz,” Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said. …

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Friday they would release images to disprove U.S. President Donald Trump’s assertion that the U.S. Navy has destroyed an Iranian drone in the Gulf, Iranian news agencies reported. “Soon, images captured by the Guards drones from the U.S. warship Boxer will be published to expose …

Iran will return to the situation before its nuclear deal with world powers unless European countries fulfill their obligations, the spokesman for Iran’s nuclear agency, Behrouz Kamalvandi, said on Monday, according to IRNA news agency. Iran says the European countries must do more to guarantee it the economic benefits it …

Gibraltar police said on Friday that all four crew members of the Iranian Grace 1 tanker have been released on bail without charge after it was detained last week on suspicion of breaking European sanctions by taking oil to Syria. Gibraltar police said earlier on Friday that they had arrested …

The U.S. Treasury added three top Hezbollah figures to its list of sanctioned individuals on Tuesday, including two members of the Lebanese Parliament and a security official responsible for coordinating between Hezbollah and Lebanon’s security agencies. It was the first time the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control had …

U.S. President Donald Trump threatened on Tuesday to obliterate parts of Iran if it attacked “anything American,” in a new war of words with Iran which condemned fresh U.S. sanctions on Tehran as “mentally retarded.” But Trump later left the door open for talks, saying that Iran should speak to …

Britain does not expect the United States to request that the United Kingdom joins a war with Iran and London would be unlikely to agree to join such a conflict, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said on Tuesday. “The U.S. is our closest ally, we talk to them the whole time, …

The United States will announce fresh sanctions against Iran on Monday evening, a senior US official has confirmed. Brian Hook, the US Special Representative for Iran and Senior Policy Adviser to the Secretary of State, said today that Iran has denounced the US diplomatic efforts for a dialogue to defuse …

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday called on the international community to support the United States against Iran as tensions between the two countries escalated after the downing of a U.S. drone by Iran. “In the last 24 hours Iran has intensified its aggression against the United States and …

According to the International Institute for Iranian Studies, a Saudi think tank based in Riyadh, the US maximum pressure strategy to lower Iranian oil exports to zero has led Iran “reacting in an aggressive manner and exposing itself further regionally and internationally, with it engaging in a number of belligerent …

Iran said on Wednesday it will start enriching uranium at a higher level in July and won’t give European powers any more time to prevent this move by protecting Tehran from U.S. sanctions. Iran stopped complying in May with some commitments in the 2015 nuclear deal that was agreed with …

U.S. President Donald Trump said he was prepared to take military action to stop Tehran from getting a nuclear bomb but left open whether he would back the use of force to protect Gulf oil supplies that Washington fears may be under threat by Iran. Worries about a confrontation between …

The Chinese government’s top diplomat warned on Tuesday that the world should not open a “Pandora’s Box” in the Middle East, as he denounced U.S. pressure on Iran and called on it not to drop out of a landmark nuclear deal. Fears of a confrontation between Iran and the United …

While it is “unmistakable” that Iran was responsible for the attacks on two tankers last week, the United States does not want to go to war with Tehran, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday. In an interview with “Fox News Sunday”, Pompeo said, “President Trump has done …

Pope Francis called for restraint and a lowering of tensions in the Middle East on Sunday following attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman that have raised fears of a broader confrontation in the region. Francis, during a visit to a city in central Italy that was …

The United States has allowed Iraq to import Iranian gas for its power grid for another three months by extending a waiver to sanctions – but insists that Baghdad seek alternative sources. Iraq has had several extensions to the waiver first granted last year after Washington reimposed sanctions on Tehran’s …

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he was ready to launch talks with Iran whenever it was ready, even as he blamed Tehran for attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman. “We want to get them back to the table,” Trump told Fox News in an …

Iran will ask Japan to mediate between Tehran and Washington to ease oil sanctions imposed by the United States, Iranian officials said on Wednesday, as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe arrived in the country for a two-day visit. Abe, the first Japanese leader to visit Iran since its 1979 Islamic …

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will meet Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani on a visit to Tehran this week, in a bid to ease tension between Washington and Iran that experts called a bold move for a Japanese leader. Tension has escalated a year after Washington …

Qatar and other countries have been talking to both Iran and the United States about de-escalation, Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said on Sunday, urging both sides to meet and find a compromise. “We believe that at one point there should an engagement – it cannot last …

  We should call this week “Iranian diplomacy week”. It seems that Iran’s strategic patience after the US withdrawal from the international treaty on Iran nuclear program, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and Washington’s “maximum pressure” is bearing fruit. On the one hand, Foreign Minister …