News

Iran Urges Foreign Firms to Resist US Sanction ‘Threats’

Tehran on Saturday urged foreign firms working in Iran to resist US “threats” of sanctions, adding it was in talks with French car makers about staying on in the country. “All (foreign) companies working in Iran should not be intimidated by US threats and should continue their activities in Iran,” Industry Minister Mohammad Shariatmadari told […]

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Europeans Beat Back Americans as FATF Gives Iran More Time on Financial Reforms

At its plenary meeting in Paris, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) opted “to continue the suspension of countermeasures” related to Iran’s inclusion in the so-called “blacklist” of countries with deficiencies in anti-money laundering (AML) and combating financing of terrorism (CFT) standards.  The suspension will be in place until October 2018 and in this period […]

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India may Ignore US Demand to Halt Iran Oil Imports

India said Wednesday it did not recognize sanctions the United States has threatened to impose on countries that continue to buy Iranian oil after November 4. “India does not recognize unilateral sanctions, but only sanctions by the United Nations,” Sunjay Sudhir, joint secretary for international cooperation at India’s petroleum ministry, told CNNMoney when asked whether […]

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EU-OFAC: A New Mechanism to Help Salvage the Iran Deal

The US decision to withdraw unilaterally from the Iran nuclear deal and pursue a “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran is pushing Europe to find creative new ways to preserve economic relations with Iran and thus salvage the agreement. One idea, floated by the French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire, is the establishment of a European version […]

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Iran Preps for Sanctions by Expanding Major Port Project

Providing landlocked Central Asia with shipping access through Iran’s southeastern Chabahar port has been a hot topic since the fall of the Soviet Union. With China’s One Belt One Road initiative in recent years and investment by Central Asian countries in the new transit routes, Iran faces more challenges than ever to utilize the potential of Chabahar. Iran’s development strategy for the […]

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Mohammad Javad Zarif: Iran Sees a Broken U.S. Foreign Policy

Following the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Paris Climate Accord, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is the third multilateral agreement that the current United States administration has withdrawn from. The administration has also put in jeopardy other multilateral arrangements such as NAFTA, the global trade system, and parts of the United Nations system, thus […]

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A German ‘Iran Bank’ Could Save the Nuclear Deal

Since US President Donald Trump pulled out of the nuclear agreement with Iran, formally known as the JCPOA, the EU has been looking for ideas to prevent the worst: the exit of Iran from its obligations under the deal, including a nuclear “breakout.” The best way to prevent that is to keep private investment flowing […]

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India May Seek Exemptions from US to Buy Iranian Oil

NEW DELHI: India will seek US exemptions to buy Iranian oil and work towards setting up an alternative payment mechanism to protect its trade with the Islamic Republic in the wake of US sanctions against Tehran, according to officials familiar with the matter. Indian policymakers had initially believed that the sanctions may not matter to […]

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Iran Expects OPEC to Stick to Supply Limits

OPEC nation Iran said it expects the group to stick with its pact to restrain oil supply as world markets don’t need more crude. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners will meet next week and debate whether to restore output halted last year. Saudi Arabia and Russia have said it’s time to […]

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Indian Oil Imports from Iran Surge to Highest since 2016

NEW DELHI, June 12 (Reuters) – India’s oil imports from Iran surged to about 705,000 barrels per day (bpd) in May, their highest level since October 2016, according to data from shipping and industry sources, despite the threats of fresh U.S. sanctions. From June India’s oil imports from Iran could drop because at least two […]

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Europe, Iran, and Economic Sovereignty: A New Banking Architecture in Response to US Sanctions

Following President Trump’s announcement of a U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 international nuclear agreement with Iran, the United States is set to pursue a “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran whereby it reintroduces stringent economic and financial sanctions. From the Iranian perspective, the return of U.S. sanctions means a lost opportunity for growth and international engagement, […]

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Iran Enrichment Plan Not in Breach of Nuclear Deal

The EU said Tuesday that a “first assessment” indicated that Iran’s announcement that it has launched a plan to boost uranium enrichment capacity did not breach its commitments under the beleaguered 2015 nuclear deal. Iran has notified the International Atomic Energy Agency that it plans to open a centre for producing new centrifuges, the Islamic […]

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India BPCL Seeks Extra Iran Oil amid Sanctions Threat

NEW DELHI, June 1 (Reuters) – Indian state refiner Bharat Petroleum Corp has requested an extra one million barrels of oil from the National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC) for June, two industry sources said, amid a looming threat of stringent U.S. sanctions. The move by BPCL indicates that refiners will try to frontload their purchases […]

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