The Wall Street Journal reported Nov. 26 that Paris and Berlin are about to create a payments channel to maintain trade with Tehran in defiance of US sanctions. The news has been largely received in Iran as a signal that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) will yet be salvaged. The channel, known as a Special Purpose Vehicle, has been under discussion for months […]
The laborers edge their way across a field of bright purple flowers gathering up the world’s most expensive spice, a bounty that makes this dusty corner of Iran a crucial part of global cuisine. The delicate purple leaves of the Crocus sativus plant hold just three or four of the even more delicate red stamen, better known as saffron, […]
Iran’s deputy interior minister for security affairs, Hossein Zolfaqari, met with Vasilii Piskarev, the chairman of the Russian Duma’s Committee on Security and Corruption Control, on Nov. 5. At the meeting, both sides stressed the need to finalize a bilateral security agreement and described cybersecurity, the fight against terrorism and countering drug proliferation and illegal immigration as key aspects of such an accord. […]
Qatar Airways announced Monday it is expanding operations in Iran, despite US sanctions on the Islamic republic and a Gulf diplomatic rift over accusations Doha was too close to Tehran. The carrier will begin twice-weekly flights to Isfahan in February 2019 and increase existing services to Shiraz and Tehran in January 2019, it said in a statement. “These latest […]
Do sanctions reduce the military spending in Iran? This is the question we sought to answer by modeling the effects of sanctions on military spending in Iran to investigate the impact of unilateral sanctions (where only the United States sanctions Iran) and multilateral sanctions (where the United States acts in conjunction with other countries to […]
DUBAI (Reuters) – China’s state-owned CNPC has replaced France’s Total in Iran’s multibillion-dollar South Pars gas project, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said, according to the semi-official news agency ICANA on Sunday. “China’s CNPC has officially replaced Total in phase 11 of South Pars but it has not started work practically. Talks need to be […]
Asia’s largest buyer of Iranian oil is said to have resumed purchases from the Persian Gulf state following a one-month hiatus, a move that will help allay fears that U.S. sanctions on the OPEC producer will constrain global supplies. China will start loading the crude again in November after it halted purchases in October, according […]
The reimposition of US secondary sanctions has compelled Tehran to look for ways to reduce their negative impact. According to Iranian officials, one of the strategies is to increase trade and interaction with its neighbors. This is not new to Iran, as the country has pursued a policy of improving relations with immediate neighbors including investments in increased energy interdependency. Yet the past […]
LONDON (Reuters) – Iran on Wednesday praised European efforts to maintain business with Tehran despite U.S. sanctions, citing “constructive meetings” with British and French officials in Tehran this week on setting up a way to conduct non-dollar trade. Iranian Foreign Ministry officials voiced more hope for the move a day after Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad […]
Iraq’s new President Barham Saleh made his first official visit to neighbouring Iran on Saturday, calling for “a new order in the region.” Saleh met his counterpart Hassan Rouhani to discuss trade, transport links and efforts to tackle dust pollution that plagues areas on both sides of the border. “It is now time for a new order in the […]
When U.S. President Donald Trump announced in May his plans to withdraw from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and re-impose economic sanctions, one of the many reasons he gave was to compel better Iranian behavior across the Middle East. Iran, senior administration officials often said, was “behind every problem” in the region, and cutting off its oil […]
BAGHDAD, Nov 12 (Reuters) – While Saudi Arabia courted Iraqi leaders behind closed doors at the weekend, its arch-foe Iran made a more public showing by turning out at the Baghdad International Fair, a shop window for business in Iraq. An entire hangar was set aside for some of the 60 Iranian firms participating. Vendors […]
Iran has been abiding by the terms of its nuclear deal with global powers, the latest report from the UN atomic watchdog indicated Monday, days after fresh US sanctions hit the country. The International Atomic Energy Agency’s latest report showed that as of early November, Iran had been complying with the restrictions to its nuclear program laid down in […]
SINGAPORE/SEOUL, Nov 9 (Reuters) – A South Korean delegation including oil buyers is expected to head to Iran next week to discuss resuming Iranian oil imports after a three-month halt, three sources with knowledge of the matter said. South Korea is one of eight countries that received waivers from the United States to continue importing […]
SHANGHAI, Nov 9 (Reuters) – China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) is continuing to take oil from Iranian oilfields where it has ownership stakes, even after the United States re-imposed sanctions on the country’s oil sector, a company executive said on Friday. The state-owned oil giant entered Iran in 2004 when it acquired the MIS oilfield, […]
The resumption of wide-ranging American sanctions on Iran promises economic uncertainty for the Islamic Republic’s neighbors in the Caucasus: Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia. Washington’s goal of reducing Iran’s oil exports to zero will not directly impact any of three Caucasus states, as none of them imports Iranian crude. All three, however, have to various extents […]
In a recent speech, President Rouhani declared that Iran had achieved a “rare victory” insofar as Europe is seeking ways to sustain its trade with Iran in the face of US sanctions. While this may be true in a political sense, practically speaking, the President is declaring victory too soon. Iran should be doing much […]
The European Union said work “has accelerated” on a so-called special purpose vehicle to help avoid the U.S. administration’s reimposed sanctions on Iran as the bloc tries to preserve the landmark Iranian nuclear accord after the Trump administration abandoned it. The EU also warned that the decision by Swift, the financial messaging network, to suspend […]
Armed with waivers to keep importing Iranian oil without running afoul of U.S. sanctions, some of the Islamic Republic’s top customers are preparing to buy. The exemptions mean at least some supplies from OPEC’s third-biggest producer will keep flowing into international markets, after its exports plunged almost 40 percent since April — the month before Washington announced the curbs. In a […]
A special clearing house designed to allow European companies that trade with Iran to bypass newly reimposed US sanctions will be set up in Europewithin months, possibly in France or Germany. The clearing house, known as a special purpose vehicle (SPV), is seen as critical to reassuring Tehran that the EU genuinely wishes to reward Iran for signing […]
The imposition of sanctions on Iran is designed to curb its “outlaw behaviour”, the US says. Donald Trump said the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action “cannot prevent an Iranian bomb” when he announced the US withdrawal from the treaty in May. This week his administration restored all sanctions lifted under the 2015 denuclearisation deal and added more (albeit with […]
Turkey has warned Washington against its new sanctions on Iran, saying isolating the Islamic Republic is “dangerous.” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Tuesday. Washington this week imposed a second set of sanctions on Iran that aim to isolate the country’s banking sector and slash its oil exports. Eight countries including Turkey have received a US waiver […]
The foreign ministers of Spain and Russia on Tuesday hit out at US sanctions policy against Iran and ultimatums they say are being imposed by Donald Trump’s administration. President Trump in May abandoned a 2015 multi-nation deal with Iran aimed at reining in its nuclear program. The deal had been unanimously endorsed by a United Nations Security Council resolution, […]
ANTALYA, Turkey – As Iranians braced for the full restoration of economic sanctions imposed Monday by the Trump administration, their government signaled it would be open to talking to the United States about a new nuclear arms accord if Washington changes its approach to discussing the agreement it abandoned this year. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s top diplomat, […]
The United States will exempt China, India and Japan from oil sanctions on Iran, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday, while vowing to be “relentless” in pressuring Tehran. Hours after sweeping sanctions were reimposed following the US withdrawal from a denuclearization deal, Pompeo said eight countries would be at least temporarily exempt from the ban on buying […]
The U.S. has agreed to let eight countries — including Japan, India and South Korea — keep buying Iranian oil after it reimposes sanctions on the OPEC producer on Nov. 5, a senior administration official said. While the Trump administration’s goal remains to choke off revenue to Iran’s economy, waivers are being granted in exchange […]
On November 5, the United States will reimpose an array of powerful sanctions on the most important economic institutions in Iran, including its central bank and national oil company. This is the result of President Trump’s decision in May to withdraw the United States from the Iran nuclear agreement and snap back U.S. sanctions that […]
During the war on terror, the United States quietly turned the world financial system into a hidden empire. The American government used the power of the dollar and its influence over obscure organizations such as the Swift financial messaging service to monitor what its adversaries and terrorists were doing and, in some cases, to cut entire states, […]