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The EU's response to Donald Trump's sanctions on Iran is
unravelling after European businesses defied their calls to maintain
investment in the country. The European commission on Tuesday had
used unprecedented legislation to maintain trade with Tehran and
convince it to abide by the 2015 nuclear deal despite US withdrawal.
The United States is closely monitoring Iranian naval
activity to ensure no disruptions occur to global shipping, a top
U.S. general said Wednesday, as tensions with Tehran intensify over
renewed economic pressure from the Trump administration.
Iranian hackers are developing software attacks that
render computer systems inoperable until a digital ransom is paid, a
new report says, a threat that comes as the U.S. moves to reimpose
tough economic sanctions on the country. Over the past two years,
researchers at Accenture PLC's iDefense cybersecurity-intelligence
group have tracked five new types of so-called ransomware they say
were built by hackers in Iran.
UANI IN THE NEWS
At the negotiations, the so-called P5+1, including the
Obama administration, gave away all that [economic pressure on Iran]
for a very inadequate agreement... But then President Trump comes
along and does exactly what he said he was going to do during the campaign...
I think [the new sanctions] are gonna help because I think
particularly they're coming at a time when there's more instability
in Iran than there's been in a long, long time.
Former Sen. Joe Lieberman said Wednesday he is
"grateful" for President Donald Trump's tough stance and
sanctions on Iran, as the Obama-era nuclear deal gave away all the
pressure that was being placed on the country in exchange for a
"very inadequate agreement" on nuclear weapons. "I'm
chair of a group called United Against Nuclear Iran," said
Lieberman on Fox News' "America's Newsroom," explaining
that the bipartisan group is focused on keeping Iran from becoming a
regional superpower.
NUCLEAR DEAL & NUCLEAR PROGRAM
Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte said Wednesday his
country is willing to consider a "more rigorous" stance
toward Iran, adding that he recently asked U.S. President Donald
Trump to share intelligence about Iran's alleged nuclear program that
has triggered fresh U.S. sanctions.
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC NEWS
The German finance ministry on Wednesday denied a media
report suggesting it would give Iran permission to withdraw 300
million euros ($348 million) in cash from bank accounts held in
Germany, a plan that is strongly opposed by the United States. Iran's
request was still being studied, the ministry said in a statement.
An Iranian naval exercise involving at least 100 small
boats in and around the Strait of Hormuz last week was meant as a
message to the U.S. for re-imposing economic sanctions on Tehran, the
top U.S. commander in the Middle East said Wednesday.
Iran's utmost authority Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei said the Islamic Republic had nothing to be concerned about,
a report on his official website said on Wednesday, as the country's
clerical leadership faces biting U.S. sanctions. The sanctions
imposed on Tehran this week have already led banks and many companies
around the world to scale back dealings with Iran.
It is still nearly three months until U.S. sanctions on
Iran's oil exports snap back into force, but they are already having
a big impact on the Persian Gulf country's trade. The nation's
outflow has fallen, and Iran is having to rely more on its own fleet
of tankers to carry oil to its customers, according to ship-tracking
data compiled by Bloomberg.
Turkey will continue to buy natural gas from Iran in
line with its long-term supply contract, Turkey's energy minister
said on Wednesday, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened
that anyone trading with Iran will not do business with America. NATO
member Turkey is dependent on imports for almost all of its energy
needs and Iran is a key supplier of Ankara's natural gas and oil
purchases.
When the United States pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal
in May, it told countries trading with Iran that they would have to
stop soon or face American sanctions. As the first ninety-day
wind-down period for ceasing trading with Iran comes to an end,
Washington is ratcheting up the pressure on the main importers of
Iranian crude oil.
Australian exporters exposed to economic sanctions
imposed on Iran are being urged to seek legal advice. US president
Donald Trump has reinstated sanctions against Tehran, months after
withdrawing from an agreement for Iran to give up its nuclear weapons
in return for increased trade ties with western countries.
A project to export cattle to Iran from Normandy in
northern France has been halted due to the United States' renewed
sanctions against Tehran, a French Senator said, as Washington's
policy takes its toll on its European allies. The sanctions,
following U.S. President Donald Trump's withdrawal from an
international accord on Iran's nuclear programme, took effect on
Tuesday.
In the runup to the Aug. 7 resumption of U.S. sanctions
against Iran, the country's beleaguered president, Hassan Rouhani,
got stern directives from a few corners of the Islamic Republic.
Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, urged him to deal with corruption.
One of Iran's biggest oil customers is buying more U.S.
crude as President Donald Trump sticks to his pledge to squeeze the
Persian Gulf nation's energy trade. State-run refiner Indian Oil
Corp., which had been buying U.S. crude in the spot market, signed a
term tender to purchase American oil for delivery every month between
November and January, according to Finance Director Arun Kumar
Sharma.
The US is making history not just by violating a United
Nations security council resolution it voted for three years ago, but
also by penalising countries who stick to the same unanimous
resolution, the Iranian ambassador to the UN has claimed.
China and Germany defended their business ties with Iran
Wednesday in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump's warning that
any companies trading with the Islamic Republic would be barred from
the United States. The comments from Beijing and Berlin signaled
growing anger from partners of the United States, which reimposed
strict sanctions against Iran Tuesday, over its threat to penalize
businesses from third countries that continue to operate there.
China on Wednesday defended its business ties with Iran
despite a set of U.S. sanctions targeting Tehran, potentially setting
up further trade conflicts between Beijing and the Trump
administration.
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
An overseas-based Iranian news site says Iranian
authorities have pressured relatives of the lone person killed in
nationwide antigovernment protests last week to identify the slain
man as a pro-government militiaman. Twenty-five-year-old Reza Otadi
was killed during an antigovernment demonstration in the city of
Karaj late Friday.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
In a blistering criticism of the leader of the Islamic
Revolutionary Guards Quds Force, the four-star US general in charge
of US military of operations in the Middle East said Qasem Soleimani
is behind much of Iran's destabilizing activities in the region.
NORTH KOREA & IRAN
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told North Korea's
foreign minister that the United States cannot be trusted, Tehran's
state media said, as the United States seeks a deal to rein in the
North's nuclear and missile programs. Iran dismissed a last-minute
offer from Washington for talks this week, saying it could not
negotiate after the Trump administration reneged on a 2015 deal to
lift sanctions in return for curbs on Iran's own nuclear program.
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN.
As the U.S.-led coalition winds down its fight against
the Islamic State in northeastern Syria, analysts are warning that
Washington's reluctance to devote resources to stabilizing the area
could allow Russia and Iran to exert greater influence over the
country. Coalition forces are closing in on the last bastion of
Islamic State fighters in the city of Hajin, near the Iraqi border.
An anonymous high-level Israel intel source was quoted
in the Israeli media Aug. 7 as saying that the renewed US sanctions
imposed this week on Iran "will bring Iran to its knees."
The source also argued that chances are good that the country will be
forced to return to the negotiating table with the six world powers
that cut the nuclear agreement and agree to a modification and to
limitations on its continued expansion in the Middle East.
IRAQ & IRAN
Following the United States' sanctions going into effect
against the Islamic Republic on Tuesday, Iraq's pro-Iranian militias
threatened to break Iran's blockade at all cost. In a statement,
Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada, an Iraqi Shiite militia, said that work is
in progress to break the blockade.
AFGHANISTAN & IRAN
Migrant workers squeezed into battered taxis pull into
the Four Seasons of Freedom hotel in western Afghanistan, part of a
wave of Afghans forced to leave Iran after a currency implosion wiped
out their earnings. A record 442,344 Afghans have voluntarily
returned or been deported from Iran this year as looming US sanctions
-- which began to be reimposed this week -- fuelled a run on the rial
and spurred inflation.
OTHER FOREIGN AFFAIRS
With the July arrest of an Iranian diplomat in Germany
for his role in an alleged plot to bomb a rally of Iranian dissidents
in Paris, U.S. officials have warned allies to be vigilant of Iranian
terrorist plotting elsewhere. Indeed, there is ample precedent for
such concern. For decades, Tehran has been dispatching operatives to
Europe to carry out assassinations and other acts of terrorism...
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