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All tagged Persian Gulf
A South Korean delegation arrived in Iran on Thursday amid tensions following the seizure of a South Korean oil tanker and its crew by Iranian forces in sensitive Persian Gulf waters this week.
◢ US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo landed in Riyadh Wednesday for talks with Saudi leaders focused on countering Tehran, his first visit since a top Iranian general's killing sent regional tensions soaring. The top US diplomat, whose visit follows his first trip to sub-Saharan Africa, will hold talks with King Salman and his son Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as well as Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan.
◢ Iran's top diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif hosted his Omani counterpart Yusuf bin Alawi on Sunday for the second time within a week for talks on security in the sensitive Persian Gulf. Alawi was making the visit to Tehran on the tail end of his trip to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.
◢ China, Russia and Iran will hold joint naval drills starting Friday in the Gulf of Oman, Beijing and Tehran said. For Iran, the drill's purpose was to bolster "international commerce security in the region" and "fighting terrorism and piracy," said senior armed forces spokesman Brigadier General Aboldazl Shekarchi.
◢ UAE state minister of foreign affairs Anwar Gargash on Sunday said Arab Gulf states should take part in negotiations with Iran amid increased tensions between Washington and Tehran. "We strongly believe that there is room for collective diplomacy to succeed," he said, adding that talks with Iran should involve the international community as well as Arab Gulf states.
◢ Iran said Saturday it has sent Iraq and Arab states of the Persian Gulf the text of its security and cooperation project first unveiled by President Hassan Rouhani at the UN in September. Rouhani "sent the full text (of the initiative) to the heads" of the Gulf Cooperation Council and Iraq and "asked for their cooperation in processing and implementing it,” the foreign ministry said.
◢ Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan visited Iran on Sunday on a mission to act as a "facilitator" between Tehran and Riyadh and try to defuse rising tensions in the Persian Gulf. "The reason for this trip is that we do not want a conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran," Khan told reporters as he stood alongside Rouhani.
◢ Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif pitched the Islamic Republic's Persian Gulf security plan to neighboring nations on Thursday. Zarif said that the plan, named Hormuz Peace Endeavor, offered the chance of "expansive security" and cooperation between Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain.
◢ Iran said on Monday that it is on track to create a new oil terminal on the Sea of Oman that would open a new export route for its crude and allow tankers to bypass the strategic Strait of Hormuz. The National Iranian Oil Company signed a contract worth around $52 million Monday with three local companies to supply 50 pumps for the pipeline project.
◢ The British-flagged oil tanker Stena Impero, which had been held off the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas for more than two months, set sail Friday, an Iranian shipping organization said. The ship's seizure was widely seen as a tit-for-tat move after authorities in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar detained an Iranian tanker.
◢ Iran's government spokesman Ali Rabiei said on Monday that a British-flagged oil tanker is "free" to leave more than two months after it was seized in the Persian Gulf. "The legal process has finished and based on that the conditions for letting the oil tanker go free have been fulfilled and the oil tanker can move," Rabiei told a news conference.
◢ President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday denounced the presence of foreign forces in the Persian Gulf and said Iran will present a peace plan, after its arch-foe Washington ordered reinforcements to the tense region. "Foreign forces can cause problems and insecurity for our people and for our region," Rouhani said before a military parade commemorating the Iran-Iraq war.
◢ US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Thursday said he preferred a “peaceful resolution” to a crisis sparked by attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure, as Iran warned against “all-out war.” Pompeo has blamed Iran for the weekend assault on two facilities which wiped out half of Saudi oil production, dismissing its denials and condemning the “act of war.”
◢ U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discussed maritime security, Iran and Yemen with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in a phone call on Wednesday. "The secretary discussed heightened tensions in the region and the need for stronger maritime security in order to promote freedom of navigation," State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said.
◢ As Boris Johnson hurtles toward a no-deal Brexit that could leave the U.K. diplomatically adrift and economically vulnerable, President Donald Trump is looking to seize an opportunity to lure the country away from Europe on some of his top foreign policy priorities: Iran and Huawei.
◢ Britain said Monday it will join forces with the United States to protect merchant vessels in the Persian Gulf amid heightened tensions with Iran, after Tehran taunted Washington that its allies were too "ashamed" to join the mission. Britain's decision to form the joint maritime taskforce with the United States marks a departure in policy under new Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
◢ Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seized a foreign oil tanker in the Persian Gulf on July 31, compounding concerns about the safety of shipping in a region crucial to oil exports. The vessel—the third foreign ship seized by the guards in the Gulf since July 14—is suspected of smuggling a large volume of fuel, the Guards said on their Sepah News portal.
