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All in News
◢ Some of the world's leading carriers including British Airways, Qantas and Singapore Airlines on Friday suspended flights over the Strait of Hormuz, as Iran-US tensions flare over the downing of a drone. The suspensions came after the Federal Aviation Administration issued a notice, "prohibiting US-registered aircraft from operating over the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman.”
◢ The U.S. called off military strikes against Iran on Thursday night that were approved by President Donald Trump, according to an administration official, abandoning a move that would have dramatically escalated tensions that are already running high between the two countries. The attack, ordered after Iranian forces shot down a U.S. Navy drone over the Strait of Hormuz, would have involved airstrikes and was close to being carried out when it was stopped.
◢ Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Thursday a US surveillance drone "violated Iranian airspace" before being shot down earlier in the day, providing coordinates to back his claim. The drone "was targeted at 04:05 at the coordinates (25°59'43"N 57°02'25"E) near Kouh-e Mobarak. We've retrieved sections of the US military drone in OUR territorial waters where it was shot down."
◢ Oil prices jumped Thursday on rising US-Iran tensions, with gains accelerating on a cryptic tweet by US President Donald Trump after Iranian forces shot down a US spy drone. President Donald Trump said Thursday that Tehran had made a "very big" error, after Iranian forces shot down a US spy drone near the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
◢ President Emmanuel Macron sent his top diplomatic adviser to Iran this week as part of European efforts to defuse tensions between Tehran and Washington, the French presidency said Thursday. The adviser, Emmanuel Bonne, held "high-level meetings" Wednesday in Tehran,” with the aim of contributing to the deescalation of tensions in the region,” Macron's office said.
◢ Iran shot down a US spy drone Thursday near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, with the two sides at odds whether it was in Iranian or international airspace, in the latest incident stoking tensions between the arch-foes. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the "US-made Global Hawk surveillance drone" was hit with a missile "after violating Iranian air space" over the waters of Hormozgan province.
◢ After being hit by the trade war and U.S. sanctions on Iran, some Chinese buyers of liquefied petroleum gas from the Persian Gulf nation are finding it’s too tough a habit to kick. China probably isn’t complying with U.S. sanctions on Iranian crude, U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette said Friday, adding that he didn’t have any hard evidence to show this.
◢ The U.K. government settled a 1.3 billion-pound ($1.6 billion) damages claim brought by an Iranian bank over a trading ban just as a "costly and potentially embarrassing" five-week trial was set to begin. The U.K. and Bank Mellat settled the London lawsuit for an undisclosed sum, a spokesman for law firm Zaiwalla & Co., which represented the bank, said in a statement.
◢ China on Tuesday warned against opening a "Pandora's box" in the Middle East after the United States announced the deployment of 1,000 additional troops to the region amid escalating tensions with Iran. Foreign Minister Wang Yi also urged Tehran to not abandon the nuclear agreement "so easily" after Iran said it would exceed its uranium stockpile limit if world powers fail to fulfill their commitments under the agreement in 10 days.
◢ French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday urged Iran to be "patient and responsible" after Tehran said it would surpass the uranium stockpile limit set under the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers that the US has abandoned. "I regret Iran's announcements today.... We strongly encourage Iran to behave in a way that is patient and responsible," Macron said in a press conference at the presidential palace in Paris.
◢ Germany and Britain on Monday warned Tehran not to breach uranium stockpile limits set by the 2015 nuclear deal, as the EU's diplomatic chief dismissed Iranian threats as "political dialectics.” Iran set a 10-day countdown on Monday to exceed the 300-kilogram limit set on its enriched uranium stocks, dealing another blow to the crumbling nuclear accord signed by Tehran and six international powers.
◢ European states on Monday urged caution in attributing blame for last week's tanker attacks in the Gulf, pointedly refusing to fall in line with Washington's assessment that Iran was behind the incidents. Several EU foreign ministers arriving for talks in Luxembourg backed UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres' call for an independent investigation into explosions that damaged two tankers.
◢ Iran will surpass the uranium stockpile limit set under the nuclear deal agreed with world powers from June 27, a top official said Monday on state television. "Today the countdown to pass the 300 kilograms reserve of enriched uranium has started and in 10 days time we will pass this limit," Iran's atomic energy organization spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said at a press conference broadcast live.
◢ Iran's Guardian Council said Saturday it sent a bill that would allow Iranian mothers married to foreigners to confer citizenship on their children back to parliament, citing "security" concerns. In a statement on its website, the council said it did not have an issue with the spirit of the bill, but rather the absence of any clauses allowing authorities to address "security" issues potentially arising from the activities of foreign fathers.
◢ The United States has granted Iraq another 90-day waiver to continue with vital energy imports from neighboring Iran despite re-imposed sanctions, a government source said Saturday. The extension came after "long discussions" with Washington ahead of a looming deadline on a previous extension granted in December, the official, close to the negotiations, told AFP on condition of anonymity.
◢ There’s “no doubt” Iran was responsible for attacks on two oil tankers leaving the Persian Gulf last week, and the U.S. will guarantee safe commercial navigation going forward with its partners, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said. “The United States is going make sure that we take all the actions necessary, diplomatic and otherwise, that achieve that outcome,” Pompeo said on Sunday.
◢ Two oil tankers were damaged on Thursday in a suspected attack near the entrance to the Persian Gulf, stoking fears that high-stakes diplomatic efforts won’t avert a military confrontation between the U.S. and Iran. Oil prices surged. The incidents, including an attack on a Japanese-operated vessel, were the second in a month to hit ships near the Strait of Hormuz chokepoint, through which about 40% of the world’s seaborne oil travels.
◢ Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told visiting Shinzo Abe that his country doesn’t intend to produce, possess or use nuclear weapons, the Japanese leader said after a trip aimed at easing tensions between the U.S. and Iran. Abe, making the first visit of a sitting Japanese prime minister to Iran in 41 years, held talks with Khamenei on Thursday.
◢ Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe urged Tehran to play a "constructive role" for Middle East peace Wednesday during a rare diplomatic mission to the Islamic republic aimed at defusing US-Iran tensions. Iran has been locked in a bitter standoff with the United States since US President Donald Trump withdrew from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal in May last year.
◢ The US Treasury placed Iraq-based South Wealth Resources on its sanctions blacklist Wednesday, saying the company is an important weapons trafficking and financial front for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Treasury said the company, Manabea Tharwat al-Janoob General Trading Company, was used by the IRGC to smuggle "hundreds of millions of dollars' worth" of weapons to IRGC allies in Iraq.
