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The gold appears to have been released as part of a sanctions relief package that will have awarded Iran nearly $12 billion in unfrozen cash assets by the time negotiations wrap up next week. The State Department calculates that Iran will have received a total of $11.9 billion in cash assets. The governor of Iran’s Central Bank announced to the country’s state-controlled media that the South Africans have finally returned the 13 tons of gold. “A sum of 13 tons of gold that had been purchased before and was deposited in South Africa in the past two years and could...

[1]The Goldberg interview with Obama reads like a conversation with an idiot. Actually make that two idiots, both of whom are also compulsive liars.One of the highlights of their insane exchange is when Obama tries to insist that Iran won’t be more dangerous if it gets another $150 billion. Obama: The question is, if Iran has $150 billion parked outside the country, does the IRGC automatically get $150 billion? Does that $150 billion then translate by orders of magnitude into their capacity to project power throughout the region? So Obama brings out the math, and by math, I mean...

President Barack Obama has defended the impending nuclear deal with Iran by promising Americans that there will be automatic “snap-back” provisions to restore sanctions automatically if Iran cheats on its obligations: “If Iran violates the deal, sanctions can be snapped back into place,” he said in April. On Wednesday, Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told Bloomberg News that there would be no such provisions: “There can be no automaticity, none whatsoever,” he said. The Russian rebuke came in the same week that Secretary of State John Kerry was in Russia to meet directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin himself (after...

“It’s not true,” Harf said of the dispatch. She added that there had been no change in the administration’s position regarding phased sanctions relief, but she didn’t seem to realize that this assertion failed to contradict The Journal’s reporting. “They won’t get relief until they take nuclear-related steps,” the State Department spokeswoman added. “And those cannot technically, probably happen on day one.” Well, that’s reassuring.

JERUSALEM (AP) — As the international community moves to finalize a nuclear deal with Iran, Israel's prime minister says crippling sanctions should be maintained against the Islamic Republic until the country ends its regional "aggression."

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Iran Deal Secrets Revealed – by IranPosted By Kenneth R. Timmerman On March 13, 2015 @ 12:46 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 1 Comment Much is being made of the letter signed by 45 U.S. Senators, all of them Republican, aimed at schooling Iranian leaders in the requirements of the U.S. Constitution.Secretary Kerry said his reaction was “utter disbelief” that the Senators would “go behind” the back of the administration during a delicate international negotiation. Some on the American Left called it “treason,” conveniently forgetting that some of their own (including Kerry, as a junior Senator) have met with enemy...

At least $1 billion in cash has been smuggled into Iran as it seeks to avoid Western sanctions, a bigger figure than previously reported, Iranian officials and Western intelligence and diplomatic sources say. Sanctions imposed by the West over Iran’s nuclear program have shut Tehran out of the global banking system, making it hard to obtain the U.S. dollars it needs for international transactions. In December, the U.S. Treasury said the Iranian government had obtained hundreds of millions of dollars in bank notes using front companies. Interviews by Reuters with Iranian officials and Western diplomatic and intelligence sources show a...

European officials have reportedly relayed a message to Israeli officials about the Obama administration’s plans concerning the ongoing nuclear negotiations with Iran. The U.S. and Iran are reportedly closing in on a deal that would allow the Ayatollah’s regime to keep the vast majority of its centrifuges running, while also allowing for Iran to be in charge of stabilizing its surrounding region. Israeli Army Radio reports that the deal is being brokered between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. The Iranians would purportedly have to make sure that there are no flare-ups in...

In a sometimes heated meeting with Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., several House Democrats expressed anger Wednesday over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s acceptance of a Republican invitation to address Congress next month. Some of the seven lawmakers—all of whom are Jewish and strong supporters of Israel—urged the prime minister to postpone the speech or hold it somewhere other than Congress, participants said. They told Ambassador Ron Dermer that Netanyahu was unwise to accept a GOP invitation that bypassed President Barack Obama, and to schedule the speech only two weeks before Netanyahu seeks another term in Israel’s elections. The meeting’s purpose...

The Obama administration on Wednesday paid $490 million in cash assets to Iran and will have released a total of $11.9 billion to the Islamic Republic by the time nuclear talks are scheduled to end in June, according to figures provided by the State Department. Today’s $490 million release, the third such payment of this amount since Dec. 10, was agreed to by the Obama administration under the parameters of another extension in negotiations over Tehran’s contested nuclear program that was inked in November. Iran will receive a total of $4.9 billion in unfrozen cash assets via 10 separate payments...

At least 220 Iranian MPs have signed a bill that will oblige the President Hassan Rouhani’s government to cancel the Geneva nuclear deal, in case if there are any new sanctions imposed on Iran from the US. Ebrahim Karkhanei, chairman of the Iranian parliament's nuclear committee forecasted that more MPs will sign the bill in coming days, Iran’s Fars news agency reported Feb. 2. The bill reads that Iran will implement a comprehensive nuclear deal only if sanctions are lifted all at once, the Iranian MP said. Karkhanei added that according to the bill if the US side takes new...

Partial Transcript Courtesy of ABC News of Sunday’s Freedom Partners 2016 Presidential Forum with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Sen Marco Rubio (R-FL), moderated by ABC’s Jonathan Karl, on the issue of Iran sanctions.

Ten Senate Democrats warned the White House in a letter Tuesday that they will support legislation imposing new sanctions on Iran if a framework to roll back the country’s nuclear program isn’t reached within two months. "In acknowledgement of your concern regarding congressional action on legislation at this moment, we will not vote for this legislation on the Senate floor before March 24," said the letter, led by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), who is the co-author of Iran sanctions legislation. "After March 24, we will only vote for this legislation on the Senate floor if Iran fails to reach agreement...

US President Barack Obama has thoroughly bungled the US's approach to the Iranian nuclear program, former US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton stated in a special Arutz Sheva interview. "I think the President has said for some time that all options are on the table with respect to Iran's nuclear weapons program, but nobody really believes it," Bolton stated. "Worst of all, the Iranians don't believe it." "There is no credible American military threat against Iran's nuclear weapons program, and that's a possible reason why Iran continues to stall, continues to drag out the P5+1 negotiations, continues to ask...

Writing for the online Politico newsmagazine, Ross argues that American allies in the region are growing more apprehensive over what they see as growing Iranian influence in the region. Former US peace envoy Dennis Ross (L), seen here with late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in 2000 Former US peace envoy Dennis Ross (L), seen here with late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in 2000. (photo credit:REUTERS) Dennis Ross, the veteran Mideast hand and former peace envoy, criticized his former boss, US President Barack Obama, for “not being tough enough” with Iran in light of the stalled nuclear talks and the recent...

Column one: Iran, Obama, Boehner and Netanyahu Iran has apparently produced an intercontinental ballistic missile whose range far exceeds the distance between Iran and Israel, and between Iran and Europe. On Wednesday night, Channel 2 showed satellite imagery taken by Israel’s Eros-B satellite that was launched last April. The imagery showed new missile-related sites that Iran recently constructed just outside Tehran. One facility is a missile launch site, capable of sending a rocket into space or of firing an ICBM. On the launch pad was a new 27-meter long missile, never seen before. The missile and the launch pad indicate...

A senior Israeli official delivered an uncommonly harsh attack on US President Barack Obama's administration Thursday evening, following the American report that alleged that Mossad Head Tamir Pardo had warned US senators against further Iran sanctions, in contradiction of Israel's official stance. "The fraudulent claims against the Mossad Head were raised by the Americans yesterday, despite a message that had been transmitted to them on Tuesday by Intelligence Minister [Yuval] Steintz,” the senior Israeli source told Channel 2 news. He added that Israel had gone over the minutes of the meeting between Pardo and the delegation of senators, and that...

The Israeli intelligence agency Mossad has broken ranks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, telling U.S. officials and lawmakers that a new Iran sanctions bill in the U.S. Congress would tank the Iran nuclear negotiations. Already, the Barack Obama administration and some leading Republican senators are using the Israeli internal disagreement to undermine support for the bill, authored by Republican Mark Kirk and Democrat Robert Menendez, which would enact new sanctions if current negotiations falter. Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee -- supported by Republican Senators Lindsay Graham and John McCain -- is pushing for his own legislation...

Boehner and Bibi blindside Barack There is a heaping helping of poetic justice in Speaker Boehner’s invitation to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress on Iran sanctions. Just a week ago, the president stood alongside British PM David Cameron as he confessed to lobbying Senators on Iran sanctions, not uttering a peep about any impropriety in a foreign head of government interfering in domestic politics. Of course, that didn’t stop press secretary Josh Earnest, who will say anything, from protesting: Press secretary Josh Earnest said Wednesday afternoon that Boehner's invitation is a breach of normal diplomatic protocol. Typically,...