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More than two-thirds of Iran's lawmakers have endorsed a statement calling for cutting off oil sales to the European Union before EU sanctions on their country go into effect. The statement, which was read Wednesday in an open session of parliament broadcast on state radio, said "in the case of the continuation of illogical policies" by the EU, Iran will look for alternative customers for its oil before the European embargo goes into effect in the summer. The statement was signed by 200 of the parliament's 290 lawmakers.

The final “exploratory” meeting between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization ended Wednesday in Amman with no progress, official said. PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat and Israeli attorney Yitzchak Mocho made little headway in their fifth meeting, the last before the January 26 deadline set by the Quartet of peacekeeping nations to break the impasse and relaunch direct talks for a final status agreement between the two sides. "Israel has not advanced one step towards resuming negotiations,” a PLO representative told the AFP news agency. Nevertheless, Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh characterized the talks as “serious” despite the disagreements on both...

Iran continues to claim it is reaping the rewards of European sanctions even amid a deep currency crisis that rocks Tehran. In fact, the oil ministry in Tehran claims the embargo would leave Iran unscathed while inflicting "heavy economic loss" on the "people of Europe, who have been affected by crisis". The result would be a "slowdown in global economic growth, particularly in the crisis-hit Western world," said the statement. However, the value of the rial, Iran's national currency, has fallen by around 50 per cent against the dollar in the last month alone as Iran tries to circumvent sanctions...

Following New EU Sanctions, Iran Says Closing The Strait Of Hormuz Is Now Its Legal Right Robert Johnson Jan. 23, 2012, 7:49 AM Following the formal adoption of an oil embargo against Iran by the European Union, a senior Tehranian lawmaker says his country now has every right to block all traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. The Associated Press reports that Heshmatollah Falahapisheh says that closing the strait is "an increasing possibility" (via Stars and Stripes). The new EU sanctions ban all new oil contracts with Iran, while leaving contracts made before July 1 untouched. The BBC reports that...

-excerpt- Diplomats said the measures, which were adopted in Brussels by the EU's 27 foreign ministers, include an immediate embargo on new contracts for crude oil and petroleum products, while existing contracts will be allowed to run until July.

European Union foreign ministers are expected to announce a phased ban on the purchase of oil from Iran at a meeting on Monday in Brussels. It would be the latest EU measure to be introduced in retaliation for Iran's nuclear programme. The EU currently buys around 20% of Iran's oil exports. Tehran denies that it is trying to develop nuclear weapons and says talks and not sanctions are the only way to resolve the dispute.

WASHINGTON — On Dec. 31, just hours before a New Year's Eve celebration, President Barack Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012. Section 1245 of the law contains language providing authority to impose economic sanctions on Iran in order to deter the ayatollahs from acquiring nuclear weapons. White House efforts to have the sanctions provision stripped from the bill failed, and the measure became law with a quiet flourish of the presidential pen. Ever since, Washington and Tehran have been waging a war of words. None of this works to the advantage of the American...

WASHINGTON - A Republican senator on Tuesday questioned President Barack Obama's commitment to new sanctions on Iran's central bank, noting the president had claimed the right to sidestep some of the requirements when he signed them into law last week. In a statement issued as he signed a defense bill into law on Saturday, Obama said several provisions including the sanctions that target Iran's central bank "would interfere with my constitutional authority to conduct foreign relations." The president, a Democrat, said in his statement that if any application of these provisions conflicted with his constitutional authorities, "I will treat the...

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's currency hit a new record low to the U.S. dollar on Monday, two days after President Barack Obama signed into law a bill targeting Iran's central bank as part of the West's efforts to pressure Tehran over its nuclear program. State radio said the Iranian currency's exchange rate hovered around 16,800 riyals to the dollar, marking a roughly 10 percent slide compared to Thursday's rate of 15,200 riyals to the dollar. The riyal was trading at around 10,500 riyals to the U.S. dollar in late December 2010. The bill signed by Obama on Saturday includes...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - - Iran announced a nuclear fuel breakthrough and test-fired a new radar-evading medium-range missile in the Gulf on Sunday, moves that could further antagonize the West at a time when Tehran is trying to avert harsh new sanctions on its oil industry. U.S. President Barack Obama signed a law on Saturday imposing tougher financial sanctions to penalize Iran for a nuclear research programme that the West suspects is aimed at developing nuclear weapons.

Iran today threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz if the United Nations imposes sanctions on Iranian oil as a response to Iran’s sketchy uranium enrichment program, according to a report from Reuters. Iran has defiantly expanded nuclear activity despite four rounds of U.N. sanctions meted out since 2006 over its refusal to suspend sensitive uranium enrichment and open up to U.N. nuclear inspectors and investigators.Many diplomats and analysts believe only sanctions targeting Iran’s lifeblood oil sector might be painful enough to make it change course, but Russia and China - big trade partners of Tehran – have blocked such...

Picture of a sign held by Syrian protestors:

The US House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved tough new sanctions aimed at forcing Iran to freeze what the West says is a nuclear weapons program and punishing Syria and North Korea. US President Barack Obama's Democrats joined the chamber's Republican majority to back the harsh punitive measures in a pair of lopsided votes, 410-11 and 418-2, highlighting Washington's hostility to all three nations. But the fate of the legislation was unclear in the Democratic-led Senate, where aides have said privately that the bills would not reach Obama amid concerns about roiling ties with trading partners as well as...

Israel calls for "paralysing" sanctions on IranReuters – 15 hours ago VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran's ruling clerics could use nuclear weapons to strengthen their grip on power and the world must urgently impose crippling sanctions to prevent them from building such arms, Israel's defence minister said on Sunday. Ehud Barak also predicted that Syria's ruling Assad family could fall within weeks and that this would be a "blessing" for the Middle East. "Something is wrong with this family, the way they suppress the will of the Syrian people, killing them, slaughtering their own people," he told a conference in Vienna....

The Obama administration is urging US lawmakers to soften proposed sanctions targeting Iran's central bank, Senator Mark Kirk said on Tuesday. Kirk, a Republican, is the co-author along with Democratic Senator Robert Menendez of a proposal to penalize foreign financial institutions that do business with Iran's central bank, the main conduit for its oil revenues. The Senate approved the proposal last week 100-0 despite lobbying against it by Obama administration officials, who argued that threatening US allies might not be the best way to get cooperation in action against Iran. A similar measure is pending in the House of Representatives;...

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Looking to heap economic pressure on Iran over its suspect nuclear program, US senators on Thursday introduced legislation aimed at collapsing the country's central bank with tough new sanctions... The measure, crafted by Republican Senator Mark Kirk, would empower President Barack Obama to cut off any foreign financial institution that does business with Iran's central bank from the US economy and to freeze its US assets... "Without immediate and serious action, the Islamic Republic of Iran will have a nuclear weapons capability in the near future," Kirk said, adding: "We must act now or face the consequences...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States plans to sanction Iran's petrochemical industry, sources familiar with the matter said on Friday, seeking to raise pressure on Tehran after fresh allegations it may be pursuing nuclear weapons. The sources said Washington wanted to send a strong signal after the U.N. nuclear watchdog issued a November 8 report saying Iran appeared to have worked on designing an atomic bomb and may still be secretly carrying out related research. The sources, who said the sanctions could be unveiled as early as Monday, said the Washington wanted to find a way to bar foreign companies...

The Arab League voted to suspend SyriaÂ’s membership at its meeting on Saturday and said it would impose economic and political sanctions against the regime of Bashar al-Assad as well as call for the withdrawal of Arab ambassadors from Damascus. The Arab foreign ministers meeting at the LeagueÂ’s headquarters in Cairo also called on the Syrian army to cease its involvement in the killing of civilians and invited the Syrian opposition for transition talks. Opponents of Assad were hoping that the Arab League would suspend SyriaÂ’s membership after Assad pressed ahead with a military crackdown on the unrest despite an...

April Gallop alleged in her initial complaint that a plane did not hit the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, but that a bomb had been detonated instead, and members of the government knew about the attack in advance. The 2nd Circuit in Manhattan upheld a federal judge's dismissal of the case after finding that Gallop had "failed to present anything beyond vague and conclusory allegations of conspiracy." In the April 2011 ruling, the three-judge panel ordered Gallop and her attorneys to show cause as to why they should not be sanctioned for forcing the court "to consider, and the government...

Istanbul (CNN) -- Turkey's fiery prime minister ratcheted up rapidly-escalating tensions with Israel on Tuesday, comparing Ankara's once-close ally in the Middle East to a "spoiled boy" and announcing additional sanctions would soon be imposed. "We are completely suspending all of these, trade relations, military relations, related with the defense industry," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, according to the semi-official Anatolian Agency. "All of these are completely suspended and other measures will follow this process." Asked to clarify whether this meant Turkey will halt more than $3 billion in bilateral trade, an official in the Turkish prime ministry, speaking on condition...

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's nuclear chief on Monday proposed to allow the U.N. nuclear watchdog "full supervision" of its nuclear activities for five years provided that sanctions against Tehran are lifted, but the official did not give details of his offer. The United Nations has imposed four rounds of Security Council sanctions over Tehran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment, a technology that can be used to produce nuclear fuel or materials for an atomic bomb. Iran's nuclear program is already subject to routine IAEA inspections. IAEA cameras monitor Iran's nuclear activities. including its contentious uranium enrichment sites. Vice President Fereidoun...

The European Union is expected to announce new sanctions against Syria on Friday, AFP reported. The new sanctions will include a ban on Syrian oil imports and will see the expansion of the EU’s list of people targeted by an assets freeze and travel ban. Four new businessmen accused of bankrolling the regime of President Bashar Assad will be added to the list, diplomats told the French news agency on Thursday. As well, three companies, including a bank, will see their assets in the EU frozen as punishment for the regime's deadly repression of protesters, the sources said on condition...

Iran's defense minister claimed Sunday his country's missile progress demonstrates UN sanctions are ineffective and won't stop Tehran's military initiatives, Gulf News reports. The statement by General Ahmad Vahidi comes during this year's 10-day "Great Prophet-6" war games, which analysts say is Iran's latest show of military might. Tehran, who are billing the war games as a 'sign of peace for the region,' claim they have demonstrated growing self-sufficiency in military and other technologies. Vahidi said Iran's missile program is "indigenous" and has no reliance on foreign countries to meet its defence requirements. Iran is under four sets of UN...

<p>WASHINGTON - The U.S. Navy forced a North Korean ship on its way to Myanmar to return home after a standoff two weeks ago, The New York Times reported Sunday. The Times said the U.S. suspected the North Korean cargo vessel, the M/V Light, was carrying missile technology to Myanmar.</p>

First, the spin, compliments of the Obama administration: The Office of Foreign Assets Control plans to withdraw the Taliban Sanctions Regulations issued under former President Bill Clinton, which banned all financial transactions with members of Taliban and placed an embargo on trade with areas of Afghanistan they controlled.... The agency says it is withdrawing the regulations because they were made redundant by the fall of the Taliban from power in Afghanistan and subsequent executive orders which more narrowly targeted individual members of the Taliban... Nice, benign spin, but here's the real deal: The 2012 Presidential campaign has already started, which...

Chinese aid is making up for a large portion of the losses the North is suffering from the South Korean and international sanctions. As long as China refuses to re-evaluate North Korea's security and political value, Beijing's assistance looks set to continue. Here, opposition party lawmakers and leftwing groups are now saying Seoul should lift its sanctions since they have no effect. Some even say Seoul must not let the North fall under Chinese economic control.

WASHINGTON -- Arizona Sen. John McCain joined three other senators Wednesday in supporting President Barack Obama's decision to impose sanctions on Syrian leader Bashar al Assad and other top Syrian officials. McCain signed the statement along with fellow Republicans Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Marco Rubio of Florida and Independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut. "We applaud President Obama for imposing sanctions on Bashar al Assad and other top Syrian officials," the senators' statement said. "The President's strong and principled action today should send an unmistakable message that the United States stands in solidarity with the brave protesters in Syria...

The European Union announced on Monday that it would be imposing an arms embargo on Syria, The Associated Press reported. In a statement, the EU said that it is banning shipments to Syria of “arms and equipment that could be used for internal repression.” The statement also noted that the EU will be prohibiting 13 Syrian “officials and associates of the Syrian regime” from traveling anywhere within the EU and would be freezing their assets. The 13 have been identified as being responsible for the violent repression against the civilian protests in the country. While the names of the officials...

WASHINGTON, April 29 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama signed an executive order on Friday imposing new sanctions against Syria's intelligence agency and two relatives of President Bashar al-Assad in response to a crackdown on protests, senior U.S. officials said.

The Obama administration is drafting sanctions against Syrian government officials responsible for the escalating violence against protesters, the Wall Street Journal reported. After weeks of treading lightly as it weighed its support for the protesters with a desire to engage with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the White House seems to have come down on the side of the swelling ranks of protesters. Obama condemned the brutality of Syrian security forces after more than 100 protesters were killed in Friday's protests alone, as the total death toll climbed above 300 this weekend. The sanctions would freeze senior government officials' assets in...

Barack Obama recently issued an executive order imposing a wave of sanctions against Libya, not only freezing Libyan assets, but barring Americans from having business dealings with Libyan banks. So raise your hand if you knew that the United States has been extending billions of dollars in aid to Qaddafi and to the Central Bank of Libya, through a Libyan-owned subsidiary bank operating out of Bahrain. And raise your hand if you knew that, just a week or so after Obama’s executive order, the U.S. Treasury Department quietly issued an order exempting this and other Libyan-owned banks to continue operating...

If Tehran continues with its nuclear program, other nations should threaten it with military action, Benjamin Netanyahu has said. The sanctions imposed on Iran by the United Nations Security Council are not enough, the Israeli prime minister told CNN. He expressed concern that Iran may gain additional influence during the recent upheaval across the Middle East. Iran should know that "if it fails to cooperate, there will be credible military actions," Netanyahu said. He believes it is the only thing that could stop Tehran's nuclear program. According to the prime minister, such actions from the international community would knock out...

WASHINGTON -- The United States moved closer Friday to imposing new sanctions on Muammar al-Qaddafi's regime after hundreds of Americans were evacuated from Libya. Washington considered closing its embassy in Tripoli as fresh violence rocked the country, sources told The Associated Press. The Obama administration could impose travel bans, freeze assets and take other steps against Qaddafi loyalists as early as Friday, officials said. They said closing the embassy also was an option, though the announcement of any punitive steps depended on the safety of Americans and other foreigners remaining in the Arab country. Officials spoke on condition of anonymity...

The disastrous Lane Kiffin Era has been officially recognized by the NCAA. It doesn't appear Hurricane Lane will be causing much more damage at Tennessee though. The Vols finally received their long-anticipated Notice of Allegations on Tuesday, and when released publicly for the first time by the athletic department on Wednesday, the broken rules all had a similar theme. The 16 impermissible phone calls, impermissible contact with recruits and the use of an intern to make contact with a high school staff all happened under Kiffin's watch - and the NCAA specifically targeted him with charges of failure to monitor...

ISTANBUL—The point man for the Obama administration's financial wars on Iran, North Korea and al Qaeda, Stuart Levey, has decided to leave his senior U.S. Treasury Department post at what is turning out to be a particularly critical time. Mr. Levey's departure will leave President Barack Obama without the principal architect of Washington's economic-sanctions campaign against Tehran, just as that campaign is likely to be ramped up following the breakdown of talks among Iran, the U.S. and a bloc of global powers on Saturday. The negotiations, held in Turkey, were aimed at curtailing Iran's nuclear program. With no date set...

-Excerpt- (on engagement with Iran)The second issue is with regard to with whom we engage. Many people talk about different Iranian power centres. The fact of the matter is, however, that we shouldn't be engaging with people who don't have power over the decision making in Iran. It's not enough to say 'Well, we engaged with this diplomat, but the Revolutionary Guard did this, so we can't blame Iran for its lack of sincerity'. Either we're engaging with the wrong people, or Iran is being insincere. What I do notice is that while the Americans seem to celebrate meeting with...

Iran today may be the most sanctioned country on earth. After the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 2005 finding that Tehran was not in compliance with its Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty safeguards obligations, the United Nations Security Council has slapped four sets of sanctions on the Islamic Republic, the most recent round in June. However, in order to hide its activities and protect its resources, the Iranian regime has mastered a version of Three-card Monte: For every Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps front company or bank that the international community sanctions, the Iranian government simply creates another. The fact is that the quest...

President Obama issued a waiver loosening Tiananmen arms sanctions for C-130 military transports for China a day after the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to an imprisoned Chinese dissident who dedicated the prize this past weekend to the victims of the 1989 crackdown. Chinese state-run news media on Monday hailed the White House waiver announcement as a sign Washington is moving to lift the 11-year-old arms embargo. However, White House National Security Council spokesman Michael Hammer said the waiver issued on Saturday will not allow C-130s sales. "Under this announcement, we are not selling any aircraft to anyone," he stated...

Workers at two plants in southern Iran went on strike this week to demand unpaid wages, RFE/RL's Radio Farda reports. An employee at Kaghaz Pars Haftapeh, a paper mill in southwestern Iran, told RFE/RL on October 7 on condition of anonymity that workers had not been paid for three months. "Our production remains at a normal level, we produce and distribute paper, but we don't receive our salaries," he said. "I don't know where the money is going." He added that "the plant's retired workers have not received their pensions since last year -- they live in absolute poverty." A...

BERLIN – Authorities in the Netherlands improperly supplied nuclear equipment to the sanctioned Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), the Dutch Economic Affairs Ministry wrote in an October 4 letter obtained by The Jerusalem Post. According to Economic Affairs Minister Maria van der Hoeven’s letter, “That shipment contained a helium-leak detector, which was ordered by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in line with its technical cooperation program with Iran, [but] was shipped to a banned recipient (AEOI).” The UN agency’s involvement in the delivery of EUsanctioned material raises thorny questions about the role of the IAEA in monitoring Iran’s...

AFP - Two of the eight Iranian officials targeted by Washington with sanctions for alleged human rights abuses on Saturday mocked the moves against them by US President Barack Obama as a "joke." Welfare Minister Sadeq Mahsouli and deputy police chief Ahmad Reza Radan said Obama's decision questioned the very perception of the United States as a superpower.

Energy giants Total, Shell, Statoil and Eni have pledged to end their investments in Iran. The pledges fall in line with tough new energy and financial measures the U.S. Congress imposed on Iran in June, which came atop U.N. Security Council sanctions imposed earlier the same month to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions.

WASHINGTON - UNDER threat of US sanctions, European oil firms Total, Shell, Statoil and Eni have pledged to stop investing in Iran in what amounts to a 'significant setback' to Teheran, a US official said on Thursday. The pledges fall in line with new energy and financial measures against Iran that US President Barack Obama signed into law in July in the wake of UN Security Council sanctions imposed in June to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions. 'We have received commitments from four international energy firms to terminate their investments and avoid any new activity in Iran's energy sector,' Deputy Secretary...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 (UPI) -- Iranian officials accused of serious human-rights abuses are targeted under a new round of U.S. sanctions, the White House announced Wednesday. President Barack Obama signed an executive order that authorizes the departments of State and Treasury to impose sanctions on eight Iranian government officials tied to serious human-rights abuses against the people of Iran, a White House statement said. -excerpt- The individuals listed are subject to financial sanctions and visa ineligibility under U.S. law, the statement said.

If economic sanctions fail to stop Iran's march toward the bomb, and either the U.S. or Israel is compelled to use force against the Iranian nuclear program, China will shoulder at least some of the blame. Since this summer, concerted international pressure has unmistakably tightened the financial noose around Iran's ayatollahs. The June passage of a new round of United Nations sanctions against the Islamic Republic has been followed by an exodus of European and Asian firms from the Iranian market, and new, stricter regulations on financial dealings with the regime in Tehran. Simultaneously, unilateral American sanctions have honed in...

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who arrived in New York on Sunday for the UN General Assembly meetings this week, described international sanctions against his country as meaningless and ineffective, as consternation about Iran’s nuclear future grows. When asked about Fidel Castro’s recent comments, in which the Cuban leader told Ahmadinejad to stop attacking the Jews, denying the Holocaust and being anti- Semitic, Ahmadinejad said he is not an anti-Semite. “We’ve never been anti- Semitic – when was I anti- Semitic?” he said. “The Jews live in Iran, like every other person who lives in Iran freely.”

Bank Mellat, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL), have facilitated hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions to help aid Iran's nuclear, missile, and defense entities.

Among U.S. allies across the world, Korea faces perhaps the biggest dilemma over the U.S.-initiated sanctions against Iran for its nuclear development program. Iran is Korea’s biggest export market in the Middle East and joining in the sanctions will instantly affect the trade with a two-way volume of $1 billion. But Seoul, on the joint front with Washington in the hard process of denuclearizing North Korea, cannot afford to lose U.S. confidence in its support for the global nonproliferation efforts. Washington delivered its specific requests for the anti-Iranian measures when Robert Einhorn, the State Department’s special advisor, visited Seoul earlier...

South Korea - a country that we have been protecting with our soldiers and their lives for more than 60 years - is dragging its feet in helping us deal with the Iran-nuclear weapons problem. How many Americans have lost lives for South Korea? How many soldiers do we have there now? and what about the cost to Americans to protect South Korea? They are dragging their feet because they make lots of money in Iran...but, besides the loyalty issue to the United States for years of help and friendship, would you not also think they would want Iran to...

WASHINGTON — An Iranian activist is suing Nokia Siemens before a US court, accusing the firm and its parent companies of supplying the Iranian government with technology it used to spy on dissidents. Moawad & Herischi, the Maryland firm that filed the suit Monday, said Isa Saharkhiz alleges "human rights violations committed by the Iranian government (were carried out) through the aid of spying centers which were provided by Nokia Siemens Networks." The firm said Isa Saharkhiz, an Iranian journalist and political dissident, was arrested "as a result of the surveillance and monitoring of his cell phone communications in the...