Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States has warned Beijing over reported use of Chinese weapons by insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the Asian giant's continued sale of arms to Iran, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said Thursday. He said he conveyed the concerns personally to Chinese officials during his visit to Beijing this week. "Just the other day, Monday, when I was in Beijing, this was one of the issues I raised -- concern about Chinese weapons or Chinese-designed weapons showing up in some of these battle areas, be it Iraq or Afghanistan," he told a...

An Iranian-born United States citizen was sentenced here yesterday in US District Court to two years in prison and six months of home confinement for illegaly exporting US military aircraft parts to Iran via associates in Germany and the United Arab Emirates. Reza Tabib, 52, of Irvine, CA, pleaded guilty in June 2006 to violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which prohibits the export and re-export to Iran of certain items of US origin. The prosecution is the result of a joint investigation by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS). In...

TEHRAN (AFP) - Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday declared Iran was "not afraid" of sanctions over its contested nuclear programme and would further step up its progress. ADVERTISEMENT "We are not afraid of Western sanctions," he told thousands of people in a speech in the southern city of Shiraz broadcast by state television. "The Iranian people, thanks to God, will resist in the face of sanctions and economic blockades and will further intensify their progress." Iran has been hit by three sets of UN Security Council sanctions over its nuclear programme, mainly targeting its ballistic missile and atomic...

TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran's leading shipping company has said US sanctions against Tehran over its controversial nuclear programme have hurt the industry, the Aftab Yazd newspaper reported on Wednesday. "Currently, because of unfair UN sanctions and US pressure on foreign ships not to cooperate with Iranian-flagged ships, we cannot have our flag on all of our vessels," the head of Bonyad Shipping Company (BOSCO), Ali Safarali, was quoted as saying. Safarali said that the state shipping organisation receives a 10 percent ports duty from Iranian ships that sail under foreign flags. This puts the industry under double pressure -- both...

Analysis: How Iranians are Avoiding Sanctions April 14, 2008 The Financial Times Anna Fifield in Tehran When Shahrom, a Tehran developer, wants to transfer thousands of dollars to his property investment business in Dubai, or to associates in the US, he does not go to the bank. Instead, like thousands of other Iranian business people, he turns to his trusted money changer. Using a centuries-old financial transfer system known as havaleh in Iran and elsewhere as hawala, its Arabic name, Shahrom moves his money easily – and just about invisibly. “I usually transfer money into my own account in Dubai...

PERUGIA, Italy -- The Libyan officer tried to cloak the purpose of his call to the Italian arms dealer. "A friend," he said, wanted to buy 1 million "pieces" and 50 million items of "food." But when that phone call was placed in 2006, Italian police were listening. They knew the meaning. Libya was shopping for guns - lots of them. Authorities shadowed the negotiations between Libyan officials and a group of black-market dealers from across Italy for a year before they moved in and broke up what would have been a $64 million deal for hundreds of thousands of...

U.S. Ready to Ease Sanctions on N. Korea Pyongyang Would Have to Acknowledge Evidence About Nuclear Activities By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, April 11, 2008; A15 The United States is prepared to lift two key economic sanctions against North Korea under a tentative deal reached with that country this week, which requires Pyongyang to acknowledge U.S. concerns and evidence about a range of nuclear activities, U.S. and Asian diplomats said yesterday. The agreement also requires North Korea to finish disabling its main nuclear facility and provide a full accounting of its stockpile of plutonium. But, in a...

A lawyer who sent out hundreds of thousands of threatening letters demanding that alleged file-sharers pay 400 euros, has been banned from operating for 6 months. Elizabeth Martin, who had been working with Swiss anti-piracy outfit, Logistep, was condemned by the Paris Bar Council. For anti-piracy company, Logistep, life is becoming more and more difficult by the day. They have been deemed to be operating illegally in Italy and have been slammed over privacy issues in the home country, Switzerland. Now, according to a report - and to add further insult to this growing pile of misery - a lawyer...

Dorset man smuggling parts to Iran, says US By Patrick Sawer A British pensioner is at the centre of a worldwide police hunt after being accused by United States authorities of smuggling military parts to Iran. Brian Woodford, 77, who owns a 17th century manor house and 100-acre estate in Dorset, has been charged in his absence with selling millions of pounds worth of US military and civilian aircraft parts to the Islamic regime in Tehran. His wife Laura was arrested after arriving at San Francisco on a flight from Hong Kong with two catalogues from a Chinese company that...

HONG KONG, China, China has shipped its latest-version FN-6 portable ground-to-air missiles to Sudan, video footage of that country's 2007 Independence Day military parade has revealed. These are the most advanced ground-to-air missiles China has introduced to the international market, and the footage is the first evidence that the missiles have actually been exported. The FN-6, referred to internally by the People's Liberation Army as the HY-6, is equipped with an all-digital infrared seeker. It has a maximum range of 5 kilometers (just over 3 miles), maximum firing latitude of 4 kilometers (2.5 miles), and a response time of 10...

Accused Saddam Agent Says He Met With Hillary at White House By IRA STOLL, STAFF REPORTER OF THE SUN | March 27, 2008 A Michigan man facing federal criminal charges of illegally working for Saddam Hussein's Iraqi Intelligence Service says he met with Hillary Clinton at the White House in May 1996. In a 1997 interview with this reporter, Muthanna Hanooti said that at the meeting, Mrs. Clinton was "very receptive" to his request for an easing of the American sanctions on Iraq that were in place at the time. He said Mrs. Clinton "passed a message to the State...

WASHINGTON - Federal prosecutors say Saddam Hussein's intelligence agency secretly financed a trip to Iraq for three U.S. lawmakers during the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion. An indictment in Detroit accuses Muthanna Al-Hanooti of arranging for three members of Congress to travel to Iraq in October 2002 at the behest of Saddam's regime. Prosecutors say Iraqi intelligence officials paid for the trip through an intermediary. In exchange, Al-Hanooti allegedly received 2 million barrels of Iraqi oil. The lawmakers are not mentioned but the dates correspond to a trip by Democratic Reps. Jim McDermott of Washington, David Bonior of Michigan and...

Treasury Warns Of Deception By Iran Treasury Warns Banks That Iran Is Engaging In Deceptive Practices To Skirt Sanctions WASHINGTON, Mar. 27, 2008 (AP) The Bush administration issued a fresh warning Thursday to U.S. banks that Iran is using "an array of deceptive practices" to hide its alleged involvement in nuclear proliferation and terrorist activities. The Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network alleged that Iran is resorting to such alleged practices to evade detection and skirt financial sanctions. "The government of Iran disguises its involvement in proliferation and terrorism activities through an array of deceptive practices specifically designed to evade...

Company's plan for Iran trade brings guilty plea Mar. 18, 2008 Allied Telesis Labs, a telecommunications research company with offices on NC State's Centennial Campus, entered a guilty plea today to conspiring to trade illegally with Iran. According to a federal court press release, the company conspired to land and carry out a $95 million contract to rebuild telecommunications systems in Iranian cities including Teheran. The guilty plea followed a written plea agreement and required the defendant to pay a fine of $500,000. The plea came in federal court in Raleigh to charges of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency...

Swiss energy giant EGL is set to sign a 25-year deal in Teheran on Monday to buy 5.5 billion cubic meters of Iranian natural gas per year, starting in 2011, for a reported €18 billion. The contract will be the second largest European gas deal, although EGL spokesman Bogdan Preda told The Jerusalem Post, "We are not releasing the value of the deal." -snip-

MADRID (IRNA) -- A Mexican movement called “Solidarity with Iranians” by issuing a statement, while condemning the latest anti-Iran resolution by the UN Security Council called for nullification of all imposed sanctions against Iran. The movement said in the statement that resolution 1803 has been adopted under pressure of the warmongering country of the U.S. and the administration of President George W. Bush. In the statement, a copy of which was submitted to the UN office in Mexico city, the movement underlined, “For the third time, the UN Security Council bends to the U.S. pressure and on the pretext of...

Vatican’s President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace has voiced surprise over the third round of sanctions against Iran. “Like any other state, Iran is entitled to peaceful use of nuclear energy. This is Vatican’s stance toward Iran’s nuclear issue and it has always been one of our principal policies,” Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino, said on Thursday. He made the remarks in a meeting with Iran’s chargé d’affaires to Vatican, Mohammad Hossein Mirzaaqaie. Martino also noted that Vatican welcomes IAEA’s stand and role as well as its recently released report indicating Iran’s positive cooperation with the agency. “The...

Belarus expels US ambassador By YURAS KARMANAU, Associated Press Writer The Belarusian Foreign Ministry on Friday demanded that the U.S. ambassador leave the country and recalled its ambassador to the U.S. over Washington's economic sanctions against the ex-Soviet nation. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the United States was "deeply disappointed" by the move. "If they do not wish our ambassador to remain in country, our ambassador will leave," Casey said. "They have said they are recalling their ambassador, which is a very good thing, because their ambassador would certainly not be welcome here." It was not immediately clear whether...

A federal appeals court refused Thursday to bar prosecutors from enforcing Arizona's new employer-sanctions law while they hear arguments on its legality. The judges of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco rejected arguments by lawyers for business groups and their allies that they should not let prosecutors investigate, and potentially bring charges against, companies accused of knowingly hiring undocumented workers. In an unsigned order, the judges said they considered challengers' arguments they would suffer irreparable harm, and the likelihood the foes ultimately will succeed in convincing the court to overturn U.S. District Judge Neil Wake's ruling...

Iran sanctions vote faces new delay: diplomats By Louis Charbonneau Reuters Feb 27, 2008 UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council will likely delay a vote on a third round of sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, as Western countries lobby for a big vote in favor, diplomats said on Wednesday. Tehran denies Western charges it seeks nuclear weapons and has ignored three previous Security Council resolutions demanding it freeze its uranium enrichment program, which can produce fuel for nuclear power plants or atomic weapons. "It looks very likely there will not be a vote on the sanctions...

MOSCOW: Russia warned Iran on Wednesday that unless it ceased uranium enrichment within days Moscow would support new UN sanctions being prepared by the West against the Islamic Republic. The Russian envoy to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, said Moscow could back a sanctions resolution that the Western powers have drafted and which they want to discuss in the Security Council this week. Churkin said via a video link from New York that Russia had undertaken "certain commitments" to "support the resolution that has been drafted in the past month" unless Iran stopped enrichment activities within the next few days.

Ironic, isn't it, that radical forces threaten violence, sanctions and other actions against democratic states while insisting - along with their Western apologists - that any attempt by their victims to put pressure on them is useless. Think about it. Every time someone proposes, say, economic sanctions (on Iran or Syria), an international tribunal investigating its involvement in terrorism (Syria), military operations or killing terrorist leaders (Hamas, Hizbullah, Iraqi insurgents, al-Qaida, the Kurdish PKK, or the Taliban), diplomatic isolation, or even not giving financial aid (Hamas), a chorus of voices says: It won't work. The extremists, you see, are tough....

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran will not be harmed by more U.N. sanctions over its nuclear programme, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday after the United States and other powers said they would push for further U.N. steps. Ahmadinejad was speaking in an interview with state television after an International Atomic Energy Agency reportsaid on Friday Iran was being more transparent about itsnuclear plans but was not doing enough to clear up allsuspicions. Western nations accuse Iran of seeking to build atomicbombs, a charge Tehran denies. The United States, which is leading efforts to isolate Iran, said the report was a...

WASHINGTON – The government will raise by 25 percent the fines it levies against employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants, officials said Friday. Attorney General Michael Mukasey and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced the increase, which is the first boost in fines in nearly a decade. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency responsible for investigating illegal hirings, has stepped up its enforcement of the employer sanctions law in the past year, leading to a dozen major busts. Currently, fines range from $275 to $11,000 depending on the offense. The agency says some penalties could include at least six...

WASHINGTON - President Bush, stepping up pressure on Syria, ordered new sanctions Wednesday to punish officials in Damascus for alleged efforts to undermine stability in Iraq and meddle in Lebanon's sovereignty and democracy. Bush, in an executive order, said he was expanding penalties against senior government officials in Syria and their associates deemed to be responsible for — or to have benefited from — public corruption. The order did not specifically name any officials. Bush signed the order a day after Imad Mughniyeh, one of the world's most wanted and elusive terrorists, was killed in a car bombing in Syria...

IRAN'S NEW PURGE - Slapping the 'Moderates' January 26, 2008 -- OPPONENTS of taking a tough line on Iran have always claimed that imposing sanctions (not to mention threatening military action) would strengthen the Islamic Republic's most radical elements. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice looks to have bought that argument. Last week, she agreed to water down the new sanctions that her advisers had devised against the Islamic Republic. -excerpt- Events inside Iran, however, provide a different picture. The Council of the Guardians of the Constitution, a 12-man committee of mullahs and their legal advisers, this week rejected applications from...

6 powers propose new Iran sanctions By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer Jan 25, 2008 New U.N. sanctions against Iran would require countries to ban the entry of individuals involved in the Iranian nuclear program — a step up from a previous call for vigilance over their travel, according to a document obtained Friday. The latest round of penalties would also for the first time ban trade in equipment and technology that can be used in both civilian and nuclear programs, according to elements that would form the basis of a new U.N. resolution. It would call on countries...

International powers have agreed on the outline of a third United Nations resolution sanctioning Iran for its pursuit of uranium enrichment – a sign that, despite disagreements on details, the international community is united in opposition to Iran possessing a nuclear weapon. A recent American intelligence report, concluding that Iran stopped a nuclear weapons development program in 2003, appears to have actually opened the door to additional international economic measures against Tehran. December's National Intelligence Estimate, or NIE, initially confused US allies, who saw the report as undercutting multilateral efforts to pressure Iran. But this week's agreement on the terms...

Russia has now delivered more than half the fuel for Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant, after a fourth consignment arrived at the Bushehr site in southern Iran. The fourth consignment of fuel weighed 11 tonnes, Iran's national news agency quoted the Organisation for Production and Development of Nuclear Energy as saying in a statement. Russia has so far delivered 44 tonnes of fuel, after shipments which arrived on December 17, 28 and January 18. It is due to deliver a total of about 82 tonnes of nuclear fuel in eight consignments, with the last due next month. Iran insisted on...

US president George W. Bush is to promise $20 billion in advanced weaponry to Saudi Arabia as he travels through the Gulf states to garner support for further sanctions against Iran. Yet even that gesture will not be enough to convince moderate Arab states to shun Iran, in a sign of its growing status as a Muslim world superpower. The weapons deal, which is to include precision-guided missiles, first surfaced last autumn but was postponed over opposition in the US Congress. Now the Bush administration is to notify Congress on Monday of its intent to conclude the deal, as Mr...

Is NBC's Parent Company Doing Business With Iran? Friday , January 11, 2008 By Bill O'Reilly Is General Electric, the parent company of NBC, doing business with Iran? And did they do business with the bin Laden family after 9/11? That is the subject of this evening's "Talking Points Memo."

U.S. Targets Iranian General in New Sanctions January 09, 2008 Reuters Sue Pleming WASHINGTON -- Raising pressure on Tehran, the United States on Wednesday slapped sanctions on a general from the country's elite Qods force and three Iraqis living in exile in Syria and Iran for fomenting violence in Iraq. The new sanctions come amid fresh tensions this week between Tehran and Washington after Iranian speedboats confronted three U.S. Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz, an action U.S. President George W. Bush called "provocative." The U.S. Treasury Department in a statement identified the Iranian general as Brig-Gen. Ahmed Foruzandeh,...

London, Jan. 05 - Iran's Bank Saderat has lost a third of its foreign partners because of unilateral sanctions by the United States, the Financial Times quoted the institution’s managing director as saying on Saturday. In an interview with the Financial Times, Hamid Borhani said that of 600 foreign banks that used to do business with Bank Saderat before the U.S. imposed sanctions in September 2006, some 200 had halted their transactions. Borhani said that Middle Eastern banks were continuing contacts and becoming the institution’s top foreign partners, as sanctions shifted trade from west to east. China became Iran’s main...

Sanctions hit UAE's Strong Iranian Business Community December 29, 2007 The Associated Press Bahrain Tribune As the sun sets, the sky slowly turns a deep orange rose over Dubai. Crates of merchandise _ food, clothes, General Electric appliances, Hewlett-Packard computers _ are loaded onto dhows, the traditional wooden vessels that still ply the ancient routes to Iran about 100 km to the north. But it’s no longer business as usual. The West, led by the United States, is cracking down on business in and out of Iran to protest against its nuclear ambitions. And Dubai is caught in the middle...

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) - Campaigning in New Hampshire today, Republican Ron Paul says he would lift sanctions on Iran and order the U.S. Navy to pull back from its shores. Paul says if the U.S. relieved pressure on Iran, people would breathe a sign of relief, interest rates probably would not go up and oil prices probably would drop. Speaking in Manchester, Paul said the Bush administration has been looking for war with Iran.

Iranians claim to have built Opteron-based supercomputerDespite federal antiterrorism trade sanctions that bar the sale of U.S.-made computer technology to Iran, a computing research center in Tehran claims to have used Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s Opteron processor to build the Middle Eastern country's most powerful supercomputer. The Iranian High Performance Computing Research Center (IHPCRC), which is located at Tehran's Amirkabir University of Technology, said in an undated announcement on its Web site that it has assembled a Linux-based system with 216 Opteron processing cores. That's a relatively small supercomputer, with a claimed peak performance level of 860 billion floating-point operations...

Sanctions strain Iran's economy, officials say By Con Coughlin Last Updated: 2:14am GMT 10/12/2007 Iran's banks are on the brink of collapse and its manufacturing industries facing severe shortages as sanctions bite, according to assessments by Western officials. Despite recent public statements by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that sanctions by America and the UN "are not working", a confidential report submitted to the Iranian parliament said that continued economic isolation was having dire consequences. The sanctions are designed to increase pressure on Teheran to reach a compromise with the UN over its nuclear enrichment programme. The country's banking industry is suffering...

TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran and China's Sinopec on Sunday signed a two billion dollar contract to develop a major Iranian oil field, a crucial deal for the Iranian energy industry at a time of mounting international pressure. The Iranian oil ministry and Sinopec inked the deal to pump oil from the Yadavaran onshore field in southwestern Iran, which was first agreed back in late 2004, at a ceremony in Tehran, an AFP correspondent reported. "The initial estimation of cost of the project is about 2.0 billion dollars and the final cost of the project will be decided after the offering...

TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran and China's Sinopec could, as early as Sunday, sign a long-awaited final multi-billion-dollar agreement for the development of the Yadavaran onshore oilfield, the Iranian oil minister said. "Iran could probably sign a contract this evening with China's Sinopec to develop Yadavaran," Gholam Hossein Nozari told reporters on the sidelines of an oil conference. "If not today, it will be in two weeks' time. We are still in talks," the oil minister said. In late October 2004, Iran and Sinopec inked an initial agreement to develop Yadavaran in southwestern Iran, which is estimated to hold more than...

Europeans back new Iran sanctions ( story highlights) *Leaders of France, Germany call for pressure and negotiations with Iran *"The threat exists," says Sarkozy in supporting Washington's view of Iran *Rice will meet with Russian foreign minister; Russia has resisted new sanctions *Bush has called on Iran to detail its previous program to develop nuclear weapons BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice won support from European allies Thursday for new U.N. sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. NATO foreign ministers agreed to stay the course in seeking fresh measures at the United Nations to persuade...

China has for the first time indicated clear support for a new package of United Nations sanctions against Iran, breaking months of deadlock inside the UN security council over how to respond to TehranÂ’s nuclear programme. In a move that will boost expectations in western capitals that a new UN sanctions resolution could be agreed within weeks, Beijing signalled over the weekend that it was prepared to back measures that will hit IranÂ’s banking and business sector, while also prohibiting more senior Iranians from traveling abroad. Of the five permanent members of the security council (P5), China and Russia have...

Deepening China-Iran Ties Weaken Bid to Isolate Iran November 18, 2007 Washington Post Robin Wright The rapidly growing relationship between Iran and China has begun to undermine international efforts to ensure that Iran cannot convert a peaceful energy program to develop a nuclear arsenal, U.S. and European officials say. The Bush administration and its allies said last week that they plan to seek new U.N. sanctions against Iran, after the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iranian officials had given inadequate answers to questions about the country's past nuclear activities. But U.S. and European officials now worry more about a Chinese...

THE government faces a diplomatic row with America over disclosures that it has provided the Iranian regime with financial support worth about £290m while at the same time calling for sanctions. The money was offered by the Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD) to support British firms exporting to Iran, mainly to the country’s petrochemical industry. Many of the loans were being negotiated while British ministers were threatening sanctions against Iran for creating a nuclear enrichment facility to make atomic weapons. Last week Gordon Brown called for new sanctions against Iran in addition to those already imposed by the United Nations...

BERLIN, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Germany would consider the possibility of separate EU measures against Iran if the U.N. Security Council fails to agree on a new sanctions resolution, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Friday. Reacting to the latest report on Iran's nuclear programme by the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the United States said on Thursday it would work with its allies for a third round of U.N. sanctions against Tehran for refusing to suspend nuclear enrichment. But Russia and China, permanent veto-wielding members of the Security Council, are opposed to more sanctions. As a result, France has been pushing...

Ahmadinejad: Nuclear programme 'irreversible' By David Blair, Diplomatic Correspondent Last Updated: 2:27am GMT 08/11/2007 Iran's president has declared that his country's nuclear programme is "irreversible" and said he "could not care less" about Western sanctions. US to release Iranians detainees held in Iraq President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivered a stern message of defiance while addressing a rally in the city of Birjand. Iran's president at a funeral for troops killed in the Iran-Iraq war But his latest claim about the progress of Iran's nuclear ambitions was deeply confused. "Today, we have reached 3,000 centrifuges," said Mr Ahmadinejad, referring to the machines...

The Iranian economy is starting to feel the sting from a raft of banking sanctions applied by the US to pressure Tehran over its controversial nuclear drive, analysts said. Washington has blacklisted Iran's three main banks and has also successfully encouraged virtually all major European banks to cut business with the Islamic republic. "Practically all the major European banks have ceased their cooperation with Iran," said an official from Iran's Export Development Bank, who asked not to be named. "It is no longer possible to wire money by dollar into Iran and for the payments in euro there are...

Bahrain Prince Says Iran Developing Nuclear Arms November 03, 2007 Washington Times LONDON — Bahrain's crown prince, in interviews to British newspapers published yesterday, said Iran is developing atomic weapons or the capability to do so. This is the first time an Arab state in the Persian Gulf has openly accused Tehran of lying about its contentious nuclear plan, the Times of London said. "While they don't have the bomb yet, they are developing it, or the capability for it," Sheik Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa told Times correspondents in the Bahrain capital Manama. He urged a diplomatic solution to the...

A senior U.S. official said on Thursday Russia and China had been blocking tough U.N. sanctions against Iran for months but there would be a push to impose them if Tehran had not suspended nuclear activity within two weeks. Nicholas Burns, U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, was speaking before talks with the U.N. nuclear watchdog chief to check whether Iran was honoring an August deal to clarify past secret aspects of its nuclear program.

Thirty US senators wrote to President George W. Bush Thursday, warning he had no authority to launch military action against Iran, and expressing concern about the administration's "provocative" rhetoric. The senators, 29 Democrats and one independent, urged the resolution of disputes with the Islamic Republic through diplomacy. "We wish to emphasize that no congressional authority exists for unilateral military action against Iran," the letter signed by senators including presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Joseph Biden said. The letter warned that a resolution passed by the Senate in September, calling for the designation of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist...

PARIS (AP) -- A top U.S. diplomat on Wednesday pressed Europe to slap new sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, stepping up a push by Washington to hold Tehran accountable for defying U.N. demands. A week after the United States announced new sanctions against Iran, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns met with French officials to press for other Western allies to follow suit, or at least loosen their economic ties with the Islamic republic. Burns also faulted China and Russia, which have strong economic interests in Iran, for stalling progress toward a third set of Security Council sanctions. He...