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Article has been Exerpted - full article at link: Top diplomats said Sunday that further progress had been made at talks between Iran and global powers to try to restore a landmark 2015 agreement to contain Iranian nuclear development that was abandoned by the Trump administration. They said it was now up to the governments involved in the negotiations to make political decisions. Advertising Ulyanov said after heading back to report on the talks' results to their respective governments, he expected the diplomats to return for the final round of talks in Vienna in about 10 days and said they...

Nations that struck the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, except for the United States, meet on Monday in what many diplomats fear may prove a quixotic effort to keep the agreement alive after U.S. sanctions targeting Iranian oil exports resume in November. Ministers from Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and Iran will gather in New York at 8 p.m. EDT on Monday (0000 GMT Tuesday) to grapple with U.S. President Donald Trump’s May 8 decision to withdraw from the deal and restore the full force of U.S. sanctions on Iran. Their delicate, and perhaps unrealistic, task is to build a case...

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Friday accused the administration of US President Donald Trump of being a threat to the Middle East and to the international community. “It is true that there is a real threat to our region and to international peace and security: That threat is the Trump Administration’s sense of entitlement to destabilize the world along with rogue accomplices in our region,” Zarif wrote on Twitter. “The US must start acting like a normal state,” he added. …

Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker on Wednesday blasted President Donald Trump’s repeated praise of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as a “talented” leader with a “great personality.” “One in 10 North Koreans are living in slavery today,” Corker said during a Foreign Relations Committee hearing. “One in five children are stunted due to malnutrition. In the face of these realities, the president has called him very talented, and that he loves his people.” “Really?” the Tennessee Republican added. Corker, who is often critical of the president and is retiring at the end of this Congress, described Kim as...

Indian refiners cut imports of Iranian oil last month as they started weaning their plants off crude from the country to avoid sanctions by the United States that are set to take effect in November. India’s monthly oil imports from Iran declined to 592,800 barrels per day (bpd) in June, down 16 percent from May, according to data from industry and shipping sources. The United States in May said it would reimpose the sanctions after withdrawing from a 2015 agreement with Iran, Russia, China, France, Germany, and Britain, where Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear activities in return for the...

<p>BERLIN (AFP) - Leading German politicianson Tuesday called for the US ambassador to be expelled, after the staunch ally of Donald Trump was accused of meddling in domestic politics and aggravating already tense ties.</p> <p>Richard Grenell had taken up his diplomatic posting in Berlin on May 8, and immediately irked Germany when he tweeted on the same day that German companies should stop doing business with Iran as Trump quit the nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic.</p>

Chancellor Angela Merkel visits China on Thursday, seeking to close ranks with the world’s biggest exporting nation as US President Donald Trump shakes up explosive issues from trade to Iran’s nuclear deal. Finding a common strategy to ward off a trade war and keep markets open will be Merkel’s priority when she meets with President Xi Jinping, as Washington brandishes the threat of imposing punitive tariffs on aluminium and steel imports. “Both countries are in agreement that open markets and rules-based world trade are necessary. That’s the main focus of this trip,” Merkel’s spokeswoman Martina Fietz said in Berlin on...

One unintended consequence of Donald Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of the Iran nuclear agreement has been to bring Germany and Russia together again. German-Russian relations had soured because of alleged Russian cyberattacks and the Kremlin’s annexation of Crimea. But the US President’s hardline policy on around the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) for Iran has intensified the search for common ground in Berlin and Moscow. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is scheduled to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi on May 18, and on Friday morning the two spoke on the telephone. “The importance of...

Leading politicians in Denmark were broadly critical of the announcement on Tuesday by President Donald Trump that the United States would violate the Iran nuclear deal. In a statement at the White House on Tuesday, Trump said the US would “exit the Iran deal” agreed with other major powers in 2015, and warned that “any nation that helps Iran in its quest for nuclear weapons could be strongly sanctioned”. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran nuclear deal, was agreed in 2015 between Iran, the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus...

Two former Obama administration officials suggested in a New York Times op-ed published Thursday that European countries allied with the United States could expel American ambassadors in retaliation for President Donald Trump withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal. "Europe Doesn't Have to Be Trump's Doormat," wrote Steven Simon and Jonathan Stevenson. Simon served as the National Security Council's senior director for the Middle East and North Africa, while Stevenson served as the regional director for political-military affairs. "After months of swaggering hesitation, President Trump finally announced the United States' withdrawal from the nuclear deal with Iran, to which Britain, France,...

The Republican leader of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee said President Trump should not walk away from the Iran nuclear deal. President Donald Trump is facing a May 12 deadline on whether to re-impose sanctions against Iran. Texas Congressman Mac Thornberry said on Fox News Sunday it would be a mistake for Trump to scuttle the nuclear accord reached with Tehran. “I would counsel against it,” he said. As Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Thornberry is considered a key Republican voice on national security issues. Thornberry said that while he was opposed to the deal when it...

Iran’s foreign minister took to YouTube on Thursday to criticize President Donald Trump’s threat to withdraw from the nuclear deal, saying Iran will not “renegotiate or add onto” the atomic accord. Mohammad Javad Zarif’s video, which was also posted to Trump’s favorite social media platform, Twitter, appeared to be taking his message to the masses after earlier speaking to news outlets across the United States to defend the deal. It comes as Trump has signaled he will withdraw from the agreement by May 12 if it is not renegotiated and changed. Those changes have included proposals to limit Iran’s ballistic...

The leaders of Britain, France and Germany reaffirmed their support for the existing nuclear deal with Iran, which is “the best way of neutralizing the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran,” according to a statement released Sunday by the prime minister’s office in London. Prime Minister Theresa May spoke by phone with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel over the weekend, and the three leaders agreed that the best way forward was to maintain the existing agreement, which was signed in 2015. But US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to scupper the deal and his next chance...

Germany’s foreign minister says his government will exert “considerable efforts” to protect the Iran nuclear deal despite Berlin’s misgivings about Iran’s ballistic missiles program and its involvement in the Syria conflict. In a visit to Jordan, Heiko Maas called for a “firewall” between the nuclear deal and Iran’s other activities. Under the deal, Iran agreed to curbs and inspections on its nuclear program in exchange for relief from international sanctions. …

US Vice President Mike Pence told Israel’s Knesset on Monday that Washington was intending to bring forward a controversial plan by the Trump administration to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. “In the weeks ahead, our administration will advance its plan to open the US Embassy in Jerusalem — and the embassy will open before the end of next year,” Pence said. The intention to move the embassy, which has been condemned by the Palestinians and their Arab allies, was agreed in theory by US lawmakers years ago but was set in motion by US President Donald...

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Wednesday blasted the United States for threatening to cut aid to countries that vote at the UN General Assembly to reject President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. “Trump regime exposes contempt for democracy through its threats against those who dare resist its thuggish demands at the UN—all while Trump insults Iran crudely as ‘dictatorship,’” Zarif tweeted. “US version of democracy stops at rhetoric of ‘either with us or against us,’" he added. .....

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres is warning that Iran may be defying a U.N. call to halt ballistic missile development even as it complies with the nuclear treaty with six world powers. He says in a report to the Security Council that the United Nations is investigating Iran’s possible transfer of ballistic missiles to Houthi Shiite rebels in Yemen that may have been used in launches aimed at Saudi Arabia. He says several other launches have also been brought to his attention. …

The German government has warned the US against withdrawing from the Iran nuclear agreement. US President Donald Trump is expected to decertify Tehran’s compliance with the 2015 deal in a White House speech at 12:45 p.m. (16:45 UTC) on Friday. “We believe this agreement is an important instrument to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran,” German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Friday. “If … an important country like the United States comes to a different conclusion as appears to be the case, we will work even harder with other partners to maintain this cohesion,” he said. German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel...

Iran’s response to President Trump’s decertification of the nuclear deal, teased all week and finally made official on Friday, includes a mixture of belligerent rhetoric, ominous threats, and uncertainty about whether the deal can survive. Belligerent rhetoric poured in for days as decertification became a certainty. Among the latest examples was Brig. General Esmail Ghaani, deputy commander of the infamous Quds Force, declaring that Iran is ready to “bury” President Trump. “We are not a war-mongering country. But any military action against Iran will be regretted. … Trump’s threats against Iran will damage America,” Ghaani said to Iran’s Tansim News...

Former Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday blasted President Trump's decision not to re-certify Iran's compliance with the Iran nuclear deal, accusing Mr. Trump of jumpstarting an "international crisis." "President Trump's decision today is dangerous," Kerry said in a lengthy statement he posted to Twitter. "He's creating an international crisis. It endangers America's national security interests and those of our closest allies. "The president has polluted the negotiating waters and made it easier for legitimate concerns to be distinguished from back-door efforts to kill the deal," Kerry added. "What we've seen today lacks common sense and strategic thinking to...