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The White House said it pulled back on levying sanctions against Iran for ballistic missile violations because they're just trying to determine when they'd have "maximum impact."A couple dozen Senate Democrats have been heaping pressure on the Obama administration to do something in response to the October and November launches, which run afoul of UN Security Council Resolution 1929.Last week, Iran President Hassan Rouhani ordered his defense department to step up the Islamic Republic's ballistic missile program in response to a report that the Treasury Department was preparing sanctions in response to two illegal missile tests.The Wall Street Journal reported...

U.S. Firms Prepare For End To Iran Sanctions Apple, GE, HP gear up for potential opening of markets in Islamic Republic By BENOÎT FAUCON Dec. 23, 2015 Ahead of an expected lifting of sanctions, several U.S. corporate giants including personal-computer seller HP Inc. and General Electric Inc.’s oil-services unit are actively exploring a market entry into Iran. U.S. companies other than food, aircraft-parts and medicine suppliers are still banned from conducting direct transactions with Iran. But last week Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said at a hearing that sanctions relief on Tehran...

Iran's energy industry is plagued by a host of challenges--from leaking pipelines to skeptical western oil investors--as it attempts to throttle up crude output next year when western sanctions are expected to be lifted. Iran's aging infrastructure is in disrepair after several years without the expertise of the world's largest oil companies, western and Iranian officials say. The country is likely to be selling as much as 500,000 new barrels of oil into an already saturated market for crude exports, setting up logistical hurdles. And the Islamic Republic is more divided politically over the return of western companies than expected,...

Ahead of the planned lifting of Western sanctions against Iran, businessmen from around the world are visiting the country, and as one group from Germany discovered, there is no shortage of opportunities. [...] To help people establish relationships with representatives of the "Evil Empire," the German-Iranian Chamber of Commerce set up a "B2B" contact exchange. It's a form of speed dating, in which Iranian businesspeople walk from one table to the next, together with an interpreter and a handful of brochures of the Lower Saxony companies. The business owners from Hanover are quickly surrounded by Iranians, who treat them like...

Tehran (AFP) - Iran is banning the entry of US consumer goods, the commerce and industry minister said Thursday, as the country prepares for a lifting of economic sanctions. "In order to boost national production, it is necessary... to stop entry of American consumer goods and to prohibit products that symbolise the presence of the United States in the country," Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh wrote on his ministry's

Senior Iranian Negotiators Salehi, Kamalvandi: On October 19 President Obama Will Announce Lifting Of American Sanctions According to senior Iranian negotiators, Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran and an architect of the nuclear agreement (JCPOA), and Beherouz Kamalvandi, the spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, on October 19, 2015 President Obama will announce that sanctions will be lifted and not merely suspended, contrary to the July 14, 2015 text of the agreement to which Iran is obligated.[1] If this report proves accurate, it means that President Obama surrendered to the threats and...

The Obama administration began implementing its landmark nuclear agreement with Iran with an eye toward lifting expansive sanctions imposed on Tehran in the past decade. Concerns from opponents of the deal continued to grow, however, as senior administration officials during the weekend played down the importance of a United Nations probe into whether Tehran has attempted to secretly develop the technologies needed to build atomic weapons.The U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, is committed under the deal to release a report by year-end about the status of Iran’s alleged weaponization work. U.S. officials over the weekend said the...

Breaking: Just a few hours ago, Iranian state media released a video from Iranian Revolutionary Guard showing a secret underground missile base. The previously unreleased footage features dozens of long range missiles, capable of striking Israel, locked and loaded onto mobile launch vehicles. In the video, Iranian military leaders are seen walking over replicas of the American and Israeli flags placed on the floor at the entrance of the compound. This bold demonstration of Iranian Military power comes less than 24 hours after the Obama administration was forced to admit

President Barack Obama ordered the US government on Sunday to take steps towards lifting sanctions on Iran, in line with the nuclear deal struck between world powers and Tehran in July. Obama's directive comes 90 days after the UN Security Council endorsed the Iran accord -- formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) -- a milestone referred to as "Adoption Day." "I hereby direct you to take all appropriate additional measures to ensure the prompt and effective implementation of the US commitments set forth in the JCPOA, in accordance with US law," Obama said in a memorandum.

On October 13, 2015 the Iranian Majlis approved, by a majority of 161-59 with 13 abstentions, not the JCPOA but rather an Iranian amended version it. Paragraph 3 of the Majlis decision states that "the government will monitor any non-performance by the other party [to the agreement] in the matter of failing to lift the sanctions, or restoring the canceled sanctions, or imposing sanctions for any another reason, and will take steps to actualize the rights of the Iranian nation and to terminate the voluntary cooperation [this apparently refers to the Additional Protocol, which, according to the JCPOA, Iran will...

The Obama administration began carrying out the Iran nuclear deal Thursday as time expired on Republican efforts to derail it, appointing a senior diplomat to ensure that Tehran moves further away from bomb-making capability and outlining a months-long process before Western nations will start easing economic sanctions. Senators failed to reach the 60-vote threshold for a measure to keep all sanctions in place on Iran until it recognizes Israel and releases all imprisoned Americans, and then on a resolution expressing disapproval of the nuclear agreement. Two previous votes in recent days against the Iran deal also failed, and Congress’ 60-day...

The Obama administration has privately reminded foreign governments and U.S. bankers that sanctions against Iran remain in effect, cautioning against a rush by Western companies to invest in Iran's oil industry and other businesses until the country fully complies with the July nuclear agreement. The U.S. State Department recently cabled a message, known as a demarche, to embassies around the world to reiterate that sanctions on Iran are still in place, diplomatic and government sources told Reuters on Friday. The demarche stressed that sanctions on Iran would not be lifted until the International Atomic Energy Agency verifies that Tehran has...

TEHRAN - Iran has left the development of two oilfields to the energy giant British Petroleum (BP), an informed source told the Tasnim News Agency on the condition of anonymity. The announcement is a follow-up to the September meeting between Iranian Oil Ministry officials and BP top managers, where the Iranian side headed by Amir Hossein Zamani Nia, the deputy oil minister for international affairs and trade, agreed to transfer the development of two oilfields to BP based on the new model of Iranian oil contracts, known as Integrated Petroleum Contract (IPC), which is due to be unveiled soon. ---snip---...

Some senior U.S. officials involved in the implementation of the Iran nuclear deal have privately concluded that a key sanctions relief provision – a concession to Iran that will open the doors to tens of billions of dollars in U.S.-backed commerce with the Islamic regime – conflicts with existing federal statutes and cannot be implemented without violating those laws, Fox News has learned. At issue is a passage tucked away in ancillary paperwork attached to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, as the Iran nuclear deal is formally known. Specifically, Section 5.1.2 of Annex II provides that in...

On Sunday, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Yukiya Amano, arrived in Iran for talks on the nuclear agreement, as part of what appears to be an attempt by the UN nuclear watchdog to evaluate whether Iran ran a military nuclear program in the past. Amano is expected to meet with various Iranian nuclear scientists for answers on this very subject. On December 15, ahead of the lifting of crippling economic sanctions on Tehran, he is slated to present the world with definitive answers that will determine whether Iran complied with the terms of a nuclear deal signed...

Republican presidential hopeful Carly Fiorina has been an outspoken opponent of Iran on the campaign trail, but during her time as CEO of Hewlett-Packard, it appears as if she was singing an entirely different tune. Fiorina often calls for keeping the crippling economic sanctions on Tehran and routinely criticizes President Obama's Iran deal, however, under her leadership at Hewlett-Packard from 1999 to 2005, the company sold hundreds of millions of dollars of printers and other computer products to Iran through a foreign subsidiary, despite U.S. export sanctions prohibiting such deals, according to a Bloomberg report. She was able to thwart...

‘Why on earth would Republicans do that?” That is a question I’ve been asked at least a dozen times since illustrating that the GOP has played a cynical game in connection with President Obama’s Iran deal. “Follow the money” is a common answer to questions about political motivation. It may not explain everything in this case, but it is certainly relevant. This spring, Republican leadership colluded with the White House and congressional Democrats to enact a law — the Corker-Cardin Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act — that guaranteed Obama would be authorized to lift sanctions against Iran (the main objective...

Why on earth would Republicans do that?” That is a question I’ve been asked at least a dozen times since illustrating that the GOP has played a cynical game in connection with President Obama’s Iran deal. “Follow the money” is a common answer to questions about political motivation. It may not explain everything in this case, but it is certainly relevant. This spring, Republican leadership colluded with the White House and congressional Democrats to enact a law — the Corker-Cardin Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act — that guaranteed Obama would be authorized to lift sanctions against Iran (the main objective...

September 9, 2015: 2016 GOP front-runner Donald Trump spoke in Washington, DC today at a rally hosted by the Tea Party Patriots to protest the United States' nuclear deal with Iran.

Ted Cruz gave a great speech today that’s gotten quite a bit of news coverage as he called on both Boehner and McConnell to stop this deal from happening. You can watch it below: Video