Washington's "comprehensive" package of sanctions against Tehran are expected to kick in this November, but officials say the main target, Iranian crude oil exports, will likely simply be diverted from one group of buyers to another.

A senior US energy official has told The Wall Street Journal that Washington expects China to buy up much of the oil others won't due to the threat of US sanctions. Beijing, according to the official, will likely make the purchases through the same bank it used during the previous rounds of sanctions to get around US penalties.

This includes the Bank of Kunlun Co, Ltd, a bank affiliated with the China National Petroleum Corp with limited exposure to the global financial system. The US has threatened to sanction "everybody, including China" if they purchase Iranian oil once sanctions step into effect.

Worker repairs a part of a unit of the Tehran oil refinery, in Tehran, Iran. (File)
© AP PHOTO / VAHID SALEMI

The US withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018 and promised to impose sanctions against Tehran and any company that does business with it, potentially threatening to leave the world without 2.5 million barrels of Iranian oil.

Iran's representative to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Hossein Kazempour Ardebili, has warned that Trump's hopes that other countries will fill the gap in oil supply after the US imposes sanctions on Iranian oil will not come to pass and are based on a "miscalculation," Iran's PressTV has reported. He also noted that the US president was falsely led into the belief as a result of a "miscalculation by other oil producers."

"Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Russia pretended to be able to deliver 2.5 million barrels a day of Iranian exports […] That was a miscalculation, Mr. President: you have fallen in their trap, and prices will go up," Hossein Kazempour Ardebili said.

While Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin says that exemptions from US sanctions against Iran will be considered in certain cases, the European Union is apparently not going to be one of them. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed that he has rejected EU appeals for Iran exemptions.

Senior officials from Britain, France, and Germany have all urged the US not to apply the sanctions to EU nations’ companies when they start going into effect next month. The EU has passed laws rejecting US sanctions, and forbidding their companies from complying with them.

Pompeo and Mnuchin told the EU, however, that they want “unprecedented financial pressure” on Iran, and that they will not ease any sanctions until they see a tangible change in Iranian policy.

Bolton’s emphasis on the “Iranian menace” as the driver behind the U.S.’ occupation of northeastern Syria represents a departure from past U.S. assertions that the American troop presence was chiefly related to fighting Daesh (ISIS).

As Presidents Trump and Putin are set to meet Monday in Helsinki, efforts toward winding down the proxy war in Syria will no doubt be high on the agenda.

We explained previously that the diplomatic cards for ending the war seem to have fallen into place as just days before the historic summit Netanyahu said in a stunning turnaround for Israeli policy fresh off his own visit with Putin in Moscow that "Israel does not object to President Bashar al-Assad’s regaining control over all of Syria" so long as Iranian forces are pushed back from the Israeli border, according to the New York Times.

And now according to a new bombshell report, US military commanders have conveyed to Syrian President Assad via Russian mediation that "we will pull out of al-Tanf and the North if Iran withdraws from Syria."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday that he had discussed with US President Donald Trump issues related to Iran and Syria ahead of Trump’s summit with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin in the Finnish capital, Helsinki.

“On Saturday evening, I spoke with US President Donald Trump over the telephone and discussed security and diplomatic issues in light of developments in the region, with Syria and Iran first and foremost, of course”, Netanyahu said during the Israeli cabinet’s weekly meeting.

“As you know, these issues will also come up at the president’s summit in Helsinki. Of course I discussed them with President Putin last Wednesday”, he added.

Netanyahu praised in his remarks what he described as the US President’s “firm policy” towards Iran, adding that since the policy was adopted “we have seen its significant impact on Iran”.

If Iran is serious about closing the strait, is the move legal under international law? The simple answer to this question is no.

Based on the international laws of the sea or the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea [PDF], Hormuz is an “international strait” because it is the only gateway between the Persian Gulf and the open sea. In all such straits, all ships have the right of transit and the countries adjacent to the strait must not deny this right of transit and must inform all relevant officials about any danger that might threaten the vessels or planes that travel through the strait. Under international laws and conventions, the right of transit cannot be suspended.

As American motorists complain of rising gasoline prices, the Trump Administration and the oil and banking interests behind it are smiling on their way to the proverbial bank. If we look at seeming disparate events in Iran, in Venezuela and now in Libya it becomes clear there is a coherent strategy to promote disruption in key oil flows to the immediate advantage of US oil domination.

A decade ago the idea that the United States could displace Saudi Arabia or the Russian Federation as the world’s largest oil producer was considered unthinkable. Today it is clearly a foreign policy priority of the Trump Administration and the major Wall Street banks financing US shale oil production. The strategy is geopolitical and ultimately aims to weaken Russia, Iran and the other independent world oil producing powers like Venezuela.

Days after Netanyahu’s visit to Moscow, Trump will meet with Putin in Helsinki. But despite talk of a “grand bargain” that enlists Russia in helping the US-Israel-Saudi-UAE front against Iran, don’t expect it to happen, says professor and syndicated columnist Rami Khouri

The Trump administration is threatening America’s European allies with harsh sanctions—among them, exclusion from a principal component of the global financial system—should they decide to keep doing business with Iran.

In early June, Sigal Mandelker, a previously obscure Justice Department and Homeland Security official now serving as acting deputy secretary of the Treasury Department, spoke before an audience at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), a Washington think tank, and fired a shot across the proverbial bow of European governments and businesses, warning, “Companies doing business in Iran face substantial risks, and those risks are even greater as we reimpose nuclear-related sanctions.”

“We will hold,” said Mandelker, “those doing prohibited business in Iran to account.”

A top aide to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Friday that Iran would immediately withdraw its “military advisers” from Syria and Iraq only if their governments wanted it to.

“Iran and Russia’s presence in Syria will continue to protect the country against terrorist groups and America’s aggression ... We will immediately leave if Iraqi and Syrian governments want it, not because of Israel and America’s pressure,” said Ali Akbar Velayati in a conference in Moscow.

Iran has threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, a vital artery for oil shipments from the Middle East. The warning comes in response to the US, which is trying to cut off Iranian crude exports.

After pulling out of a landmark international deal curtailing Tehran's nuclear program, Washington has ordered countries to cease buying oil from Iran by November 4 or face secondary US sanctions. Major European energy corporations like France's Total have already pulled out of Iran.

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A helicopter from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln hovers over an Iranian patrol ship during a transit through the Strait of Hormuz © Jumana El HelouehGet ready for $250 oil if Iran blocks key shipment route in Middle East, analysts tell RT.

Iran's supreme leader's senior adviser for international affairs, Ali Akbar Velayati said his country will retaliate.

As Western capitals brace themselves for Wednesday’s two-day NATO summit, Iranians and Europeans alike are hoping EU leaders can finally put their money where their mouth is and unshackle themselves from U.S.-imposed hegemonic bondage.

While the White House’s frenzied anti-Iran campaign has entailed unprecedented attempts to twist the arms of the United States’ traditional European allies, the pressure may be backfiring – a reality made all the more clear by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s claims that Europe’s three major powers plan to continue trade ties with Iran without the use of the U.S. dollar.

The move would be a clear sign that the foremost European hegemons – France, Germany, and the United Kingdom – plan to protect the interests of companies hoping to do business with Iran, a significant regional power with a market of around 80 million people.

A senior adviser to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says Tehran and Moscow need to bolster their “strategic” cooperation in the face of US hegemony.

Speaking to reporters upon arrival in Moscow on Wednesday, Ali Akbar Velayati lauded Tehran-Moscow relations as “strategic,” expressing hope that his visit would be a turning point in bilateral ties.

“The current situation is very critical and the world is under the hegemony of a wayward person -- the US president who defies international regulations. Therefore, it is necessary that the cooperation [between Iran and Russia] be increased,” Velayati said.

He added that cooperation in the region between the resistance front led by Iran and Russia against terrorism and its supporters in Syria and other regional countries was indicative of an exemplary, strategic and long-term partnership between the two countries.

Iran wants to withdraw €300 million ($350 million) from bank accounts in Germany before US sanctions kick in, German newspaper Bild reports. The United States and Israel are reportedly pressuring Berlin to intervene and stop it.

Iranian officials told the German Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) the money is needed “to pass on to Iranian citizens who require cash while travelling abroad, given their inability to access recognised credit cards,” Bild reports.

BaFin has been reviewing the request, the media says. Senior officials in the Chancellery, Foreign Ministry and Finance Ministry have been made aware of the situation.

Tehran has accounts at the Europaeisch-Iranische Handelsbank AG (eihbank). The lender was subject to sanctions from 2010-2016, for allegedly financing the Iranian nuclear program.

US and Israeli intelligence agencies have said the money could be used by Iran to fund armed groups in the Middle East, according to the media.

The U.S. is demanding zero purchases of Iranian oil by November, and if that were possible, oil could spike above $120 per barrel, given global crude supplies, says Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

"In our view, a complete cutoff of Iran exports would be very hard to manage and likely result in an oil price spike above $120/bbl. For now, the uncertainty around US government policy is leading to lower exports and an increase in Iranian oil in floating storage," wrote Francisco Blanch, BofAML head of global commodities and derivatives research.

Analysts are skeptical the U.S. can keep even half the Iranian exports of about 2.4 million barrels a day from the market, but some have raised their expectations since U.S. officials began talking up their goal of removing all Iranian exports. They have also warned of potential price spikes if there are any more unexpected production outages in the world.

An independent Chinese refiner has suspended crude oil purchases from the United States and has now turned to Iran as one of its sources of crude, media reports, citing an official from the refiner, Dongming Petrochemical Group.

What’s more, the source said that Beijing is planning to slap tariffs on U.S. crude oil imports and replace them with West African and Middle Eastern crude, including crude from Iran. China has already said that it will not comply with U.S. sanctions against Iran and it seems to be the only country for now in a position to do this.

U.S. crude oil exports to China reached 400,000 bpd at the beginning of this month, but now Beijing is planning to impose a 25-percent tariff on these as part of its retaliation for Trump’s latest round of tariffs on US$34 billion worth of Chinese goods. The retaliation began with tariffs on 545 U.S. goods worth another US$34 billion, but, Reuters reports, the oil tariffs will be announced at a later date.

The US views Iranian embassies in Europe as a cover for plotting terrorist attacks, State Department officials said, after Tehran slammed the arrest of its diplomatic envoy as an outlandish ‘false flag’ operation.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo intends to urge European allies to scrutinize Iranian diplomats more closely, an unnamed official told reporters on the way from the United Arab Emirates to Brussels, where NATO leaders are meeting on Wednesday.

Washington’s accusations of Iranian “malign behavior” in Europe come as the EU powers seek to maintain the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal with Iran, which the US unilaterally withdrew from in May.

The Trump administration takes the recent arrest of an Iranian diplomat “very seriously” and sees it as evidence that Tehran is using its diplomatic properties to plot terrorist attacks, AP reported, citing the unnamed official.

While most of the lead-up to the NATO summit this week in Brussels has centered around President Trump pushing military spending, and potentially being less hostile toward Russia than the other nations prefer, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has arrived in Brussels with a mission focused heavily on Iran.

The US withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal earlier this year. No other NATO nations followed suit, but the US has been making the rounds, pressuring nations worldwide to follow the new US sanctions.

Pompeo will be having sideline meetings with leaders of the various NATO nations during the summit, trying to sell them on the need to “pressure Iran.” This is going to be a very tough sell, especially for the European NATO members.

Britain, France, and Germany are all parties to the P5+1 nuclear deal, and the European Union has made resolutions calling on the entire union to support the deal, and resist US sanctions. Pompeo has a tall order to try to change their minds.

Trump advisor Rudy Giuliani called for regime change against Iran last weekend, and with a new wave of protests hitting the country over fears about the consequences of the US' forthcoming reimposed sanctions, it looks like Washington wants to bring down the Islamic Republic through weaponized economic means.

The US ambassador to Germany has urged Berlin to deny Iran’s request to withdraw €300 million ($350 million) from bank accounts held in Germany in the lead-up to imposition of Washington’s new sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

In an interview with German daily Bild quoted by Reuters, Richard Grenell expressed Washington’s grave concern with regard to Tehran's bid to transfer the money to Iran, saying, "We encourage the highest levels of the German government to intervene and stop the plan."

On Monday, a German Finance Ministry spokeswoman said the country is examining Iran’s request to withdraw the funds from the Europaeisch-Iranische Handelsbank AG (eihbank) in order to satisfy part of its foreign currency needs when fresh US sanctions against its financial sector take effect.

The United States will consider requests from some countries to be exempted from sanctions it will put in effect in November to prevent Iran from exporting oil, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday.

“There will be a handful of countries that come to the United States and ask for relief from that. We’ll consider it,” Pompeo said according to the text of an interview in Abu Dhabi with Sky News Arabia released by the US State Department. He did not name any countries.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday. Early reports are suggesting Netanyahu is going to offer a major trade with an eye toward getting Russia to kick the Iranians out of Syria.

This trade, as reported by the Israeli press, would have Netanyahu offering to see Russia given full relief from US-imposed sanctions in return for Russia expelling Iranian military from Syria. Russia has previously told Israel they don’t have the capability of doing so, and that the Iranian presence is up to Syria.

It’s less discussed in the media reports, but it’s also not clear that Netanyahu could deliver his side of this exchange either. Israel, after all, is not driving US sanctions against Russia, and presumably could not immediately demand and secure full sanction relief.

President Donald Trump makes a point of insisting that he has nothing against the Iranian people and is only interested in opposing what he regards as the dangerous activities of their government, but his own record in office belies that claim. It is clear that what he is trying to do is put pressure on the people of Iran to rise up and force a change in government, a process otherwise referred to as regime change. Indeed, if one is to believe Trump confidant Rudy Giuliani, the White House is now committed to “bring down the Iranian regime.” He added that “The collapse of the Islamic Republic of Iran is around the corner.”

In a recent speech, the deputy commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) boasted that the “Islamic army in Syria” in the Golan Heights was awaiting orders to eradicate the “evil regime” of Israel.

He also said the Tehran-backed Hezbollah terror group had 100,000 missiles aimed at Israel.

“We are creating might in Lebanon because we want to fight our enemy from there with all our strength,” he stated. “Hezbollah today has tremendous might on the ground that can on its own break the Zionist regime. The Zionist regime has no strategic-defensive depth.”

In the speech for the anti-Israel al-Quds Day in June, translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Hossein Salami said that the dangers Israel faces today are greater than at any time in history.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says the three major European signatories to a landmark nuclear deal with Iran agreed to establish trade ties with Iran independent of the US dollar.

Since the United States' unilateral move in May to withdraw from the nuclear accord, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), European companies are under mounting pressure from Washington to cut business ties with Tehran.

US President Donald Trump announced on May 8 that Washington was walking away from the nuclear agreement and that he plans to reinstate US nuclear sanctions on Iran and impose "the highest level" of economic bans on the Islamic Republic.

Under the JCPOA, Iran undertook to put limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions imposed against Tehran.

Lavrov said on Monday that the decision by France, Germany and Britain would mainly concern small and medium-sized companies.

French shipping company CMA CGM, one of the world’s largest cargo shipping companies, recently announced that it will stop doing business with Iran out of fear of becoming embroiled in US sanctions against the nation.

"Due to the Trump administration, we have decided to end our service for Iran," CMA CGM chief Rodolphe Saade said, according to the Times of Israel.

"Our Chinese competitors are hesitating a little, so maybe they have a different relationship with Trump, but we apply the rules."

CMA CGM is the world's third-largest container shipping fleet, according to United Nations statistics.

Iran has hit out at a "psychological war" targeting its ties with Europe after reports that Iranian assets in Germany had been frozen ahead of a US deadline to reimpose sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

The freeze report came as ministers from Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia met their Iranian counterpart in Vienna Friday to provide Tehran with an economic package to compensate for US sanctions that begin taking effect in August.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said Saturday the German delegation, along with other delegates, examined how to find better mechanisms for boosting economic and banking cooperation between the two countries.

With the US and China contemplating their next moves in what is now officially a trade war, a parallel narrative is developing in the world of energy where Asian oil refiners are racing to secure crude supplies in anticipation of an escalating trade war between the US and China, even as Trump demands all US allies cut Iran oil exports to zero by November 4 following sanctions aimed at shutting the country out of oil markets.

Concerned that the situation will deteriorate before it gets better, Asian refiners are moving swiftly to secure supplies with South Korea leading the way. Under pressure from Washington, Seoul has already halted all orders of Iranian oil, according to sources, even as it braces from spillover effects from the U.S.-China tit-for-tat on trade.

The U.S. government has continued its attempts to shut down Iran’s oil exports, and in recent days Iranian officials responded by threatening to block the Strait of Hormuz. Such an outcome is highly unlikely, but the war of words demonstrates how quickly the confrontation is escalating.

Oil prices spiked in late June when a U.S. State Department official said that countries would be expected to cut their imports of oil from Iran down to “zero.” The official also suggested that it would be unlikely that the Trump administration would grant any waivers.

This hard line stance fueled a rally in oil prices as the oil market was quickly forced to recalibrate expected losses from Iran, with a general consensus changing from a loss of around 500,000 bpd by the end of the year, to something more like 1 million barrels per day (mb/d), or even as high as 2.0 to 2.5 mb/d in a worst-case scenario in which all countries comply.

Iran will maintain its military presence in Syria after the defeat of Daesh, according to an Iranian official on Sunday.

During a meeting with the Palestinian Ambassador to Tehran Salah al-Zawawi, a Senior adviser to the Iranian parliament speaker for international affairs Hossein Amir Abdollahian said:

The Zionist regime [Israel] is trying to dominate Syria after [fall of] Daesh, but the Resistance forces and the military advisers of the Islamic Republic of Iran will continue their presence in Syria to counter terrorism

“Syrians will not allow the country to once again become a safe haven for Zionist terrorists,” he added in statements carried by local media, quoted by Anadolu Agency.

In recent months, Israel has carried out several air attacks on Iranian targets inside Syria that reportedly left a number of Iranian military personnel dead.

Major European countries party to nuclear negotiations with Iran – France, Germany and the UK - have agreed to maintain trade with Tehran independent from the US dollar, said Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

European companies are under increasing pressure from Washington to cut business ties with Tehran. Since the majority of transactions are currently conducted using the US dollar, firms working in Iran face potential US penalties.

According to Lavrov, the decision particularly concerns small and medium-sized companies. He explained that the participants in the Iranian deal have agreed to work out measures to protect the countries’ businesses from US sanctions.

Iran says US President Donald Trump has insulted the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) by trying to use political pressures to change the policies of the Organization.

"The OPEC's basis and principle is that the oil market should not be political and that political issues should not interfere in the market so that supply and demand determines the final oil price," Iran's Petroleum Minister Bijan Zanganeh said in an interview with state television on Friday.

"But, some political measures and instabilities spark concerns in the oil market and increase price, including Trump's insulting order to some OPEC members, which is an insult to the national sovereignty of independent countries that are members of the organization," he added.

Zanganeh also noted that Trump's moves have increased the global oil prices in recent days.

Former US Congressman Ron Paul says the US is repeating the mistakes it has been making since the time of the US-led 1953 coup in Iran and is naive to think the notorious anti-Iran terrorist group Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) could be a viable political force.

“The group is trying to change the regime in Iran, that means that Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United States are working on it,” Paul said on his Liberty Report show on Friday, emphasizing that the terrorist group enjoyed backing by foreign governments.

Paul said every once in a while MKO members try to infiltrate his website and reminded viewers of the MKO's collaboration with the Baathist regime of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

He later recalled the downing of Iran’s civilian aircraft by a US Navy guided-missile cruiser over the Persian Gulf in 1988 and said Iranian citizens will not easily forget such incidents.

The administration of United States President Donald Trump is plotting to use a terrorist outfit called the Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MEK or MKO) to promote regime-change in Iran, according to a former long-time MKO member.

MKO, which was listed as a terrorist organization in the US and Europe, had collaborated with the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during his imposed war on Iran in the 1980s in addition to killing as many as 12,000 Iranians in a violent campaign of terrorist bombings and assassination across the Islamic Republic and Iraq, is strongly despised by the Iranian nation.

The collaboration between the Trump administration and MKO leadership to overthrow the government in Iran is based on false pretenses and will be a futile attempt, former MKO member Ebrahim Khodabandeh told Press TV on Saturday.

As the EU scrambles to offer a viable package of economic incentives to convince Iran to stay in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) after the US withdrawal, some forces are attempting to undermine this effort and fully align the bloc’s policies with the Trump administration’s strategy of isolating Iran.

A case in point was an attempt in the European Parliament to block one of the key measures that EU governments proposed to preserve the JCPOA: to give a mandate to the European Investment Bank (EIB) to support financing investment projects in Iran. As of June 4, when the proposal was made, the Parliament had two months to object by issuing a resolution blocking the measure.

An Iranian official was quoted by Reuters on Friday succinctly describing Iran’s goals for what they want in return for maintaining the P5+1 nuclear deal. The official says Iran wants to be “fully compensated” by the international community for US sanctions.

Though this was presented as demands by the Iranians for staying in the deal, it’s unlikely they’d receive full compensation for all US sanctions. It is also highly unlikely that Iran would not accept something short of this.

This is broadly what Iran has said all along, however. Previous comments by officials indicated that after the US withdrew from the P5+1 Iran deal, Iran would stay in so long as its benefits under the deal were assured. This effectively means sanctions relief.

I’ve been noticing videos going viral the last few days, some with millions of views, about Muslim women bravely fighting to free themselves from oppression in the Middle East. The videos, curiously, are being shared enthusiastically by many Republicans and pro-Israel hawks, who aren’t traditionally the sort of crowd you see rallying to support the civil rights of Muslims. What’s up with that?

Well, you may want to sit down for this shocker, but it turns out that they happen to be women from a nation that the US war machine is currently escalating operations against. They are Iranian.

Iran has cut electricity supplies to Iraq due to unpaid bills, the Ministry of Electricity in Baghdad said on Friday. This has exacerbated the country’s electricity crisis, Anadolu has reported.

Ministry spokesman Mosaab Al-Madras said that the supply cut affected Iraq’s Dhi Qar, Maysan and Basra provinces. Although he did not give details of the debt to Iran, the unpaid bills are estimated at around $1 billion.

The remaining parties to the P5+1 nuclear deal, China, Russia, Germany, France, and Britain are all trying to save the pact since the pullout of the US. Whether they’ll be able to do so remains to be seen, but the joint effort is bringing the nations all closer together.

A Friday meeting in Vienna centered on saving the deal, and also provided opportunities for top-ranking diplomats from the various nations to hold closed-door, sideline talks. With the US having withdrawn itself from the deal, discussions on the deal are effectively now bringing everyone else in line and facing the US opposition to the deal as a mutual problem.

The nations are not only in agreement about the need to save the deal but seem to be heading in a direction which Iranian FM Javad Zarif called “practical,” in their united opposition to the US pullout from the deal.

The new U.S. leadership is resorting to every ploys and lies to demonize Iran. The new project of Iranophobia has intensified since Pompeo confirmed as secretary of state in late April. He seems to be superseding in animosity against Iran in comparison to John Bolton, the national security advisor to Trump.

Pompeo’s degree of hatred toward Iran was fully laid bare during his speech at the Heritage Foundation on May 21 in Washington.

It is quite clear to the entire world that it is Saudi Arabia and the UAE – the United States’ close friends – which have created human tragedy in Yemen by strangulating and starving millions of people in the poor Arab country. Maybe it is the easiest way to blame Iran for what Washington’s friends have been doing.

How can Iran, even if it wanted, to help Yemeni rebels while the country is besieged by the Saudi-led alliance. Attempts to link the miseries of the Yemenis to Iran can never hide the crimes being committed by the Saudi-led coalition.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says Tehran will continue cooperation with Europe in their multilateral nuclear deal if the remaining parties to the landmark accord can meet Tehran's expectations during their upcoming ministerial meeting.

Foreign ministers of Iran and the five remaining parties to the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), are scheduled to meet in the Austrian capital Vienna on Friday to discuss ways of maintaining the international accord after the US’ withdrawal.

In a telephone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday night, Rouhani noted that the US withdrawal from the JCPOA has caused some problems in economic areas, banking transactions and oil sector for the foreign companies which have made investment in Iran, making them reluctant about continuing their operations in the country.

The U.S. Navy stands ready to ensure free navigation and the flow of commerce, the U.S. military’s Central Command said on Thursday, as Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned they would block oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz if necessary.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and some senior military commanders have threatened in recent days to disrupt oil shipments from the Gulf countries if Washington tries to cut Tehran’s exports.

Praising Rouhani’s “firm stance” against the United States, the head of the Revolutionary Guards said on Thursday their forces were ready to block the strait which links the Gulf to the open sea.

In May, U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of a multinational deal under which sanctions on Iran were lifted in return for curbs to its nuclear program. Washington has since told countries they must stop buying Iranian oil from Nov. 4 or face financial measures.

As Americans are busy with July 4th celebrations, the temperature is heating up in the Persian Gulf a day after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani suggested Iran could stop all regional gulf oil exports in retaliation for the US seeking to collapse the nuclear deal, and in response to aggressive new US sanctions.

"The Americans have claimed they want to completely stop Iran's oil exports. They don't understand the meaning of this statement, because it has no meaning for Iranian oil not to be exported, while the region's oil is exported," the state-run website, president.ir, quoted Rouhani as saying. “The Americans say they want to reduce Iranian oil exports to zero... It shows they have not thought about its consequences,” Rouhani said.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has one again stressed that his country may leave the 2015 nuclear deal if the remaining parties to the agreement fail to secure Tehran's rights.

Rouhani made the remarks on Wednesday during a meeting with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Yukiya Amano in Vienna.

"Iran’s nuclear activities have always been peaceful, but it is Tehran that decides on the level of its cooperation with the IAEA," he said.

"The responsibility for a change in the situation and the level of Iran's cooperation with the agency falls on those who have created the new status quo," he added.

British journalist Robert Carter believes that the relocation of the US embassy to Jerusalem al-Quds and the clear American favoritism towards Israel has established the collapse of US hegemony over the Middle East.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with FNA, journalist and political analyst Robert Carter said that the evident favoritism towards Israel practiced by American administration under Donald Trump will cause the US to “lose its ability to easily manipulate and convince Muslim powers to follow American strategies going forward” and consequently will result in the downfall of US hegemony over the Middle East.

Commenting on the Saudi policy towards Israeli-Palestinian conflict and their secret relations with the Zionist regime, Robert Carter added that the Saudis are eager to expand ties with Israel for a number of reasons, one of which he believes is the joint hatred toward Iran.

The notorious anti-Iran terrorist group, the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO), which has assassinated thousands of Iranians, receives support from the US and its allies in the region.

The MKO which is said to be a cult which turns humans into obedient robots, turned against Iran since the revolution and has carried out several terrorist attacks killing senior officials in Iran; yet the West, which says cultism is wrong and claims to be against terrorism, supports this terrorist group officially.

Top diplomats from world powers will meet on Friday in a bid to defend their landmark nuclear deal with Iran from attack by President Donald Trump.

Foreign ministers from China, France, Germany, Russia and the U.K. will convene in Vienna for the first time without the U.S. in order “to ensure the continued implementation” of the accord, which granted Iran a reprieve from sanctions in exchange for limits to its nuclear program, according to a European Union statement on Wednesday. Trump abandoned the deal in May and reimposed sanctions against countries and companies doing business with Iran.

“Austria and the European Union are ready to maintain and deepen the framework for cooperation with Iran,” Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen said following a meeting in the Austrian capital with his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani. U.S. threats to impose secondary sanctions violate the rights of European companies and individuals, Van der Bellen said.

When economic protests quickly turned into widespread anti-regime protests engulfing some 75 mostly provincial cities and towns across Iran in late December and into January, we took note of the State Department's brazen pro-revolutionary rhetoric calling for "elements inside of Iran" to lead a "transition of government" in spokesperson Heather Nauert's own words (echoing prior statements by then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson).

We posed the question then, and raised it again with renewed unrest in Tehran and the southern city of Khorrmashahr over this past week: are we witnessing regime change agents hijacking economic protests?

Indeed a high level joint US-Israeli "working group" has been meeting for months with just this goal in mind as Axios confirms in a bombshell new report: "Israel and the United States formed a joint working group a few months ago that is focused on internal efforts to encourage protests within Iran and pressure the country's government."

On July 3, 1988, the United States killed 290 innocent Iranian civilians when it shot down Iran Air Flight 655—a tragic event that is not mentioned in history textbooks in school, and that is widely ignored in the context of current relations between the U.S. and Iran.

The scheduled flight was traveling from Tehran to Dubai, and there were 66 children on board, all of whom were killed, as no passengers or crew members survived the attack. The plane was shot down by the USS Vincennes, which was operating within Iranian territorial waters. It targeted the large Airbus A300 and then insisted that crew members mistook it for an F-14 fighter jet, despite the obvious difference in size.

At the time, Iraq and Iran were engaged in a bitter war that was declared by Saddam Hussein on Sept. 22, 1980. The United States’ support for Iraq in the conflict is notable because it would later go on to overthrow Hussein in 2003.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s latest video-taped message to the Iranian people – in which he conflates the relatively good performance of the Iranian football team with unrest on the streets of Tehran – has been widely ridiculed by the Iranian media. His message followed hot on the heels of his first such message when he tried to address the water shortage in Iran by offering Israeli water management expertise. Needless to say, this outlandish outreach was dismissed curtly by Iranian officials, who reminded Netanyahu to stop stealing water resources from regional states.

On July 3, 1988, the United States killed 290 innocent Iranian civilians when it shot down Iran Air Flight 655—a tragic event that is not mentioned in history textbooks in school, and that is widely ignored in the context of current relations between the U.S. and Iran.

The scheduled flight was traveling from Tehran to Dubai, and there were 66 children on board, all of whom were killed, as no passengers or crew members survived the attack. The plane was shot down by the USS Vincennes, which was operating within Iranian territorial waters. It targeted the large Airbus A300 and then insisted that crew members mistook it for an F-14 fighter jet, despite the obvious difference in size.

At the time, Iraq and Iran were engaged in a bitter war that was declared by Saddam Hussein on Sept. 22, 1980. The United States’ support for Iraq in the conflict is notable because it would later go on to overthrow Hussein in 2003.

Israel has launched a special military body to confront Iran, Hebrew media reported today.

According to Maariv, the Head of Central Command, Major General Nitzan Alon, was appointed director of the new department.

Alon travelled to the US last weekend and attended meetings with senior US military officials, including US Army Chief of Staff Joseph Manford.

This is the first time the Israeli army has appointed a director to confront Iran.

The task of the new body is to coordinate moves against the Tehran nuclear project, focusing on intelligence gathering, fighting the Iranian position in Syria, and coordinating with the US to carry out these tasks, according to the paper.

Accompanying the demonstrations and illegal occupations of government buildings are in both cases brutal, criminal attacks on the police and other government forces. In Syria the violence "muscle" part was done by foreign financed Jihadists while neo-nazi gangs are used in the Ukraine. The demonstrations and the attacks on the state are planned and go together. There is nothing "peaceful" in demonstrations that are only the public-relations cover for attacks on the state. But the foreign politicians and media immediately utter "concerns" and threats over completely normal government responses to them. It is a scam to justify "western" "support" for the demonstrators and to further the violence.

The aim is "regime change" of legitimate governments by small minorities. Should the "regime" resist to that the alternative of destroying the state and the whole society is also wholeheartedly accepted.

The Trump Administration is now signalling to its allies and Iranian dissidents that its new policy—to choke Tehran economically and publicly support local protesters—can topple the revolutionary government in Iran. “We are now very realistic in being able to see an end of the regime in Iran,” Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney, said at the annual gathering of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the controversial exile group, in Paris on Saturday. In December, sporadic protests erupted in Iran in response to unemployment and the strict dress code for women. During his speech, Giuliani compared Trump’s support for the protests to President Reagan’s support for the opponents of Communist rule in Eastern Europe in the nineteen-eighties.

A spokesman for the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces cautioned against “dangerous” moves by Washington to justify its presence in the region and said a ship loaded with chemicals has arrived in the Persian Gulf waters under the escort of a US warship.

In comments released on Sunday, Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi said the American ship “MV Cape Ray” carrying chemical materials has recently docked at a port of a Persian Gulf littoral state under the escort of a US Navy destroyer.

The past records of the American ship show that it has been present in some coasts of Iraq and Syria, where the Americans have taken military action under the pretext of responding to alleged chemical attacks, he noted.

The American vessel loaded with chemicals has entered the region with the aim of transferring these materials to parts of Iraq and Syria, the senior spokesman added.

Last week, US State Department officials announced that they are pushing nations to bring down purchases of Iranian oil to zero. With the US pulling out of the P5+1 nuclear deal, they are trying to restore a ban on Iran exports.

Iran, however, says that they intend to try to circumvent the US ban with new rules to make it easier to export oil. This will include allowing private companies to directly export the oil. Officials say they are determined to keep the oil flowing.

The US “down to zero” plan rests heavily on banning India and China from buying from the Iranians, and while Indian companies have suggested they will dial it back, China remains in the nuclear deal and almost certainly won’t give in to US demands.

It is as clear as day that President Trump is obsessed with regime change in Iran. What is not made clear is how much his gambit is damaging to Americans and American interests.

Without cause or justification, Mr. Trump pulled out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action (JCPOA), striking a hard blow to America’s European allies – and its own credibility. Moreover, he threatened European countries with secondary sanctions should they continue to trade with Iran.

To top it all, in his latest move, he has called for all Iranian oil exports to be cut off by November. Or in practical terms, he is imposing an economic blockade on Iran. This is a similar scenario that was played out by the British in 1951 against Iran and Dr. Mossadegh – who was later overthrown in the 1953 British-US coup. But today, the IR of Iran is not the Iran of 1953, and the brunt of American demands and actions will not be borne by Iran alone.

US President Donald Trump will suffocate Iran’s “dictatorial ayatollahs”, his close ally Rudy Giuliani said on Saturday, suggesting his move to re-impose sanctions was aimed squarely at regime change.

The former New York mayor who is now Trump’s personal lawyer was addressing a conference of the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an umbrella bloc of groups of exiled Iranians opposed to the Islamic Republic.

“We are now realistically being able to see an end to the regime in Iran,” Giuliani said, pointing to recent protests in the country sparked by a currency collapse after Trump pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal. Giuliani added:

When the greatest economic power stops doing business with you then you collapse … and the sanctions will become greater, greater and greater

At the same conference last year, John Bolton, who was appointed Trump’s National Security Advisor in April this year, told NCRI members they would be ruling Iran before 2019.

Iran may be Russia’s ally in the Syrian conflict but when it comes to oil, Tehran’s arch-enemy Saudi Arabia takes precedence - if last week’s OPEC meeting in Vienna is anything to go by.

There are two countries that more than others show how the Western world order is undergoing a profound change. Japan and Turkey occupy two distinct and diverse geographical areas, yet they share many of the same strategic choices about their future. Their geopolitical trajectory is increasingly drifting away from Washington and moving closer to China, Russia, India and Iran.

On 3 July 1988, a sophisticated US Navy warship, the USS Vincennes, shot down an Iranian civilian airliner flying over the Persian Gulf.

All 290 on board the aircraft were killed, among them 66 children.

Rudy Pahoyo was a Navy Combat Cameraman who was filming on board the USS Vincennes that day.

Iranian president Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday: “We will bring the US to its knees in this battle of wills.” The Iranian government is continuing to warn of harsh retaliation against the United States after the Trump administration pulled out of the 2015 nuclear agreement.

According to PressTV, the threat comes as Washington continues to attempt to bully its allies into halting imports of Iranian oil after Donald Trump unilaterally quit the cornerstone international nuclear agreement instituted by his predecessor, Barack Obama. Iran has previously said there would be consequences should the US decide to withdraw from the agreement.

Iran has launched a UF6 production plant as part of preparations ordered by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei to increase uranium enrichment capacity.

The plant for the production of uranium hexafluoride is a major part of the Uranium Conversion Facility (UCF) in Isfahan.

The first barrel of yellowcake, the basic raw material for nuclear fuel fabrication, was unloaded at the UCF, which was almost inactive for the last few years.

The re-launch of the plant is in line with an order by Ayatollah Khamenei for increasing the country’s uranium enrichment capacity within the framework of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), following Washington's withdrawal from the agreement.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has strongly denounced the Western states for their pretense of advocating human rights while in reality supporting terrorist groups and acts of terror.

Addressing the staff of Iran’s Judiciary at a meeting in Tehran on Wednesday, Ayatollah Khamenei made reference to human rights violations committed by the United States in various parts of the world as well as France and Britain’s crimes of the past decades which took place in Africa and the Indian subcontinent.

The Leader added that the West’s support over the past years for the Daesh terror group in Syria and the atrocities being committed in Myanmar and elsewhere “is indicative of the repeated lies of the shameless fake human rights advocates.”

Ayatollah Khamenei said when it comes to the issue of human rights, it is actually the Islamic Republic that stands in the position of the true advocate of human rights as opposed to “the criminal Western pretenders.”

Russia is the one country that has arguably benefited the most from the Trump administration’s insistence that other countries (including America’s Western allies) reduce their petroleum imports from Iran to zero or face U.S. sanctions.

Both during Soviet times and under Putin, Moscow has long sought to drive a wedge between the U.S. and its European allies, thereby weakening the Western alliance. Trump’s actions regarding Iran (as well as other issues) have done just this. Not only do most of America’s allies in Europe and outside the Middle East continue to support the Iranian nuclear accord, but they are angered that Trump is threatening them with sanctions unless they comply with what they regard as Trump’s wrong-headed and illegal withdrawal from an agreement that Iran is continuing to observe.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just released a video praising Iran. Well, sort of. He actually praised Iran’s soccer team — and kinda sorta maybe advocated for a revolution in Iran.

Here’s what happened: On Wednesday afternoon Netanyahu tweeted out a video praising the Iranian soccer team for its performance in the World Cup against Portugal — and its star player Cristiano Ronaldo.

“The Iranian team just did the impossible,” the prime minister says in the video. “To the Iranian people I say: You showed courage on the playing field, and today you showed the same courage in the streets of Iran.”

Iran is being rocked by its biggest wave of protests in nearly a decade. Since December 28, tens of thousands of Iranians have taken to the streets in huge numbers of towns and cities to demand freedom from their theocratic government. At least 20 people have since been killed in clashes with security forces, and hundreds of mostly young people have been arrested, per news reports.

The demonstrations began as small gatherings protesting a slow economy in Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city; over the past week they’ve morphed into a wave of major demonstrations in which ordinary Iranians are often heard calling for a revolution against the country’s theocratic government.

But this massive movement — one with the potential to reshape the Middle East — has a pretty mundane cause.

“It started over a protest over the price of eggs, believe it or not,” says Hussein Banai, a professor at Indiana University who studies Iran.

The Trump administration is going to extreme lengths to disrupt as much oil from Iran as possible, and the implications for the oil market could be severe.

When the Obama administration sought to isolate Iran, it built an international coalition, put in place tight sanctions, and tried to curtail Iran’s oil exports. It worked, knocking around 1 million barrels per day offline. Still, the Obama administration granted leeway to an array of countries that depended on Iranian oil, including India, Japan and much of the EU, by granting them exemptions from sanctions as long as they did their best to reduce purchases.

The Trump administration has no compunction about making harsh demands to various countries, including U.S. allies, to cut off Iranian oil.

Donald Trump's administration had re-asserted its backing for Israel’s policy of secrecy about its own nuclear capabilities, as the Israeli government seeks to persuade the world Iran "lied" about not having a clandestine nuclear weapons programme.

The US government recently rebuffed Egypt’s renewed attempts to press Israel into showing its hand, suggesting that cannot happen until Israel is recognised by all of its neighbours.

Egypt wants Israel to sign up to a 1995 treaty on disarming the region and to submit to measures the International Atomic Energy Authority uses to ensure nuclear weapons are not spread.

"Such efforts are mistaken and unproductive," the US said in an submission to a preparatory committee last week, which claimed they still supported the treaty but adopted Israel’s position that regional conditions were not suitable.

With two Israeli missile having struck targets near a Syrian airport on Tuesday, Rick Sterling, an investigative journalist and member of the Syria Solidarity Movement, told Sputnik that the likelihood of Israel backing down from its attacks are pretty slim.

As Sputnik previously reported, the Israeli Air Force was attempting a late night attack on an Iranian cargo plane that was unloading at Damascus International Airport. Footage has since emerged allegedly showing the aftermath of the Israeli strike.

The incident follows multiple strikes by Israel in recent months in what it calls "retaliatory" measures against Iran's presence in Syria, which it sees as a threat to its safety. Iran has had a foothold in Syria since the conflict first began in 2011.

The apparent ceasefire collapse also occurred as airstrikes reportedly struck Damascus International Airport on Tuesday. While the attack remains unclaimed, it has been widely blamed on Israel, who rarely takes responsibility for strikes against Iranian and pro-Iran targets in neighboring Syria. The U.K.-based, pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Israeli warplanes struck "a shipment of Iranian weapons" that had arrived at the airport, while Russia's state-run Sputnik News highlighted reports claiming an Iranian cargo plane may have been the target.

On Sunday Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif admitted to the Iran Chamber of Congress that the collapse of the 2015 nuclear deal would have “very dangerous consequences” for the country. President Donald Trump has withdrawn the United States from the deal he said was disastrous from the beginning.

According to Reuters, the Iranian rial [the currency] plunged to a record low against the United States dollar on the unofficial market on Sunday, continuing its slide amid fears of returning U.S. sanctions after President Donald Trump in May withdrew from a deal on Tehran’s nuclear program. The dollar was being offered for as much as 87,000 rials, compared to around 75,500 on Thursday, the last trading day before Iran’s weekend, according to foreign exchange website Bonbast.com, which tracks the unofficial market.”

Several Iranian media outlets had reported the same news.

Iran is to ban the import of more than 1,300 products amid fears about the impact of US sanctions. The announcement came as traders in Tehran staged a rare protest against rising prices and the fall of the currency to a record low.

Police patrolled the Grand Bazaar in the capital on Monday after security forces struggled to restore order after clashes with protesters, witnesses said. Many in the country are angry about the rial’s collapse, which is disrupting business by driving up the cost of imports.

Traders from the bazaar, whose merchants supported Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution, said most shops remained closed.

A former head of the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance (NATO) was denied electronic authorisation to enter the United States after his online application was rejected due to what he said was a trip to Iran.

Javier Solana, who headed the military alliance from 1995 to 1999 and served as the EU's foreign policy chief until 2009, saw his renewal application on the Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA) denied for the first time.

The 75-year-old Spaniard believes this was due to a trip to Iran where he partook in negotiations for the now defunct 2015 nuclear deal.

Another country buying oil with something other than the USD

The government is set to revive an alternative payment mechanism to settle a part of its payments for oil imported for Iran over the next few days in a bid to counter the impact of US sanctions imposed on Tehran.

While one option is to go back to the earlier barter-type arrangement that had the tacit approval of the US, the government is also looking at the option of routing the payment through a third country like Turkey, a senior government official told TOI . A similar arrangement had to be dropped when Iran faced sanctions the last time round, prompting the rupee-Iranian rial arrangement, where UCO Bank played a key role in helping Indian refiners such as MRPL and Essar Oil meet their requirements.

Washington has asked Tokyo to halt all crude purchases from Iran, insisting that its allies cease all trade with the country, according to Bloomberg.

The request was made during a meeting between US and Japanese officials in Tokyo this week, according to the media. No decision has been made yet, though, and talks will continue.

This means that Washington is taking a harder stance on Iran than it did in 2012. Six years ago, before the nuclear deal, the US demanded that its allies should reduce oil purchases from sanctioned Iran, rather than stop them completely.

Japan is Asia’s fourth-largest buyer of Iranian crude, which accounts for 5.3 percent of its oil consumption, or 172,000 barrels per day.