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Iran, United States resume nuclear talks in Lausanne

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif resumed nuclear talks on Monday in the Swiss city of Lausanne to try to narrow gaps before a March 31 deadline for a political agreement. The meeting included U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz and Iran’s nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi, who also met on Sunday to negotiate technical details on how to curb Iran’s nuclear program. Kerry has urged Iran to make concessions that would allow six world powers to reach a political framework agreement for a nuclear deal with Tehran that would lift sanctions in exchange for curbs on Tehran’s nuclear program. The parties have set a June 30 deadline to finalize an accord. Iran and major powers will meet this week in Lausanne but the date has not been announced yet. (Reporting by Lesley Wroughton ; Writing by Parisa […]

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West hopes for Iran concessions in nuclear talks

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) – Western powers are hoping for concessions from Tehran that could help clinch a political agreement in nuclear talks this week after the United States and European powers voiced a willingness to compromise on suspending U.N. sanctions, officials said. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had been due to meet in Lausanne, Switzerland, later on Sunday to try to break the logjam ahead of a crucial round of talks between Iran and six major powers. But a senior U.S. State Department official later said that meeting would be delayed until Monday due to extensive U.S.-Iranian consultations earlier on Sunday between nuclear and Foreign Ministry officials. Kerry has urged Iran to take decisions now to enable them to clinch a political framework agreement for a nuclear deal with Tehran that would lift sanctions in exchange for curbs on Tehran’s nuclear […]

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Diplomats Take Aim at a Tentative Iran Deal

ENLARGE U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right, at an economic development meeting in Egypt on Sunday. Photo: Reuters BRUSSELS—U.S. and Iranian negotiators set to resume talks Monday are hoping to seal a tentative political agreement on Tehran’s nuclear program, though Western diplomats said serious negotiations over substance would still be needed in the months ahead. An announcement of a political agreement before an end-of-March deadline, could spur expectations that Iran and the six-nation group is on track for a deal—an advance they hope would buy them fresh time to reach a final, detailed nuclear accord by June 30. Any such political understanding that emerges in the coming days would fall short of the goal the two sides set when the diplomacy was extended in November to complete the negotiations by the end of March. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Switzerland on Sunday ahead of meetings with […]

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Kerry Suggests There Is a Place for Assad in Syria Talks

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Secretary of State John Kerry said in an interview broadcast Sunday that he still believed it was important to achieve a diplomatic solution for the conflict in Syria and that the negotiations should involve President Bashar al-Assad. “We are working very hard with other interested parties to see if we can reignite a diplomatic outcome,” Mr. Kerry said on the CBS show “Face the Nation.” “We have to negotiate in the end,” Mr. Kerry added. But Mr. Kerry’s comments seemed to be more a reflection of his determination to try to bring about an end to the bloody war than a change of American strategy. State Department officials later said that the United States was not open to direct talks with Mr. Assad, despite what Mr. Kerry appeared to suggest in his television appearance. And it remained unclear how the Obama administration planned to put enough […]

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Saudi Oil Adviser Says Strengthening Demand Will Lift Prices

Ibrahim Al Muhanna, advisor to the Saudi Arabia Minister of Petroleum. Photographer: Antoine Antoniol/Bloomberg (Bloomberg) — Global crude consumption is strengthening, and prices will stiffen as demand matches supply, a senior adviser to Saudi Arabia’s oil minister said. Prices have stopped falling at about $60 a barrel as expanding demand helps contain the global glut, Ibrahim Al-Muhanna said at a conference in Doha, Qatar. It’s too early to say if the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which kept output unchanged in November, will alter policy when it gathers again on June 5, he said. “I am confident that demand is and will be stronger,” said Al-Muhanna, adviser to Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi. “Supply will remain healthy, and the price will firm up.” OPEC’s refusal to cut production amid the surge in U.S. shale output fed a surplus that contributed to a drop of almost half in prices last […]

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Arab Alliance Rises as Force in Israeli Elections

IBILLIN, Israel — Avigdor Lieberman , Israel ’s nationalist foreign minister, stared coolly at the Arab politician sitting at the opposite end of a glass table during a televised election debate. “Why did you come to this studio, why not to Gaza, or Ramallah? Why are you even here?” asked Mr. Lieberman, who frequently calls Israel’s Arab citizens traitors and suggests that their towns be transferred to Palestinian control. “You are not wanted here; you are a Palestinian citizen.” The politician, Ayman Odeh, the leader of an alliance of Arab parties formed to contest Israeli elections on Tuesday, appeared unruffled. “I am very welcome in my homeland,” he said, a subtle dig at Mr. Lieberman, an immigrant from the former Soviet republic of Moldova. “I am part of the nature, the surroundings, the landscape,” he said in Arabic-accented Hebrew. The clash in late February on Israel’s popular Channel 2, […]

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Egypt Signs U.S.$12 Billion Deal With British Energy Giant BP

Cairo — Egypt’s Petroleum Minister Sherif Ismail signed an energy deal worth $12 billion (91.5 billion Egyptian pounds) with energy firm British Petroleum (BP) on Saturday. Ismail was cited by Egyptian state news agency MENA as saying that the deal is set to provide Egypt with a quarter of local energy production and will contribute to filling the gap in demand of petroleum products by 2020. The deal will see the British energy giant develop 5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 55 million barrels of condensates in the West Nile Delta area. BP announced earlier this month the discovery of a deepwater exploration well, called Atoll-1. "The estimated potential in the concession exceeds 5 trillion cubic feet," the company said in a press release on March 9. Egypt has been facing an energy crisis for years, with power outages surging in the summer. Egyptian authorities have often […]

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On the River Nile, a Move to Avert a Conflict Over Water

Ethiopia’s plans to build Africa’s largest hydroelectric dam on the Nile have sparked tensions with Egypt, which depends on the river to irrigate its arid land. But after years of tensions, an international agreement to share the Nile’s waters may be in sight. For thousands of years, Egyptians have depended on the waters of the Nile flowing out of the Ethiopian highlands and central Africa. It is the world’s longest river, passing through 11 countries, but without its waters the most downstream of those nations, Egypt, is a barren desert. So when, in 2011, Ethiopia began to build a giant hydroelectric dam across the river’s largest tributary, the Blue Nile, it looked like Egypt might carry out its long-standing threat to go to war to protect its lifeline. But last weekend, all appeared to change. Ministers from Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan agreed on the basis for a deal for […]

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Venezuela gives Maduro decree powers for rest of 2015

Venezuela’s parliament granted President  Nicolas Maduro  decree powers on Sunday for the rest of 2015 in a move he says is to defend the country from U.S. meddling but opponents decry as evidence of autocracy. In a noisy National Assembly session, ruling Socialist Party legislators, who have a majority, applauded the "Enabling Law" as a legitimate response to a U.S. declaration that Venezuela is a security threat and sanctions on seven officials. "They (the United States) want to stick their hands into Venezuela’s wealth, just as they have done in other countries," ruling party legislator Tania Diaz said, presenting the "anti-imperialist" Enabling Law to parliament. Outside, red-clad Maduro supporters chanted and held placards proclaiming, "Yankees go home." Opposition lawmakers said Maduro was cynically exploiting the diplomatic flare-up with Washington to amass powers, justify repression and distract Venezuelans from economic problems including acute shortages. On March 9, President Barack Obama issued an executive order declaring Venezuela a national security threat, sanctioning the […]

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Chinese Premier Vows Tougher Regulation on Air Pollution

BEIJING — Premier Li Keqiang of China said on Sunday that the government was failing to satisfy public demands to stanch pollution and would impose heavier punishments to cut the toxic smog that was the subject of a popular documentary belatedly banned by censors. The premier’s news conference at the end of the annual full meeting of the National People’s Congress has become a fixture of the Chinese political calendar, cast as a show of political candor and accountability. But the briefings have mostly become a stilted ritual, with questions generally preselected and massaged to avoid the airing of controversies about legal rights, corruption scandals and other themes unwelcome by Communist Party leaders. This year’s conference was no different. But Mr. Li took one reporter’s question about air pollution, which mentioned the banned documentary, “Under the Dome,” and he acknowledged that there was a gap between the government’s efforts […]

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