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What Sanctions Have Done to Iran’s Economy

Photographer: Behrouz Mehri/AFP via Getty Images Sanctions by the U.S. and its allies, designed to pressure Iran into abandoning its nuclear program, have left Iran largely isolated, but some House Republicans argue that more pain needs to be inflicted to get results. They invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress on Tuesday to make that case. What have sanctions done to Iran so far? A  January report by Kenneth Katzman, a specialist in Middle East affairs at the Congressional Research Service, offers a dramatic snapshot of the squeeze: In every year from 1995 to 2012, Iran enjoyed at least a measure of economic growth. Then 2013 happened. Conditions improved slightly in 2014, with gross domestic product growing 1 percent to 1.5 percent. That followed an interim agreement, reached in November 2013, that eased some of the sanctions in exchange for a temporary pause to aspects of Iran’s nuclear […]

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Iran President Rouhani: Lift sanctions over nuclear talks

Hassan Rouhani, president of Iran, addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York last year. File Photo by Monika Graff/UPI Sign up for our daily Energy Newsletter Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency Yukiya Amano says there are still lingering questions about Iran’s nuclear program. File Photo by Maryam Rahmanian/UPI TEHRAN, March 2 (UPI) — Tehran says it’s time to lift sanctions against the oil-rich country imposed in response to nuclear concerns, though a new U.N. report raises questions. Iran and members of the international community are working to resolve long-standing issues over the country’s controversial nuclear program. A sanctions package from November 2013 allows Iran to export some crude oil in exchange for concessions on nuclear research. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said sanctions on his country should be "lifted all at once" because of its commitment to nuclear talks . "Iran has always honored its […]

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The Nuclear Talks With Iran, Demystified

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told his country in 2013 that economic sanctions will never force Iran into unwelcome concessions over nuclear development. Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader, via Associated Press What the West Wants President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have said they will not sign an agreement that would allow Iran to produce enough fuel for a nuclear weapon in less than a year. The United States wants rigorous inspections and limits on Iranian nuclear facilities, including the removal of enriched uranium fuel. Iran’s ability to produce nuclear fuel would be strictly limited over 10 to 15 years. “We want to recognize the main goal here is to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. And on that, Israel and the United States agree.” John Kerry United States Secretary of State What Iran Wants Iran says it needs to be able to produce […]

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Kerry Is Pushing for Agreement in Iran Nuclear Talks

WASHINGTON — They have spent long hours alone together. They exchange private emails. Their walk along the Rhone River in Geneva in January so unnerved hard-line lawmakers in Tehran that they signed a petition fretting about the duo’s unseemly “intimacy.” On Sunday, Secretary of State John Kerry flew to Switzerland to meet again with Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister who earned a Ph.D in international law and policy from the University of Denver, to try to negotiate the very accord that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel arrived in Washington that same day to denounce. As the deadline approaches for what could be one of the most important and divisive international agreements in decades, Mr. Kerry has become a driving force behind the complicated, seven-nation talks to limit Iran ’s nuclear program . But with so much at stake, Mr. Kerry’s relentless negotiating style and determination to […]

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UN nuclear watchdog says Iran still withholding key information

The head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said Monday that Iran had still not handed over key information to his staff, and that his body’s investigation into Tehran’s atomic program could not continue indefinitely. "Iran has yet to provide explanations that enable the agency to clarify two outstanding practical measures," chief Yukiya Amano told the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Board of Governors in Vienna, echoing a report seen by Reuters last month. The two measures relating to alleged explosives tests and other measures that  might have been used for bomb research  should have been addressed by Iran last August. "The Agency is not in a position to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran, and therefore to conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities," Amano said. The West has related concerns that Iran wants to develop nuclear warheads. Tehran has vehemently denied those allegations, saying […]

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Saudi king keeps close hand on oil in remodelling strategic team

RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s subtle change of energy policymaker line-up since the accession of new King Salman in late January appears to give the monarch’s inner circle a firmer hand on the kingdom’s oil strategy than previous rulers have enjoyed.     The most notable change was the promotion of the king’s son Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, long a member of the No. 1 crude exporter’s OPEC delegation, to the role of deputy oil minister from assistant oil minister, a post he had held for many years.     On the same day, King Salman formed a new body replacing the Supreme Petroleum Council and appointed another son, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to head the new Supreme Council for Economic Development.     There are no indications that those moves will lead to changes in the fundamental way the kingdom makes its oil decisions or diminish the influence of veteran oil […]

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Researchers Link Syrian Conflict to a Drought Made Worse by Climate Change

Drawing one of the strongest links yet between global warming and human conflict, researchers said Monday that an extreme drought in Syria between 2006 and 2009 was most likely due to climate change , and that the drought was a factor in the violent uprising that began there in 2011. The drought was the worst in the country in modern times, and in a study published Monday in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , the scientists laid the blame for it on a century-long trend toward warmer and drier conditions in the Eastern Mediterranean, rather than on natural climate variability. The researchers said this trend matched computer simulations of how the region responds to increases in greenhouse-gas emissions, and appeared to be due to two factors: a weakening of winds that bring moisture-laden air from the Mediterranean and hotter temperatures that cause more evaporation. Colin P. […]

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Nigeria: Fuel Scarcity Worsens in Abuja As NNPC Promises Improved Supply

Abuja — The fuel crisis in Abuja worsened weekend, as many of the petrol stations across the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, were shut down, leaving motorists stranded. This was in spite of claims by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, on Friday, that it is injecting about 688 million of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, into the market. Motorists had to resort to the black market‎, where roadside petrol sellers now sell the commodity for as high as N250 per litre. However, the NNPC, Sunday, promised that it is working to ensure that the situation is addressed quickly and assured Nigerians that the fuel supply situation will improve in the coming days. Responding to enquiries from Vanguard, spokesperson for the NNPC, Mr. Ohi Alegbe, said, "On Friday, we had stated that in 48 hours we will wet the market with 688 million litres of petrol. Distribution of products is by […]

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Venezuela Tells U.S. to Reduce Embassy Staff

CARACAS, Venezuela — With diplomatic relations fraying rapidly between the United States and Venezuela , the government of President Nicolás Maduro has given the American Embassy here 15 days to come up with a plan to drastically shrink its staff, Venezuela’s foreign minister announced Monday. Mr. Maduro has repeatedly accused the United States of backing a plot to overthrow him, and on Saturday he announced a series of diplomatic measures that he said were intended to halt American meddling. He said the United States would have to reduce the number of American officials at its embassy to a number similar to the staff at the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington. He said there were 100 American officials here and just 17 Venezuelan officials in Washington, although those numbers have not been verified by the State Department. “Regarding the reduction to 17 officials with which the Embassy of the United States […]

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As Venezuela coffee output sinks, it swaps oil to import Nicaraguan beans

NEW YORK/MANAGUA (Reuters) – Venezuela, once a proud exporter of premium coffee, has been reduced to swapping crude oil for growing volumes of Nicaraguan coffee beans to make sure worsening economic turmoil does not prevent people from getting their caffeine fix. For the first time on record, coffee imports this year will exceed the bean output of Venezuela’s centuries-old coffee industry, according to U.S. government estimates. The South American country’s shift from net coffee exporter to substantial importer has altered flows in regional markets, boosting prices for some varieties of coffee. It is also another sign of how the collapse in crude oil prices, and resulting pressures on an already deeply troubled Venezuelan economy, has forced the government of the OPEC member to take extraordinary measures to keep supermarket shelves stocked with basic goods. Falling coffee production and near-record demand has forced it to buy more higher-priced foreign beans, according to Nicaragua’s export figures and interviews with producers and traders in Venezuela […]

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