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Future Risks of an Iran Nuclear Deal

WASHINGTON — As President Obama begins his three-week push to win approval of the Iran nuclear deal, he is confronting this political reality: His strongest argument in favor of passage has also become his greatest vulnerability. Mr. Obama has been pressing the case that the sharp limits on how much nuclear fuel Iran can hold, how many centrifuges it can spin and what kind of technology it can acquire would make it extraordinarily difficult for Iran to race for the bomb over the next 15 years. His problem is that most of the significant constraints on Tehran’s program lapse after 15 years — and, after that, Iran is free to produce uranium on an industrial scale. “The chief reservation I have about the agreement is the fact that in 15 years they have a highly modern and internationally legitimized enrichment capability,” said Representative Adam B. Schiff, a California Democrat […]

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Iran says an OPEC emergency meeting may stop oil price slide: Shana

The logo of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is pictured at its headquarters in Vienna, Austria, August 21, 2015. Iran’s Oil Minister, Bijan Zanganeh, said on Sunday that holding an emergency OPEC meeting may be "effective" in stabilizing the oil price, Iran’s oil ministry news agency Shana reported. Algeria said earlier this month that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries could hold an emergency meeting to discuss the drop in oil prices but other OPEC delegates said no meeting was planned. "Iran endorses an emergency OPEC meeting and would not disagree with it," Zanganeh told reporters in Tehran, according to Shana. U.S. oil prices CLc1 fell below $40 a barrel on Friday for the first time since the 2009 financial crisis, pressured by signs of oversupply in the United States and weak Chinese manufacturing data. [O/R] OPEC is not due to meet until Dec. 4. While […]

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Iran to Raise Oil Output ‘at Any Cost’ to Defend Market Share

Iran plans to raise oil production “at any cost” to defend the country’s market share and joins calls for an emergency OPEC meeting to help shore up crude prices. “We will be raising our oil production at any cost and we have no other alternative,” said Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, according to his ministry’s news website Shana. “If Iran’s oil production hike is not done promptly, we will be losing our market share permanently.” Iran had the second-biggest output in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries before U.S.-led sanctions banning the purchase, transport, finance and insuring of its crude began July 2012. Oil producers such as BP Plc and Royal Dutch Shell Plc have expressed interest in developing its reserves, the world’s fourth-biggest, once sanctions are removed. Zanganeh was speaking during the first visit by a British foreign secretary to Iran since 2003. Philip Hammond was accompanied by […]

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Crime Soars in Oil Region of Southern Iraq

By Matt Bradley And Ali A. Nabhan BASRA, Iraq–Just past midnight, a chain-smoking Hussein al-Rashid, head of a local oil services company, received the phone call he had been waiting for all day. "We’ve got your guys," the voice over the phone told Mr. Rashid. "And we want $200,000." The man on the phone wasn’t an Islamist militant and the kidnapping of three of Mr. Rashid’s employees didn’t occur anywhere near the front lines of fighting between Islamic State and government forces. Rather, the men were taken hostage in Basra, Iraq’s third-largest city and the heart of its oil industry in the country’s predominantly Shiite south. Until last year, Basra was a secure haven in a country torn apart by war. But the armed thugs now in control of its streets and the crime wave sweeping the city illustrate how the conflict with Islamic State is rippling beyond the […]

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Al Qaeda Fighters Try to Seize Yemeni Military Base in Aden

In Their Own Words Children are terrified by noises. Finding food is a challenge. There’s rarely power. Many people in Yemen and beyond dream of an end to the fighting. The Many Miseries of Yemeni Families MARCH 1, 2015 MAHRA, Yemen — Dozens of fighters belonging to Al Qaeda ’s Yemeni affiliate briefly tried to seize control of a military base and the presidential palace in the port city of Aden before suddenly withdrawing on Sunday, according to local fighters and a senior military official in the city. By Sunday afternoon, there were no signs of Qaeda militants in Tawahi, the neighborhood surrounding the palace. But their appearance, however fleeting, was an embarrassing setback for the exiled government of President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, which had described its success in securing Aden as a major victory in its war with the Houthi rebels. The government, which is backed by […]

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Countries Slow to Pledge Emissions Cuts Ahead of Paris Climate Talks

Less than a third of governments seeking a global climate agreement have submitted plans for reducing emissions, raising concerns over developing countries’ commitment to a deal just months before talks are meant to culminate in Paris. As part of the latest international effort to stave off warming, nearly 200 countries agreed to present their own plans for curbing greenhouse-gas emissions to the United Nations body overseeing the talks. The national plans are meant to be folded into a broader accord aimed at putting the world on track to cap global average temperatures at no more than 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels—a goal that U.N. officials now concede is unlikely in this year’s agreement. While the European Union, China, the U.S. and other big carbon emitters have submitted their reduction targets, many major economies haven’t—including Brazil, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and India, the fourth-biggest source of carbon dioxide emissions. The […]

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Venezuelans contend with food, medicine shortages, as low oil prices cripple economy

Empty refrigerator shelves are pictured at a Makro supermarket in Caracas, Venezuela, August 4, 2015. Venezuelan supermarkets are increasingly being targeted by looters, as swollen lines and prolonged food shortages spark frustration in the OPEC nation struggling with an economic crisis. Photo by Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters Amid Venezuela’s ongoing economic crisis, protests this month in the nation’s capital over shortages of medicine and basic supermarket necessities have spotlighted the ripple effect of the falling price of oil, the country’s main export. Food shortages have prompted some violence and more than 50 incidents of grocery store looting so far in 2015. Families of children with cancer demonstrated in front of a children’s hospital in Caracas this month to protest the country’s shortage of chemotherapy treatments. Tens of thousands of Venezuelans with HIV have no access to antiretroviral drugs and condoms are scarce in the country. Venezuela has some of the […]

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Asia down as China woes unnerve markets, safe-haven yen rallies

A pedestrian touching her head walks past an electronic board showing the stock market indices of various countries including the Japan’s Nikkei average (L top) outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, August 21, 2015. Asian stocks and oil fell on Monday after Wall Street suffered another bruising blow as deepening concerns over the slowing Chinese economy continued to unnerve global equity markets. The safe-haven yen rallied and key government bonds were bought from the widespread unrest in the financial markets, set in motion nearly two weeks ago when China devalued its currency and generated fears about the state of its economy. Fears of a China-led global economic slowdown drove Wall Street to its steepest one-day drop in nearly four years on Friday and left the Dow industrials more than 10 percent below a May record. A 0.6 percent fall in S&P 500 mini futures ESc1 suggested sentiment remained weak. […]

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9 Opposition Candidates Barred From Venezuela’s December Ballot

Photo Enzo Scarano, a former mayor of San Diego, Venezuela, won a primary for national legislative elections, but the government suspended his right to hold office. Credit Meridith Kohut for The New York Times SAN DIEGO, Venezuela — When he handily won a primary to run for the National Assembly, Enzo Scarano hoped to be part of a wave carrying the opposition to a legislative majority that would alter the political balance in Venezuela . But when a government agency stripped him of his right to hold public office, scuttling his candidacy, he found himself caught up in a different kind of wave — of government measures that appear aimed at weakening the opposition ahead of a make-or-break legislative election in December. “It was a message to the Venezuelan people: ‘Look, we can do whatever we want,’ ” Mr. Scarano said of the move to bar him and at […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple