Category: Iran

Continue reading the main story Video Play Video|0:58 Iran’s Supreme Leader on Nuclear Deal Iran’s Supreme Leader on Nuclear Deal Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of Iran said on Thursday that he neither accepts nor rejects the framework nuclear deal reached between Iran and world powers last week. By Reuters on Publish Date April 9, 2015. Photo by Office of the Supreme Leader. TEHRAN — Iran ’s supreme leader challenged on Thursday two of the United States’ bedrock principles in the nuclear negotiations, declaring that all economic sanctions would have to be lifted on the day any agreement is signed and that military sites would be strictly off limits to foreign inspectors. The assertions by the leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei , could be tactical, intended to give both the negotiators and himself some political space to get hard-liners and others slowly accustomed to the framework of a deal with the United […]

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China’s President Xi Jinping is expected in Islamabad later this month. Talks may include financial support for a long-delayed gas pipeline from Iran. File Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI. ISLAMABAD, April 9 (UPI) — Pakistani officials said they’re building a natural gas pipeline that could stretch to Iran with anticipation of financial support from the Chinese government. Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled in Islamabad in late April. A report published Wednesday by the Wall Street Journal says the Chinese leader will offer support to a project first discussed in the 1990s as the so-called Peace Pipeline. "We’re building it," Pakistani Petroleum Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi told the newspaper. "The process has started." The Journal reports as much as 85 percent of the $1.5 billion project could be financed through Chinese loans. Iranian energy officials, meanwhile, are in Beijing discussing bilateral energy ties. For Pakistan, an Iranian gas pipeline, would […]

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ENLARGE The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is America’s insurance against war with adversaries such as Iran. Now a potential deal between the two countries could end up creating an SPR-sized problem for oil bulls. If sanctions on Iran are lifted quickly, the extra oil that could find its way to market by the end of 2016 could add up to an amount similar to the SPR’s roughly 691 million barrels. There may yet be no deal with Iran come the end of June. But if there is, and sanctions are lifted, a big tap will open up in the global oil market. Iran’s output in 2008 was almost 3.9 million barrels a day; last year it was 2.8 million. This week, the U.S. Department of Energy speculated that, with a deal in place, Iran might start selling a stockpile of 30 million barrels or more later this year and raise […]

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ANKARA (Reuters) – Failure to finalize a framework agreement between Iran and the six major powers aimed at curbing the country’s sensitive nuclear work could profoundly destabilize the Islamic Republic, analysts and politicians say. Iranians’ hopes of ending their international isolation have risen so high since the accord that failure to finalize it would generate levels of dismay that could hurt the authorities, even if the West was portrayed as the guilty party, analysts say. “Finally it is over. The isolation is over. The economic hardship is over. (President Hassan) Rouhani kept his promises,” said university student Mina Derakhshande, who was among a cheering crowd on Friday. “Failure of the talks will be end of the world for us Iranians. I cannot tolerate it.” Managing popular expectations will be more difficult in Iran now, said Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. […]

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Photo John O. Brennan, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard on Tuesday. Credit Gretchen Ertl/Reuters CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The director of the Central Intelligence Agency has provided the first public glimpse of American intelligence assessments about why Iran ’s leadership agreed to the tentative nuclear accord last week, saying that Iran’s president persuaded its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei , that their country’s economy was “destined to go down” unless he reached an understanding with the West. The C.I.A. director, John O. Brennan , speaking Tuesday night at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, suggested that a key to the deal was the election of President Hassan Rouhani, who had hardly been the supreme leader’s first choice. It took more than two years, he suggested, for the new president, a former nuclear negotiator himself, to persuade the far […]

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ANKARA (Reuters) – Iran will only sign a final nuclear accord with six world powers if all sanctions imposed over its disputed atomic work are lifted on the same day, President Hassan Rouhani said in a televised speech on Thursday. Iran and the powers reached a tentative agreement last week in the Swiss city of Lausanne aimed at restricting Tehran’s nuclear program in return for removing the economic penalties. All sides are working toward a June 30 deadline for a final deal on the nuclear work, which Western powers fear is aimed at developing an atomic bomb but Tehran says is purely peaceful. "We will not sign any deal unless all sanctions are lifted on the same day … We want a win-win deal for all parties involved in the nuclear talks," Rouhani said. Since the preliminary agreement was reached, Iran and the United States seem to have different […]

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Thirty-one percent of Republicans favor a new nuclear deal with Iran, creating a challenge for their party’s lawmakers who largely oppose the framework accord sealed between Tehran and world powers, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed on Wednesday. Another 30 percent of Republicans oppose the pact, while 40 percent are not sure, according to the poll, which revealed a sharp split in the party as its leaders ramp up opposition to the deal championed by President Barack Obama, a Democrat. The White House has launched a broad effort to convince U.S. lawmakers and other critics to embrace the framework agreement reached last week between Iran, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China. Many details remain to be worked out for a final deal to be completed by the end of June. Public support will be critical to the White House effort to sway skeptical members of […]

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Photo A mural in Tehran depicting the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, right, the Basij paramilitary force and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Credit Vahid Salemi/Associated Press TEHRAN — Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Iranian hard-liners have been free to take to the streets and object to any form of compromise with the West, and particularly the United States. But when a conspicuously small group of hard-liners did so on Tuesday morning in front of the Parliament building, holding up placards and shouting slogans against the nuclear framework agreed to last week in Lausanne, Switzerland, Tehran’s Interior Ministry condemned the demonstration as illegal, because the protesters had failed to obtain a permit. There were also very few reporters. It was perhaps the first time that conservatives — in this case mostly young people genuinely disappointed over the compromises Iran has made to reach a nuclear agreement — seemed disconnected from […]

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LONDON (Reuters) – Beware diplomats bearing fact sheets; they rarely reveal the whole truth. The nuclear negotiations in Lausanne have already produced three separate fact sheets, issued by the United States, Iran and France, each highlighting different aspects of the emerging agreement. But under all three versions, Iran’s oil exports are likely to rise in 2016. The battle of the fact sheets confirms the first rule of analysis: never trust a summary produced by someone else, always go back to the original documents. In this instance, there is no final document setting out all the undertakings by the various parties because there are still significant areas of disagreement. By reading the fact sheets side by side, however, the outlines of an eventual deal between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany (P5+1) are now reasonably clear. The basic bargain allows Iran to […]

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BEIJING (Reuters) – An Iranian delegation is in Beijing this week to push for more oil sales and discuss Chinese oil and gas investments in Iran, just days after Tehran and world powers reached a framework nuclear deal, Iranian oil officials told Reuters. China is Iran’s largest trade partner and oil client, having bought roughly half of Iran’s total crude exports since 2012, when sanctions against Iran were tightened. Amir-Hossein Zamaninia, Iran’s deputy oil minister for commerce and international affairs said he and his colleagues would discuss China’s oil and gas projects in Iran, while officials from state-run National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) will meet with China’s biggest crude buyers. The NIOC and other officials are expected to meet with regular customers Unipec, the trading arm of top Asian refiner Sinopec Corp, and state trader Zhuhai Zhenrong Corp, which started taking Iranian crude in the mid-1990’s when Tehran sought […]

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States made clear on Monday that sanctions on Iran would have to be phased out gradually under a nuclear pact and President Barack Obama poured cold water on an Israeli demand that a deal be predicated on Tehran recognizing Israel. "The notion that we would condition Iran not getting nuclear weapons in a verifiable deal on Iran recognizing Israel is really akin to saying that we won’t sign a deal unless the nature of the Iranian regime completely transforms," Obama said in an interview with National Public Radio (NPR). "That is, I think, a fundamental misjudgment… We want Iran not to have nuclear weapons precisely because we can’t bank on the nature of the regime changing," he said. Meanwhile White House spokesman Josh Earnest said there was no ambiguity about the U.S. demand that sanctions on Tehran be lifted in phases under a final […]

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Iran expects foreign investors will flock to the country’s oil sector if sanctions pressures ease in response to a framework nuclear agreement. File Photo by Maryam Rahmanian/UPI TEHRAN, April 6 (UPI) — Foreign investors are expected to flood the Iranian market as sanctions relief expands the country’s oil potential, officials said Monday. Iran could see sanctions pressures ease if a framework agreement reached last week in Switzerland enters into force in July. Iran, under the terms of the agreement, would pull back substantially from the brink of developing a nuclear weapon. Iran is limited to around 1 million barrels of oil per day in exports under the terms of a November 2013 deal with international powers. Exports could double if all sanctions are released later this year. "After July 1, foreign investors will flock to Iran, particularly to the oil and petrochemical sectors," Abbas Sheri-Moqaddam, director of the National […]

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An Iranian student shows the sign of victory while holding a portrait of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a demonstration in Tehran, on Feb. 18, 2015. Photographer: Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images Iran’s military chief congratulated Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for negotiators’ success in reaching a nuclear agreement with six world powers, in an open backing of President Hassan Rouhani’s government. In praising the outcome of the talks, General Hassan Firouzabadi highlighted rifts between Rouhani and critics who say negotiations don’t serve Iran’s national interest. While Khamenei hasn’t commented publicly on the framework accord reached last week, the general’s warm words may indicate the political establishment’s official line in presenting the deal at home. Thanks to Khamenei’s leadership and efforts by Rouhani’s team of negotiators, “another step was taken to ensure Iran’s inalienable right” to produce peaceful nuclear energy, Firouzabadi said in a letter to Khamenei, […]

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WASHINGTON — President Obama strongly defended last week’s preliminary agreement with Iran as a “once in a lifetime opportunity” to curb the spread of nuclear weapons in a dangerous region while reassuring critics that he would keep all options available if Tehran ultimately cheated. As he sought in an interview with The New York Times to sell the tentative deal to skeptics accusing him of giving away too much, Mr. Obama emphasized to Israel that “we’ve got their backs” in the face of Iranian hostility. And he suggested that he could accept some sort of vote in Congress if it did not block his ability to carry out the agreement. “This is our best bet by far to make sure Iran doesn’t get a nuclear weapon,” Mr. Obama said in an interview with Thomas L. Friedman , an Op-Ed columnist for The Times, published on Sunday. “What we will […]

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U.S. President Barack Obama delivers remarks about the agreement reached with Iran about a peaceful nuclear program in the Rose Garden at the White House April 2, 2015 in Washington, DC. The so-called P5+1 nations reached an agreement for an Iranian nuclear program and a process to lift sanctions against Iran after talks in Switzerland. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) President Barack Obama stepped up his efforts to sell a nuclear deal with Iran, saying it was a "once in a lifetime" opportunity to check Tehran’s nuclear ambitions while emphasising the US has other options if the framework falls apart.  In a lengthy, wide-ranging interview with the New York Times, Mr Obama sought to explicitly rebut criticism from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the deal threatens Israel’s existence, saying that it was "personally difficult" for him to hear suggestions his administration has not consistently supported Israel’s interests.  "I […]

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President Obama discussing the Iran nuclear framework Thursday. ENLARGE Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama ’s bet on a diplomatic agreement to deter Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon faces an immediate test at home, where he must overcome the politics of skeptical Republicans as well as some Democrats in Congress. The political struggle—part of the most complex battle of Mr. Obama’s presidency—is already under way as the GOP-controlled Congress aggressively presses for a bigger role in reviewing the nuclear-framework agreement reached last week between Iran, the U.S. and five other nations. Mr. Obama also must navigate the complicated leadership factions in the Middle East against the backdrop of the region’s increasing volatility. And he has to do all this amid a hotly contested presidential contest. “The stakes are huge,” said Robert Einhorn, formerly one of the Obama administration’s top officials in negotiations with Iran. “It’s a major […]

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Photo Praying for a slain relative at the platform on the Tigris River where Islamic State fighters are believed to have killed hundreds of Iraqi soldiers last June. Credit Khalid Mohammed/Associated Press WASHINGTON — In the battle to retake Saddam Hussein’s hometown, Tikrit, from the Islamic State, the United States and Iran have found a template for fighting the Sunni militancy in other parts of Iraq : American airstrikes and Iranian-backed ground assaults, with the Iraqi military serving as the go-between for two global adversaries that do not want to publicly acknowledge that they are working together. The template, American officials said privately this week, could apply in particular to the looming battle to retake Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city. Given that President Obama has ruled out the use of American ground troops in Iraq, and that the Iraqi military remains ill-trained for urban warfare, the fight for Mosul will […]

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Highlights of the Iran deal View Graphic Patricess 9:10 AM UTC Bluhorizons Comment, Announcing the sale of entire panoply of military technology through IMI as a result of the treaty with Iran, is proof of exactly what "brainless" Americans have been saying. Israelis are digitally smart and "world dumb" as they have been for 3000 years. Always mistaking cleverness and money for intelligence while never having created a civilization like, for example, the Persians, the Arabs, the French, The English, The Chinese, The Celts, The Germans. Having put all their money into "race" like the worst era of the Germans, they fail to stand up to mark of true intelligence. A people that is constantly borrowing and living off of other superior civilizations do not have "brains", as they constantly remind us goys, rather ill fated cleverness. A people’s intelligence does not reside only in its ability to turn […]

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Photo Secretary of State John Kerry with Wendy Sherman, the leader of the American negotiating team, in Switzerland on Thursday. Credit Pool photo by Brendan Smialowski/Reuters LAUSANNE, Switzerland — It was just one of hundreds of arguments between American and Iranian officials as they tried to hash out what may prove to be one of the hardest-to-negotiate arms control agreements in history. But it spoke volumes about how two countries that so deeply distrust each other managed to strike a tentative deal. After President Obama revealed the existence of a secret, deep-underground enrichment operation near the sacred city of Qum in late 2009, the White House demanded that it be dismantled and closed. In defiance, the Iranians stuffed the facility, called Fordo, with 3,000 centrifuges — a huge issue for American and Israeli military planners because it is impervious to all but the largest bunker-buster bombs. Iran ’s supreme […]

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Women sitting in a car flash the ‘V for Victory’ sign as they celebrate on Valiasr street in northern Tehran Iran has heralded a “historic” nuclear deal as just the “first step” towards a new, less hostile relationship with the west as cheering crowds thronged the streets of Tehran and opponents scrambled to respond to the country’s most promising thaw with the US since the 1979 hostage crisis. President Hassan Rouhani signalled that the draft agreement between Iran and six world powers — the US, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany — would go beyond the nuclear issue, saying he hoped to see “the end of tensions” with hostile countries, in a clear reference to the US. Draft terms brokered through 18 months of painstaking diplomacy — and eight days of marathon talks in Lausanne — potentially pave the way for Iran’s return to the international fold, with curbs […]

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Highlights of the Iran deal View Graphic Menachem Begin was the terrorist leader of Irgun in 1948 at Israeli statehood – responsible for terrorism against the British and against Arabs (e.g. the slaughter of over 100 peaceful Arab villagers at Deir Yassin). But later he became Prime Minister of Israel and had the sense to make peace with Egypt in 1979 when Sadat offered peace. That removed the major threat to Israel’s existance. Peace makers Sadat and later Israeli PM Rabin were assassinated by their own people. But post Arafat in 2002 Saudi Arabia got all the Arab countries to call for peace with Israel based on 1967 borders, repeated in 2007. Fatah returned to the Oslo accords, formally recognizing Israel and renouncing violence.   Israeli Prime Minister Olmert offered a deal that gave Israel more – keeping the settlements in E Jerusalem and along the border but withdrawing […]

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Photo President Obama, left, with King Salman of Saudi Arabia and Secretary of State John Kerry in Riyadh in January after the death of King Abdullah. Credit Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press CAIRO — Almost as soon as he had announced a nuclear deal with Iran , President Obama called King Salman of Saudi Arabia to reassure him of America’s “enduring friendship.” Returning the courtesy, King Salman, who is Iran ’s chief regional rival, responded that he hoped the deal would “reinforce the stability and security of the region and the world,” the Saudi Press Agency reported on Friday. But the picture on the ground was not so harmonious. As Tehran and its clients around the Arab world celebrated the accord as a triumph of Iranian resolve, Saudi Arabia and its allies declared that the agreement had only reinforced their determination to push back against Iranian influence, with or without Washington. […]

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Photo Hundreds welcomed Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on his return to Tehran on Friday, a day after a nuclear agreement was announced in Switzerland. Credit Ebrahim Noroozi/Associated Press TEHRAN — As word made its way around the globe that an understanding had been reached with the United States and other powers to limit Iran’s nuclear program , Iranians themselves greeted the news with optimism and skepticism on Friday. While the political climate remained uncertain, the government was allowed to promote the deal at Friday Prayer, a sign that the plan was broadly supported by Iran ’s establishment. In a nationally televised speech on Friday, Iran’s moderate president, Hassan Rouhani, praised the deal as a development that “benefits everybody.” Answering some Western critics who question Tehran’s credibility, he pledged that his country would keep its end of the bargain. “Any promise that we made and any promise that we will […]

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Oil prices fell Thursday on the prospect that agreement on a nuclear deal with Iran would result in restrictions on Iranian exports being lifted, adding to a glut on world markets. But those sanctions aren’t the only impediment for Western oil companies seeking to do business in Iran. Another looming question is whether Tehran will make deals with enough profit potential for outsiders to make it worth their while, especially at a time of weak prices. If the framework nuclear deal reached Thursday leads to an eventual easing of restrictions on doing business in Iran, the country’s oil sector would be very alluring. The Islamic Republic holds nearly 10% of the world’s crude oil reserves, putting it fourth behind Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Canada. The industry, however, has been plagued by mismanagement and starved of investment for at least a decade. Iran’s oil fields are old and increasingly technologically […]

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The Pentagon has upgraded its Massive Ordnance Penetrator, shown here in a 2007 version, as talks were progressing in recent months on Iran’s nuclear program. Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON—The Pentagon has upgraded and tested the largest bunker-buster bomb in the U.S. arsenal, senior U.S. officials said, readying a weapon that could destroy or disable Iran’s most heavily fortified nuclear facilities should a nuclear deal fall apart and the White House decide to take military action. Even while the Obama administration was pursuing a diplomatic agreement with Iran to rein in its nuclear program, the Pentagon was readying the improvements to one of its most destructive conventional weapons, including electronic countermeasures to prevent an adversary from jamming its guidance systems. “The Pentagon continues to be focused on being able to provide military options for Iran if needed,” a senior U.S. official said. “We have not taken our eyes off the […]

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Photo News that the framework of a nuclear accord had been reached led to celebration early Friday in Parkway Square in Tehran. Credit Newsha Tavakolian for The New York Times TEHRAN — Even after learning about a politically seismic event — a nuclear agreement that could augur an end to the era of sanctions and shouts of “Death to America” — many Iranians appeared reluctant to express happiness or even react to what was, for most people, heartening news. “We have been disappointed so many times, I can’t really believe there might be an end to this,” said Mohammad Reza, 21. The streets of Tehran, a city of 12 million, crowded on any regular evening, were largely empty late Thursday night, save for some gatherings at a central square where people honked their car horns in approval. But that may have been partly because many Iranians were glued to […]

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Iran and six world powers agreed on parameters of a deal meant to block Tehran from developing nuclear weapons in exchange for the lifting of tough Western sanctions. U.S. President Barack Obama called it a “historic understanding” between two estranged nations after the outlines of a deal were announced Thursday in Lausanne, Switzerland. But he hinted at its fragility, saying the success of a final accord is far from guaranteed. “I am convinced that if this framework leads to a final, comprehensive deal, it will make our country, our allies, and our world safer. This has been a long time coming,” Mr. Obama said. “It is a good deal, a deal that meets our core objectives.” He said the deal, if completed, would block any pathway for Iran to acquire a nuclear bomb and argued the only real alternative to continued diplomacy is war. Negotiators would start drafting an […]

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The United States, Iran and five other world powers announced a deal Thursday outlining limits on Iran’s nuclear program so it cannot lead to atomic weapons. Negotiators now have to take that deal and shape it into a final accord by June 30. The agreement says that "nothing is agreed until everything is agreed." — Below are the key parameters of a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran’s nuclear program that were decided in Lausanne, Switzerland. These elements form the foundation upon which the final text of the JCPOA will be written between now and June 30, and reflect the significant progress that has been made in discussions between the P5+1, the European Union, and Iran. Important implementation details are still subject to negotiation, and nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. We will work to conclude the JCPOA based on these parameters […]

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Iran and six world powers have agreed on parameters of a deal meant to block Tehran from developing nuclear weapons. Why is “breakout” time so significant and how is it calculated? WSJ’s Jason Bellini has #TheShortAnswer. Top Obama administration officials entered negotiations with Iran in September 2013 hoping to dismantle most of the country’s nuclear infrastructure—but carrying gnawing doubts such an outcome was possible. Those concerns were quickly confirmed when U.S. and Iranian diplomats sat down for their first formal meeting the following month at the United Nations offices near the shores of Lake Geneva. Iranian negotiators made clear that a dismantling of their facilities, including eliminating tens of thousands of centrifuge machines, a plutonium-producing reactor and an underground fuel-production site, wasn’t feasible, senior U.S. officials said. “It’s our moon shot,” Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told a U.S. official at one point, arguing that the program’s economic and […]

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Eighteen months after picking up the phone to Barack Obama with an historic message of reconciliation, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has secured the outline nuclear agreement he expects to end his country’s isolation. Succeeding where two Iranian presidents before him failed, Rouhani’s envoys on Thursday struck an accord with world powers that limits Iran’s nuclear work in exchange for eventual relief from punishing sanctions. Diplomats, who hours earlier had appeared worn out and doubtful of the prospects, now have three months to hammer out the details of a final pact and complete the job. The deal comes as welcome news to Iranians fed up with years of stagnation, rising prices and few jobs. Rouhani’s political opponents, who dominate parliament and see his agenda as a challenge to the tenets of the Islamic revolution and the nation’s sovereignty, will likely regroup and come out fighting. Rouhani “based his electoral campaign […]

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WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – A framework accord to curb Iran’s nuclear program forged on Thursday could eventually allow Tehran to reclaim lost ground in the global oil market. Yet the deal all but guarantees that cannot happen before next year. By ensuring that sanctions remain intact until Western powers are satisfied Tehran is adhering to the terms, and giving negotiators until June 30 to hammer out a comprehensive agreement, the deal offers little chance for any significant increase in exports until 2016. While global Brent oil prices tumbled as much as 5 percent on Thursday to $54 in anticipation of a deal that could allow Iran to begin selling more crude within months, traders later began weighing the timing of that return. Brent traded at more than $55 a barrel by day’s end. Verifying compliance by Iran, once the world’s fifth-largest oil producer, will "likely take many months after […]

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Photo People fearing new airstrikes fled the Yemeni capital, Sana, with their belongings on Thursday. Credit Mohamed Al-Sayaghi/Reuters CAIRO — Two months after ascending to the throne, King Salman of Saudi Arabia bet his prestige as a new leader on rallying his Arab allies for a military campaign to save Yemen from an Iranian takeover — all under the direction of his son, the new defense minister and chief of the royal court. The results a week later showed just how big a risk they took. The Houthis, portrayed as Iranian proxies by the Saudis but few others, have continued their advances despite nine nights of Saudi-led airstrikes. On Thursday, Houthi fighters captured a presidential palace in the southern port of Aden, killed a Saudi soldier in a skirmish at the border and wounded five others. Islamist militants, meanwhile, capitalized on the chaos caused by the airstrikes to free […]

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LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) – Major powers and Iran negotiated into the early hours of Thursday on Tehran’s nuclear program two days past their deadline, with diplomats saying prospects for a preliminary agreement were finely balanced between success and collapse. The negotiations, aimed at blocking Iran’s capacity to build a nuclear bomb in exchange for lifting sanctions, have become bogged down over crucial details of the accord, even as the broad outlines of an agreement have been reached. After negotiators passed an original self-imposed deadline of midnight on Tuesday, they remained locked in talks through to the early hours of Thursday in the Swiss city of Lausanne. "It is going to be long," said a senior diplomat. "That was truly an all-nighter," Marie Harf, spokeswoman for U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, said on her Twitter account, noting negotiators broke up at 6.00 a.m local time (0400 GMT) and would […]

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LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Iran’s foreign minister says his country and six others have made "significant progress" at marathon all-night nuclear talk sessions meant to reach a preliminary understanding on the curbs Tehran must accept on atomic activities in exchange for a lifting of sanctions. But Mohammad Javad Zarif said Thursday that agreement still remains to be written, adding there is not yet a "final result." Asked if that would be possible during the day, Iranian nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi said "the sunrise is just ahead." The negotiators want to issue a joint statement outlining general political commitments to resolve concerns about Iran’s nuclear program, and the pace of lifting sanctions. They are also trying to fashion more detailed documents on the steps they must take by June 30 to meet those goals.

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WSJ’s Jerry Seib explains what legislators will expect from a nuclear deal with Iran and how Congress could react. Photo: AP The White House began discussing its options in case of failure to reach a nuclear deal with Iran as faltering talks fueled criticism of President Barack Obama ’s negotiating strategy. Iranian officials and Secretary of State John Kerry continued their quest for an agreement in the Swiss city of Lausanne. But American lawmakers seized on the lack of progress late Wednesday to renew calls for tough new sanctions. The White House said Mr. Obama is prepared to walk away from the negotiations. Alternatives to diplomacy include stiffer economic sanctions, military action or an extension of the interim agreement with Iran that expires June 30, the White House said—exactly the type of measures that the Obama administration has said the talks were intended to avoid. “In the unfortunate circumstance […]

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Photo The head of Iran’s atomic energy agency, Ali Akbar Salehi, during a break Tuesday in nuclear negotiations in Switzerland. Credit Pool photo by Brendan Smialowski LAUSANNE, Switzerland — As the nuclear negotiations dragged into overtime here on Tuesday, some uniquely American and Iranian political sensitivities were permeating the marathon negotiating sessions, leading many to wonder whether two countries that have barely spoken for 35 years are just not ready to overcome old suspicions. In the hallway chatter overheard in the century-old Beau-Rivage Palace Hotel here, where Secretary of State John Kerry and his counterparts from five other countries are struggling to close a preliminary political deal with Iran , the Americans talk, in a wonderfully American way, about numbers and limits. Yet, when Iranian officials step out of the elegant, chandeliered rooms, where the post-World War I order was negotiated 90 years ago, to brief the news media […]

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LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) – Six world powers and Iran negotiated past a March 31 deadline into the wee hours of Wednesday, struggling to conclude an outline accord on Tehran’s nuclear program in the face of a U.S. threat to abandon the talks. With Iran asserting its "nuclear rights", the talks in the Swiss city of Lausanne entered a seventh day, bogged down this time on the issues of nuclear research, the lifting of U.N. sanctions and their restoration if Iran breached the agreement. Officials cautioned that any accord would be fragile and incomplete, but the U.S. State Department gave the go-ahead for talks to go past a self-imposed midnight deadline. "We’ve made enough progress in the last days to merit staying until Wednesday," acting spokeswoman Marie Harf said in a statement. "There are several difficult issues still remaining."‎ The six powers – the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia […]

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Ships sail past SK Innovation Co.’s Ulsan Complex oil refinery facilities in Ulsan, South Korea. The country’s imports from Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia surged to about 8 million barrels last year from just 329,000 in 2013, according to data from state-run Korea National Oil Corp. Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg (Bloomberg) — Ships carrying oil from Mexico docked in South Korea this year for the first time in more than two decades as the global fight for market share intensifies. Latin American producers are providing increasing amounts of heavy crude to bargain-hungry Asian refiners in a challenge to Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest exporter and the region’s dominant supplier. “By diversifying, more Asian refiners will be able to reduce the clout that Saudi Arabia has on the market,” said Suresh Sivanandam, a refining and chemical analyst with Wood Mackenzie Ltd. in Singapore. “They will be getting more bargaining power for sure.” […]

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LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) – Iran and six world powers ramped up the pace at Tuesday’s negotiations over a preliminary deal on the Iranian nuclear program, as their self-imposed deadline approached and both sides warned it was crucial to overcome differences that could wreck an agreement. For nearly a week, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China have been trying to break an impasse in the negotiations, which are aimed at stopping Iran from gaining the capacity to develop a nuclear bomb in exchange for easing international sanctions that are crippling its economy. But disagreements on enrichment research and the pace of lifting sanctions threatened to scupper a deal that could end a 12-year standoff between Iran and the West over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions and reduce the risk of another Middle East war. "We need to get this done now," a Western official told Reuters on condition of […]

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Photo Foreign ministers and delegates on Tuesday in Lausanne, Switzerland, ahead of a deadline on negotiations to limit Iran’s nuclear program. Credit Fabrice Coffrini/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images LAUSANNE, Switzerland — With a deadline just hours away, negotiators from the United States, Iran and five other nations appeared on Tuesday to move closer to a preliminary political accord to limit Tehran’s nuclear program . There were signs, however, that several of the most difficult issues would be deferred for a final agreement in three months. In Moscow, Sergey V. Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said that there was a strong chance of an accord and that he was flying to back to Switzerland on Tuesday, after leaving the day before, to rejoin the talks. “The chances are high,” Mr. Lavrov said. “They are probably not 100 percent, but you can never be 100 percent certain of anything. The odds are […]

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Former Deputy Assistant Defense Sec. KT McFarland joins the News Hub and discusses the ongoing Iran nuclear talks along with the effectiveness of the proposed terms. Photo: AP LAUSANNE, Switzerland—With a key deadline just hours away, U.S. and European officials said nuclear negotiations were imperiled by deep uncertainty over whether Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would sign off on the necessary concessions for a deal. All parties to the talks have set March 31 as the date for concluding a framework agreement that would outline all the main elements of a deal constraining Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting international sanctions. The Obama administration and its negotiating partners have said technical discussions on a final, comprehensive agreement will continue through June. But after more than 18 months of direct negotiations, Western officials said there are signs Mr. Khamenei hasn’t empowered his negotiators to give ground on the […]

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