Iran JCPOA

The White House warned Tuesday that Iran is only weeks from a nuclear “breakout” and the Trump administration is to blame.

The Biden administration is closer than ever to admitting the talks in Vienna to return to the nuclear deal with Iran have failed permanently, Israeli officials have reportedly said.

Russia’s envoy to the Iran nuclear talks said on Saturday that Tehran “got much more than it could expect” in the latest iteration of the nuclear deal, expected to be inked by Iran and world powers imminently as talks in Vienna intensify.

The U.S. has determined a deadline to reach an agreement in the faltering nuclear talks with Iran in Vienna that will come “within weeks,” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said from Jerusalem on Wednesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Thursday told U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken the recently resumed Middle East nuclear talks needed to come to an “immediate cessation,” accusing Iran of “nuclear blackmail.”

VIENNA — Negotiators gathered in Vienna on Monday to resume talks over reviving Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, with hopes of quick progress muted after the arrival of a hard-line new government in Tehran led to a more than five-month hiatus.

The head of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said Iran is very close to a nuclear weapon, but the U.S. has options to stop them if diplomacy fails.

Israel “fell asleep” after the signing of the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Tuesday morning. He added that going forward his country would be far more aggressive in its approach to Tehran.

The threat of war is the only chance of pressuring Iran into a diplomatic process, former Middle East peacemaker under the Clinton and Obama administrations, Dennis Ross, wrote in an oped in Foreign Policy magazine.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will present President Joe Biden with a plan to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb when the two hold their meet in Washington later this week.

CIA Director William Burns will arrive in Israel on Tuesday amid speculation the Biden administration is considering alternative ways to curb Iran’s nuclear program following a freeze in negotiations to return to the tattered 2015 nuclear deal.

Iran has enriched uranium to 63 percent — dangerously close to weapons-grade and far beyond the 3.67 percent allowed under the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal — the U.N. nuclear watchdog said in a confidential report obtained by Reuters.

The Obama-era nuclear deal between the U.S. and Iran could be revived within weeks, a senior State Department official claimed Thursday, adding the decision to do so is entirely up to Tehran.

An Iranian official announced Thursday that the country is “ahead of schedule” in enriching uranium to a purity level of 20%, and is installing additional centrifuges in nuclear testing sites.

Iran’s military spokesperson on Wednesday warned the “slightest mistake” on Israel’s part would compel his country to “level Tel Aviv and Haifa.”

The Biden administration’s rumored appointment of former national security official Robert Malley as special envoy to Iran has sparked an outcry, with critics saying the move would only benefit the ayatollahs and would send a “chilling signal” that the new American administration does not care about Tehran’s regional terror nor its human rights infractions.

The European Union expressed “deep concern” Tuesday over Iran’s decision to enrich uranium, a move Israel has warned proves the Islamic Republic is seeking nuclear weapons.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Monday the Islamic Republic’s ballistic missile program was non-negotiable and Joe Biden is “well aware of it.”

Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani on Sunday applauded the possibility of Joe Biden entering the White House, saying it would mean a return to Barack Obama’s discredited 2015 nuclear deal and an obedient U.S. “complying with international agreements.”

Top EU diplomat Josep Borrell on Monday held talks in the Iranian capital on a mission aimed at lowering tensions over the Islamic republic’s nuclear programme.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei lashed out at U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday, calling him a “clown” who pretends to support the Iranian people but will “push a poisonous dagger” into their backs.

Former Secretary of State John Kerry complained Thursday that President Donald Trump was ruining everything he and former President Barack Obama achieved with the Iran deal.

Iran, China and Russia began naval drills on Friday in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Oman, an Iranian naval spokesman said, warning this is only the first in what will be many joint maritime exercises between the three nations.

A European Union warning it would withdraw from the Obama-negotiated 2015 nuclear deal if Iran continues to drift away from the agreement has been branded “illegal” by Tehran.

Iran this week repudiated reports from the U.K. that a Royal Navy frigate aimed its deck guns at three IRGC gunboats, forcing them to flee.

The European Union (E.U.) is ready to open an alternative channel to drive trade and finance with Iran that would sidestep U.S. sanctions against the Islamic republic, Germany’s foreign minister said Monday.

TEL AVIV – Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan on a visit to Tehran described President Donald Trump as a lying Satan and urged Iranians to resist American “plots” against Iran and other Muslim countries, according to a report by the state-affiliated Islamic Republic News Agency.

Iran started production of its domestically produced fighter jet on Saturday, two days befor the reimposition of remaining U.S. sanctions designed to isolate the Islamic Republic.

Negotiations between Iran and the E.U. aimed at establishing a special payments channel to evade President Donald Trump’s renewed trade sanctions against Tehran are well underway, Iranian deputy Minister of Petroleum, Amir Hossein Zamaninia confirmed.

Germany’s top-selling paper Bild wants a halt to all bi-lateral E.U. trade with the Islamic Republic of Iran because of its support for global terrorism and commitment to the destruction of the Jewish state of Israel.

The European Union (E.U.) plan to build a “legal framework” to preserve business with Tehran and evade new U.S. sanctions was met with disbelief and anger from U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday.

The European Union said Monday its members would set up a payment system to allow oil companies and businesses to continue trading with Iran in a bid to evade sanctions after the US withdrew from a nuclear agreement.

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s oil minister says the United States will not succeed in its plans to halt Iranian crude exports even as he acknowledged that South Korea has stopped buying oil from Tehran.

Tough U.S. sanctions on Iran are driving economic pain that could lead to a “successful revolution,” Rudy Giuliani told an expat group in New York on Saturday.

TEHRAN, Iran — Across Iran’s capital, rush-hour traffic always grinds to a halt, a sea of boxy Renault four-doors and Peugeot coupes all idling their way through the streets of Tehran.

Iran told the European Union (EU) that a system of payments should be arranged to ensure business transactions with the Islamic Republic continue once U.S. sanctions kick in.

Iran disputed France’s calls for more talks on it missile program, calling them “bullying and excessive,” its foreign ministry confirmed Friday.

Iran’s increasing economic problems are as much a result of internal mismanagement as U.S. external trade pressure, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei conceded Monday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif took a personal swipe at U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday, taking to Twitter and advising that international relations are “not a beauty pageant.”

The European Union (EU) is actively encouraging enterprises to increase their business with Iran, foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said Tuesday. She made the announcement on the same day renewed U.S. trade sanctions against the Islamic Republic restarted.