The Japanese government formally announced on Tuesday that Prime Minister Abe Shinzo will depart for Tehran on Wednesday to meet with President Hassan Rouhani, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
Nikki Haley, former United States ambassador to the United Nations, spoke at Turning Point USA’s Young Women’s Leadership Summit on Friday night, telling student attendees that President Donald Trump was right to have “pushed these countries to a place that’s uncomfortable.” She added that Mexico’s reaching a deal with the United States “that quick” is a sign “that so many other things can be fixed, too.”
Appearing Thursday on CNBC with Hadley Gamble, former Secretary of State John Kerry denied conducting back-channel meetings with the Iranian government after President Donald Trump accused the Obama-era official of violating the Logan Act by discussing the U.S.-Iran nuclear agreement.
Former Obama administration officials are working to stop the Trump administration’s maximum pressure campaign on Iran just as it is taking hold, hoping a new president in 2020 can salvage the Iran Nuclear Deal, according to officials and experts.
China’s state-run media continued their editorial offensive against the United States with a piece in the Global Times on Wednesday arguing that American foreign policy is a “mess” that has “spread panic among U.S. allies.”
President Donald Trump said on Monday that he believes Iran “would like to make a deal” on nuclear disarmament, while Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi became the latest senior Iranian official to rule out the possibility of negotiations between Tehran and Washington.
Pompeo said a newly-announced $8 billion in arms sales to Middle East allies would help protect their and America’s interests against Iran.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told a group of students on Wednesday that Iranian youth will “will witness the demise of the enemies of humanity, meaning the degenerate American civilization, and the demise of Israel.”
Senators from both sides of the aisle skewered State Department official Andrea Thompson at a hearing on the Trump’s arms control policies.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday denied the veracity of an anonymously sourced report claiming administration officials are reviewing plans to send up to 120,000 troops to the Middle East amid flaring tensions with Iran.
The New York Times claimed in a report citing anonymous sources Monday, that Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan recently presented the Trump administration a military proposal that could see the Pentagon send up to 120,000 troops to the Middle East.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo postponed a trip to Moscow and went to Brussels instead on Monday, determined to “discuss recent threatening actions and statements by the Islamic Republic of Iran” with foreign ministers of the European Union at their regular meeting.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced on Wednesday that Iran will partially withdraw from the nuclear deal struck with the Obama administration in 2015 and threatened to increase uranium enrichment in 60 days if Europe does not meet Iranian demands.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Monday criticized U.S. policies in the Middle East as “destabilizing” and said they would ultimately harm the American people.
The White House announced on Monday that it would terminate waivers from U.S. sanctions granted to some of Iran’s biggest oil customers, in a major step towards the administration’s goal of reducing Iranian oil exports to zero.
Five Democratic presidential candidates said they would re-enter the Iran nuclear deal that US President Donald Trump abandoned last year.
Iranian Defense Minister Amir Hatami on Wednesday promised a “crushing response” if Israel interferes with illegal Iranian oil shipments, as proposed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week.
With the second summit on February 27-28 between President Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un – this time in Vietnam – the question to be asked is: Who holds the high ground when the two leaders negotiate the issue of Pyongyang terminating its nuclear and missile programs?
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo responded to the resignation of Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Monday with skepticism, describing Zarif and the secular Iranian government as a “moderate” pantomime covering for the real theocratic power in Tehran and wondering if Zarif will truly depart his post.
Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping declared on Wednesday that Beijing remains committed to developing a “strategic partnership” with Iran, which the United States has designated as the world’s leading state-sponsor of terrorism.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi welcomed his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif to Beijing on Tuesday, stressing the importance of China’s relationship with Iran and telling Zarif he became a “famous person” in China with his speech at the Munich Security Conference on Sunday.
Monday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” host Andrea Mitchell played a clip of her interview with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) at the Munich Security Conference over the weekend. Discussing Vice President Mike Pence’s calls for our European allies to follow
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told NBC News on Friday he thinks the “same gang” that provoked the 2003 invasion of Iraq is trying to set up a “suicidal” war between the United States and Iran.
In an interview broadcast Sunday morning on CBS News’ Face the Nation, President Donald Trump said America needs to keep troops at their posts in the “unbelievable and expensive military base built in Iraq” in order to “watch Iran.”
The 40th anniversary of Iran’s descent into radical Islamist tyranny was commemorated on Friday by hardline Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, who crowed that America’s “power is in decline” and it “cannot manage its own affairs now.”
Speaking at the dedication of a shrine to Islamic Republic founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini on Wednesday, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said his country faces the worst economic crisis in 40 years, entirely due to U.S. policy.
The government of Iran is prone to belligerent defiance about the resilience of its economy in the face of U.S. sanctions, but Radio Farda noted on Wednesday that even the dubious data officially released by Tehran depicts a country in “deep recession” with staggering unemployment rates.
Washington Post writer Jason Rezaian, who was held prisoner in Iran from 2014 to 2016, testified against the Iranian government in U.S. federal court on Tuesday. Rezaian is suing Iran for committing “unlawful acts of terrorism, torture, hostage taking, and other torts” against him and his family and seeks a multimillion-dollar settlement.
Economic data released by Iran this week indicated oil exports are sharply down and the export of products other than oil has been cut in half by U.S. sanctions.
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Brigadier General Ali Fadavi vowed on Friday to continue testing missiles and researching new weapons in defiance of U.S. sanctions against Iran.
