Release Pastor Andrew Brunson or face large sanctions from the United States. That was the direct warning from President Donald J. Trump to Turkey and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan brought by Vice President Mike Pence to the State Department’s first Ministerial on Religious Freedom Thursday.
The chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, Major General Mohammad Hossein Baqeri reportedly warned the United States on Tuesday that, just as Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned American President Donald Trump, threatening Iran would result in an “unimaginable” response that the U.S. will “regret.”
An analysis of market data performed by Reuters on Tuesday found the price of fuel in North Korea declining by almost 50 percent since late March, which strongly suggests that tough sanctions against North Korea’s nuclear missile program have been systematically undermined, most likely with the assistance of China.
China has defied international sanctions by opening a North Korean travel agency in the Taiwanese capital of Taipei last Friday with the aim of strongly promoting tourism to the rogue communist state.
North Korea’s state newspaper, the Rodong Sinmun, warned readers Monday the country may soon face a significant economic downturn that will require “belts tightened” to secure the future, the South Korean news service Yonhap reported.
Voice of America (VOA) revealed in a report Thursday that two ships, one from Sierra Leone and another from Panama, were involved with the illegal shipment of North Korean coal to South Korea and have recently re-entered the South’s ports multiple times in violation of international law.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Americans in an interview Thursday to dismiss any claims by the Russian government that President Donald Trump had come to any agreements with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin during their meeting this week.
The Philippines is teetering on the edge of breaching sanctions imposed by the United States if it moves forward with an estimated $7.5 million deal to purchase grenade launchers from blacklisted Russian state-owned firm Rosoboronexport, Reuters reports Wednesday.
Hysterical overreactions to the Trump-Putin summit are predicated on the idea that Trump is a hapless victim of Putin’s sinister manipulation, if not an outright agent of the Kremlin, a veritable Manchurian candidate. Those allegations are difficult to stomach when looking at Trump’s actions towards Russia. His administration has been quite hard on them.
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday morning that one important outcome of his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki is that Russia “has agreed to help with North Korea.” On the very same morning, Russia’s envoy to North Korea called on the U.N. Security Council to relax sanctions against Pyongyang, even though the United States is pushing for even tougher sanctions on oil.
The Wall Street Journal noted on Tuesday that the Trump administration’s plan to pressure Iran with renewed sanctions might have one big flaw: China. The Chinese are in a position to buy so much Iranian oil that the effect of isolating Iran from U.S. and European markets will be greatly diminished.
Russia illegally sent North Korean coal to South Korea on two occasions in violation of United Nations sanctions, a report obtained by Voice of America Tuesday alleged.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Friday the United States will consider waivers for some countries that need more time to stop importing Iranian oil to avoid disrupting global oil markets. Reuters, which reported his remarks, said they were embargoed for release until Monday.
Iran’s special envoy Ali Akbar Velayati said Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Kremlin plans to invest up to $50 billion in Iran’s oil and gas sector, and noted that Russian firms could replace Western oil companies that have left or are leaving Iran to comply with President Donald Trump’s demands that nations stop importing Iranian oil by November 4 or face sanctions.
The United States asked the U.N. Security Council on Thursday to halt the delivery of all refined oil products to North Korea because the North Koreans were caught smuggling a huge amount of oil during the first half of this year in defiance of sanctions.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reiterated, in an interview with the National at the Fairmont Hotel in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, that “sanctions are returning” on Iran’s banking sector.
The United States Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned a Malaysia-based General Sales Agent (GSA) on Monday for collaborating with and acting on behalf of Iran’s government-operated and U.S.-sanctioned Mahan Air.
Iran has threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz – a key Gulf passage for shipments of commodities – over Washington threatening to sanction any country that fails to stop importing oil from the Islamic Republic by November 4.
China’s state-run Global Times newspaper warned Chinese corporations on Thursday that they should “temper their enthusiasm” and “be cautious” when investing in North Korea – not because North Korea is an unreliable communist rogue regime, but because the United States may sanction them.
The South Korean outlet Yonhap reported on Monday that closed North Korean restaurants near the border in China have begun renovations, a sign that they are preparing for sanctions to lift on the country as part of an ongoing dialogue with the United States.
North Korean products and workers reportedly began flowing into China at an accelerated rate following dictator Kim Jong-un’s meeting with American President Donald Trump last week, and China has apparently begun lifting a ban on Chinese tourism to the fellow communist regime Tuesday – indications that China expects sanctions on North Korea to soon lift.
During a video message released on Friday, President Donald Trump discussed the summit between the US and North Korea and stated, “Secretary Pompeo will be working directly with North Korea to implement the denuclearization deal. In the meantime, sanctions will
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced at a press conference with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing on Thursday that China will maintain sanctions against North Korea “until such time as denuclearization is, in fact, complete.”
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo assured reporters in a joint press conference with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts in Seoul Thursday that the United States is not considering removing sanctions on North Korea until its nuclear program verifiably ceases to exist.
The Trump administration on Monday slapped sanctions on several Russian companies and businessmen for engaging in cyberattacks and assisting Russia’s military and intelligence services with other malicious activities.
“We still retain the power to shut them down again,” Ross said.
Boeing announced on Wednesday that it will not deliver any of its aircraft to Iran in light of United States sanctions on the Islamic Republic as part of America’s withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or Iran nuclear deal.
Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell has hailed the positive reaction among the business community to sanctions on the Iranian regime while hailing the assistance being offered to small and medium companies to help them pivot away from the Islamic dictatorship and to the free world.
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Modern financial and secondary sanctions are the financial equivalent of papal excommunication during medieval times. We now have a really viable alternative to war in our sanctions policies.
The United States Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), on Wednesday, sanctioned six Iranians, three Iran-based entities and leaders, the country’s state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), and Iran’s notorious Evin prison for being involved with serious human rights abuses and censorship.
Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Tuesday that a Japanese patrol aircraft spotted two ships at sea performing a transfer of goods in violation of U.N. sanctions against North Korea. One of the ships appeared to be flying a Chinese flag.
The United States Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced on Thursday that it had sanctioned several Iranian and Turkish companies and 31 aircraft associated with four Iranian airlines.
The United States Treasury Department on Tuesday issued a fresh set of sanctions against Iran, targeting five Iranians who are linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and who provided ballistic missile support to Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The United States condemned what senior administration officials called the “fraudulent election” of dictator Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela on Sunday, adding additional sanctions against the government in an executive order issued Monday.
Members of the international community overwhelmingly rejected the sham election in Venezuela, despite socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro claiming victory with supposedly over two-thirds of the vote.
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced sanctions Tuesday on the Central Bank of Iran’s Governor and a senior official, as well as an Iraq-based bank and its chairman, on charges of terror for moving money to Hizballah for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF).
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif said on Friday that he would attempt to save the nuclear deal through diplomacy after President Donald Trump announced U.S. withdrawal this week. If that effort fails, he threatened that Iran would resume enriching weapons-grade nuclear material on an “industrial scale.”
North Korean state media warned America against “stupid behavior” in a piece Thursday after claiming that the U.S. has boasted of the efficacy of economic sanctions.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters on a flight to North Korea Wednesday that the United States is “not going to relieve sanctions” without having fully eliminated the threat from Kim Jong-un’s rogue communist regime, despite the reported release of unjustly imprisoned Americans in the country.
The United States imposed fresh sanctions on Venezuela on Monday as Vice President Mike Pence said the administration was ready to do “much, much more” to help topple the Maduro regime.
