President Vladimir Putin on Thursday fast-tracked work on constitutional changes that could keep him in power well past the end of his term in 2024 while lawmakers quickly sealed his choice for new prime minister.
A defiant Iranian President Hassan Rouhani boasted Thursday that there is ‘no limit’ to his country’s level of uranium enrichment — just days after European powers raised concerns about the Islamic Republic backing away from a 2015 nuclear deal.
China will boost spending on U.S. products in exchange for the rolling back of some tariffs under an initial trade deal signed by the world’s two largest economies on Wednesday, defusing an 18-month row but leaving numerous thorny issues unresolved.
In his annual state of the nation address in Moscow, Putin announced his wish to reform the Russian constitution. ‘I truly believe that it is time to introduce certain changes to our country’s main law,’ Putin said. Shortly afterward the government resigned en masse, not in protest but seemingly to pave the way for these reforms.
The U.S.-China trade war is set to enter a new, quieter phase on Wednesday as U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He sign an initial trade deal that aims to vastly increase Chinese purchases of U.S. manufactured products, agricultural goods, energy, and services.
Britain, France, and Germany formally accused Iran on Tuesday of violating the terms of its 2015 agreement to curb its nuclear program, which eventually could lead to the reimposing of U.N. sanctions lifted under the deal.
Protests in Iran continued for a third day on Monday after the regime admitted over the weekend to accidentally downing a Ukrainian passenger jet carrying 176 people, killing everyone on board.
Iran conceded on Saturday to having made a ‘disastrous mistake’ in shooting down a Ukrainian airliner that was carrying 176 passengers, an allegation the regime initially denied.
An American Navy ship was approached by a Russian Navy ship in the north Arabian sea last Thursday when the Russian ship made an ‘aggressive’ maneuver, US officials said, Russian officials, responding by pointing the finger at the US.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who announced last month that the Phase 1 trade deal with China would be signed on Jan. 15, said on Thursday the agreement could be signed ‘shortly thereafter.’
President Trump announced that the US would not be responding militarily to a barrage of 16 missiles launched from Iran in the early hours of the morning Wednesday that hit Ain al-Asad airbase in Iraq and damaged aircraft hangers and a US helicopter.
Iranian officials said missiles were launched at U.S. troops in Iraq in retaliation after Iranian Gen. Qassem Suleimani’s death in Baghdad, according to Iranian state-run media outlets, in an attack that was later confirmed by the Pentagon.
An extremely portentous symbol was raised over one of Iran’s holiest mosques in the city of Qom Sunday for one of the myriad funeral rallies of fallen IRGC commander Qassem Soleimani, says a researcher at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University.
The fate of the Iran nuclear deal appears to hang in the balance following an announcement by the regime that it will no longer comply with the curbs on its nuclear program, imposed by the 2015 agreement.
Iran vowed Sunday to defy the limits placed on its nuclear enrichment by the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and completely abandon the deal, in a response to the killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani that also saw a red flag of Islamic martyrdom and vengeance raised over his funeral service in Qoms.
Syrian regime forces and Iranian militias fired three missiles at the Conoco gas fields in Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria and six rockets were fired into the Green Zone in Baghdad that houses the US embassy Sunday as tensions flared across the region.
Qassem Soleimani, the powerful head of Iran’s Quds Force, was killed in an airstrike at Baghdad International Airport, Iraqi TV and three Iraqi officials said Friday.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Thursday that the U.S. was anticipating more attacks from Iran following an assault on the American embassy Tuesday that caused serious damage, promising to pre-emptively strike the Islamic Republic if reliable intelligence of a forthcoming attack surfaced.
The US is scheduled to deploy 750 new troops to defend the US embassy in Iraq, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Tuesday night, following protests by Iran-backed groups that marched on the compound in retaliation for US strikes Sunday that killed 25 Kataeb Hezbollah fighters.
Three U.S. defense officials confirmed late Tuesday night that 4,000 troops from the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division’s alert brigade are preparing to mobilize to the Middle East after protesters encircled the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad earlier in the day.