A small oil tanker from the United Arab Emirates traveling through the Strait of Hormuz entered Iranian waters and turned off its tracker two days ago, leading the US to suspect Iran seized the vessel amid heightened tensions in the region, an American defense official said Tuesday.
France, Britain and Germany said on Sunday they were preoccupied by the escalation of tensions in the Persian Gulf region and a risk of Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal falling apart, calling for dialog between all the parties to resume.
The IAEA has found signs of radioactive material which would violate the 2015 nuclear deal at an Iranian nuclear site identified to the agency by Israeli intelligence, Channel 13 reported late Thursday.
As part of the new sanctions on the regime promised by President Trump Wednesday, the US will revoke waivers for Iran’s non-military nuclear program.
A closed-door meeting of the UN atomic watchdog agency in Vienna Wednesday determined that Iran had indeed breached the 3.76% uranium enrichment limit of the 2015 nuclear deal, confirming reports from Iran Monday that it had ramped up its enrichment to 4.5%.
Britain said Thursday that three Iranian vessels unsuccessfully tried to impede the passage of a British commercial vessel through the Strait of Hormuz, signaling a further escalation of tensions over a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.
Iran, Syria, and Iraq signed an agreement Wednesday, July 3rd, to construct an Iran-funded railway from Shalamcheh in the Islamic Republic to the Mediterranean coastal city of Lattakia in Syria, bypassing trade waterways typically patrolled by the US.
Iran has enriched uranium beyond a 3.67% purity limit set by its deal with major powers, the UN nuclear watchdog policing the deal said on Monday, confirming a move previously announced by Tehran.
Iran’s violation of nuclear limits by enriching uranium to the 5% level will reduce its breakout time to a nuclear weapon by approximately two months, former deputy director-general for safeguards at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Olli Heinonen told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.
Iran says the last chance for saving its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers will pass after a 60-day deadline.
US President Donald Trump warned Iran on Sunday to ‘be careful,’ shortly after the Islamic Republic said it would breach a uranium enrichment cap set by the 2015 nuclear deal.
Iran’s president warned Europe Wednesday that his country would ‘take the next step’ in increasing its uranium enrichment this coming Sunday, and enrich to ‘any amount that we want.’
The remaining signatories to the 2015 international pact to restrain Iran’s nuclear weapons development all voiced concern Tuesday that Tehran had exceeded the limit of how much low-enriched uranium it could stockpile.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran of taking a ‘significant step’ toward producing a nuclear weapon Monday, after Iran said it had exceeded the amount of enriched uranium it is allowed under the 2015 nuclear deal.
US President Donald Trump warned Monday that Iran was ‘playing with fire’ after Tehran said it exceeded a limit on enriched uranium reserves under a 2015 nuclear deal abandoned by Washington.
Acting Defense Secretary Mark Esper met with NATO officials in Brussels Thursday, the same day special envoy Brian Hook was in Paris to drum up support from nuclear deal partners for the US’s position on Iran.
The Trump administration’s latest sanctions against Iran reinstate an embargo on some of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s front companies that President Barack Obama lifted as part of the nuclear deal and could further expose the Iranian dictator’s corrupt economic empire.
Brian Hook, U.S. special envoy for Iran, is in Paris discussing the looming crisis in the Persian Gulf with Britain, France, and Germany, ahead of talks Friday that will see the European allies seek to implement the ‘INSTEX’ currency system with Iran to circumvent Trump’s sanctions.
Iran is planning on further scaling back its commitment to the 2015 nuclear accord July 7th, citing the failure of European signatories to find a way around Trump’s crippling sanctions.
Russia’s top national security adviser spoke out on behalf of Iran during trilateral meetings with his Israeli and American counterparts in Jerusalem on Tuesday, backing Tehran’s claims against the United States and supporting its ongoing military presence in Syria, which Israel sees as a threat to its security.