Iran

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran increased its uranium enrichment Sunday beyond the limit allowed by its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, inching its program closer toward weapons-grade levels while calling for a diplomatic solution to a crisis heightening tensions with the U.S.

Iran’s move, coupled with earlier abandoning the deal’s limit on its low-enriched uranium stockpile, intensifies pressure on Europe to find any effective way around U.S. sanctions that block Tehran’s oil sales abroad.

7 July 2019; MEMO: An Iranian tanker captured by British Royal Marines in Gibraltar was not headed to Syria, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Sunday in a press conference broadcast live on state TV, reports Reuters.

Royal Marines seized the Iraninan supertanker Grace 1 on Thursday for trying to take oil to Syria in violation of EU sanctions, a dramatic intervention described as “maritime robbery” by Araqchi.

7 July 2019; DW: The Iranian government on Sunday said it would once again breach the 2015 nuclear deal by raising its enrichment of uranium beyond limits agreed with several world powers.

Government spokesman Ali Rabiei told a news conference that "today we will pass" the permitted enrichment level of 3.67%, without giving further details.

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said the move was a countermeasure to "US economic terrorism."

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran announced Sunday it will increase its uranium enrichment to an unspecified level beyond the terms of its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, breaking another limit set under the accord and furthering heightening tensions between Tehran and the U.S.

Setting another unspecified 60-day deadline for the deal, Iran took further steps toward pressuring Europe while urging further diplomacy to save an agreement that President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled the U.S. from a year ago.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran should consider seizing a British oil tanker in response to authorities detaining an Iranian oil tanker off the coast of Gibraltar, a former leader of the Islamic Republic’s powerful Revolutionary Guard said Friday.

The striking comment by Mohsen Rezaei came amid heightened tensions over Iran’s unraveling 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, an accord that the U.S. withdrew from last year.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — When it comes to saving Iran’s nuclear deal, Europe finds itself in the impossible situation of trying to salvage an accord unraveling because of the maximalist U.S. sanctions campaign.

Since President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the accord over a year ago, a slow fuse has burned through Iran. At first, it appeared Iranian officials thought they might be able to wait out Trump. They spoke about “strategic patience” as the U.S. 2020 presidential election loomed.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s president warned that Tehran will increase its enrichment of uranium to “any amount that we want” beginning on Sunday, putting further pressure on European nations to save its faltering nuclear deal and offer a way around intense U.S. sanctions.

President Hassan Rouhani’s threat, combined with Iran surpassing the stockpile limits of the 2015 atomic accord, could narrow the estimated one-year window it would need to produce enough material for a nuclear weapon, something Iran denies it wants but the deal sought to prevent.

TEHRAN, Iran, July 3 (NNN-TASNIM) – Iran, Syria and Iraq have agreed to build a multi-modal transport corridor, to boost trade relations among the three nations.

“The three countries have agreed to establish a multi-modal transport corridor from Iran through Iraq to Syria,” Iranian Deputy Minister of Roads and Urban Development, Shahram Adamnejad, said.

“The three friendly and brotherly countries have good and growing business relations,” Adamnejad said.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Relatives of those killed in the U.S. Navy’s 1988 shootdown of an Iranian passenger jet have thrown flowers into the Strait of Hormuz to mark their deaths.

Iranian state television aired footage Wednesday of mourners in the strait, as armed Iranian Revolutionary Guard fast boats patrolled around them. They tossed gladiolas into the strait as some wept.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran has broken the limit set on its stockpile of low-enriched uranium by its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, international inspectors and Tehran said Monday, marking its first major departure from the unraveling agreement a year after the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from the accord.