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Malaysia tells US it doesn’t recognise sanctions imposed unilaterally

MEMO | May 9, 2024

Malaysia has told the US that it does not recognise sanctions imposed unilaterally by individual states, Interior Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said today.

“I emphasised that we will only recognise sanctions if they are imposed by the UN Security Council,” added Ismail at an event after meeting with Brian Nelson, the top sanctions official of the US Treasury Department, Free Malaysia Today has reported. “The delegation from the US respected our stance.”

Nelson is in Malaysia reportedly to discuss issues related to funds being moved to Iran and its proxies, and funding for the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas from within the Malaysian financial sector.

The minister pointed out that Kuala Lumpur is committed to combating terrorist financing with a “clear strategic plan in place to tackle illicit funding and money laundering.” Moreover, he said that Malaysia’s policies and strategies “comply with international standards.”

The meeting came as the US said it was trying to prevent Malaysia from becoming a jurisdiction where Hamas could both fundraise and then move money. Washington also said that Iran’s capacity to move its oil was due to service providers based in Malaysia.

The minister, however, described his meeting with Nelson as “productive” and said that Malaysia was “always open to engaging with the US.”

May 9, 2024 Posted by | Economics, Wars for Israel | , , , , | Leave a comment

Iran’s POSITION On Israel And Gaza w/Professor Marandi

Sabby Sabs | May 7, 2024

May 9, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Solidarity and Activism, Video | , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

US tries to pressure Southeast Asia into sanctioning Iran: Bloomberg

Al Mayadeen | May 7, 2024

The United States is attempting to rally the support of Southeast Asian countries to implement further sanctions on Iran and its allies in the Axis of Resistance.

An unnamed senior US Treasury official made the revelation during a visit of American officials with Southeast Asia oil industry executives, regulators, and financial institutions to ensure the enforcement of sanctions on Russia and Iran, according to Bloomberg.

Washington is accusing Iran and “groups like Hamas” of soliciting money in Southeast Asia.

Specifically, the US is attempting to tighten its unilateral sanctions on Russia by involving Southeast Asian entities in the process, which involves cutting off pathways for the sale of Russian oil and Moscow’s sourcing of critical dual-use components from the region.

However, Iran has been the main focus of US officials in the region, given its historically friendly ties with countries like Malaysia. Earlier, the US administration passed a package of measures, which includes sanctioning foreign ports, vessels, and refineries that process or ship Iranian crude.

The sanctions would also attempt to enforce restrictions on all oil-related transactions with US-sanctioned Iranian banks. US officials are attempting to utilize the supposed environmental risks of dealing with Iran-affiliated vessels to pressure Malaysia into colluding with Washington.

Iran’s oil exports skyrocket

In the 12 months up until the end of March 2024, Iran’s oil exports reached $35.8 billion, Iran’s head of Customs Mohammad Rezvanifar said today, as reported by the Iranian Labour News Agency.

Even though the US renewed its sanctions on Iran in 2018, Chinese-Iranian trade, specifically Chinese purchases of Iranian oil, has aided Iran in keeping a positive trade balance.

Iran’s total trade witnessed a 2.6% year-on-year increase, hitting a value of $153 billion, of which $86.8 billion was Iranian exports, Rezvanifar added.

As Tehran continues to cement its position in global trade, away from the US-controlled financial system, the country grows as an economic power. Oil sales are essential for the development of Iran’s industrial sectors, which further spur the country’s goal of economic independence.

Considering that Iran is a threat to American hegemony in West Asia, specifically to the Israeli regime and other US military assets, Washington has gone back to reinforcing restrictions on the inevitable rise of Tehran as a regional and possibly global leader.

May 7, 2024 Posted by | Economics, Wars for Israel | , , | 1 Comment

Pakistan under risk of sanctions over trade deal with Iran: Washington

The Cradle | April 24, 2024

Washington threatened Pakistan with sanctions on 23 April over a trade agreement recently signed with Iran.

“We advise anyone considering business deals with Iran to be aware of the potential risk of sanctions. Ultimately, the Government of Pakistan can speak to their own foreign policy pursuits,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said on 23 April.

The warning came after Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi arrived in Pakistan on 22 April and met with top officials, including Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

“Both sides agreed to increase the volume of bilateral trade to 10 billion US dollars in the next five years,” Sharif’s office said in a statement.

Raisi and Sharif also discussed during the visit the importance of energy cooperation between Tehran and Islamabad.

A gas pipeline project between the two, dating back over a decade and aimed at allowing the flow of Iranian gas into Pakistan, has been consistently held up by the US.

A US official revealed last month that Washington has set a “goal” to prevent the construction of the Iran–Pakistan gas pipeline. The project has been delayed by nearly a decade in large part due to US economic pressure.

“I fully support the efforts by the US government to prevent this pipeline from happening,” US Assistant Secretary Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, Donald Lu, said during a congressional hearing on 19 March. “We are working toward that goal,” he stressed.

On Wednesday, Iran and Pakistan issued a joint statement calling on the UN Security Council “to prevent Israel’s regime from its adventurism in the region and its illegal acts attacking its neighbors and targeting foreign diplomatic facilities.”

The statement also called “for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, unimpeded humanitarian access to the besieged people of Gaza, return of the displaced Palestinians, as well as ensuring accountability of the crimes being committed by the Israeli regime. They reiterated their support for a just, comprehensive, and durable solution based on the aspirations of the people of Palestine,” according to the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

April 24, 2024 Posted by | Economics, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Wars for Israel | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Revealed: Israel’s hidden history of attacks on Iran

By Robert Inlakesh | MintPress News | April 17, 2024 

Iran’s retaliatory attack on Israel was framed in the West as a reckless attempt to spark a major regional war, but in reality, Israel has been attacking Iran for decades.

As is routinely the case with Western-backed wars, the corporate media’s timeline begins at the moment that suits their narrative. We have seen this play out recently, with the attempt to rob the Gaza war of all contexts before October 7, 2023. Similarly, when it comes to Israel’s conflict with Iran, the two have been embroiled in what is referred to as a “shadow war,” the details of which are pretty shocking.

While the international media’s attention was riveted on Iran’s retaliatory strikes against Israel, drawing great focus to some 300 drones and missiles used in the attack, no major deal was made of Israel’s strike on April 1 against the consular segment of Iran’s embassy in Damascus, Syria, that killed a dozen people, including seven Iranian officials of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). In this unprecedented act of aggression against Iranian soil, breaking international diplomatic norms, the Israelis were shielded by the U.S. government at the United Nations Security Council, blocking any condemnation of this act.

Despite an admission from British Foreign Secretary David Cameron that had the UK embassy been attacked similarly, they too would retaliate, the double-standard argument that Iran shouldn’t respond continues to dominate the airways.

This is as Iran’s IRGC has received condemnation for seizing a container ship in the Persian Gulf associated with the Zodiac Maritime shipping company of Israel billionaire Eyal Ofer and his family. In 2021, the Mercer Street oil tanker, which Zodiac Maritime also operated, was struck by Iranian drones, prompting similar condemnation. Yet, little was to be said regarding the Israeli-owned company’s role in collaborating with the Israeli military and intelligence establishment to ferry arms and operatives around the region and carry out assassinations or reconnaissance missions.

However, the Israel-Iran “Shadow War” did not begin with recent events. Israel has been carrying out brutal assassinations of civilian scientists on Iranian soil since 2010 while also carrying out acts of espionage that have endangered innocent civilians in the country.

As early as in the years 2010, 2011 and 2012, Israeli Mossad agents have been planting viruses designed to cause malfunctions in Iranian oil and nuclear power facilities. Another kind of provocative action occurred in 2018, when it was reported that an Israeli Mossad team had raided an archive facility in Tehran, stealing documents that pertained to its nuclear power program.

In 2020, the New York Times and Washington Post reported that Israel planted bombs inside Iran’s Natanz Nuclear facility, which almost caused an environmental and humanitarian catastrophe. Later that year, the Israeli Mossad assassinated Iran’s top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, in Tehran. Then, in April of 2021, another explosion occurred at the Natanz facility, which the New York Times reported was Israel’s doing.

The Israelis have also trained members of the MEK terrorist group to carry out attacks on civilian targets inside Iran. The list of Mossad-linked cells that have been arrested by the Iranian authorities or carried out acts of espionage and sabotage is simply too numerous to cover at length. Early last year, U.S. officials even told Reuters that a suicide drone attack targeting a factory in the city of Isfahan was an Israeli attack.

More recently, in late December, Israel launched airstrikes on Damascus and assassinated IRGC official Seyed Razi Mousavi. And in January, Israel launched airstrikes in Damascus, murdering five Iranian military personnel members and Syrian citizens. Then, in early February, Israel was accused of blowing up gas pipelines in Iran. None of these actions, which would likely illicit a response by most nations, provoked Iran to launch a direct strike on Israel.

In addition to all of this, Israel has been the world’s top cheerleader for the West’s crushing sanctions that have significantly impacted Iran’s civilian population, specifically access to lifesaving medical supplies. AIPAC, the powerful Israeli Lobby group in the United States, worked hard to prevent the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal from passing, then pushed for the Trump administration to unilaterally withdraw before pressuring the Biden administration to refrain from reviving the deal despite this being a campaign promise. Israel even played a role in the Trump administration’s assassination of Iran’s top general tasked with battling ISIS, Qassem Soleimani.

Yet, despite Israel’s long history of documented attacks against Iran and around 30 years of false predictions as to when Iran is supposedly going to develop a nuclear weapon, which is the premise for Western sanctions, the corporate media is still trying to sell the public on the lie that Israel is an innocent victim and that there was no justifiable reason for Iran to retaliate.

April 24, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sponsor of TikTok Ban & Iran-Palestine Sanctions Gets 1,400% Bump in AIPAC Donations

By Ian DeMartino – Sputnik – 22.04.2024

The 21st Century Peace through Strength Act passed the US House of Representatives on Saturday, as part of a package of bills that also included military aid to Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific.

US Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), who sponsored the 21st Century Peace through Strength Act that passed the US House of Representatives, saw contributions to his campaign from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) increase an incredible 1,413% during the 2024 election cycle when compared to the 2022 cycle.

The 21st Century Peace through Strength Act includes the REPO Act, which enables Biden to seize Russian assets frozen in US banks and send them to Ukraine, a provision that will essentially ban TikTok from the US, and also contains sanctions against Palestinian resistance groups.

According to a statement released by McCaul when the bill was introduced, it will be “the most comprehensive sanctions against Iran [that] Congress has passed in years.” The legislation is expected to clear the Senate and be signed into law by US President Joe Biden this week.

While it is unclear if, how, or why AIPAC would push for the theft of Russian assets, the other major provisions of the bill are directly related to issues AIPAC and other pro-Israeli lobbying groups advocate for.

The sanction provisions of the bill are self-evidently pro-Israel actions, designed explicitly to harm Israel’s adversaries in the region. The TikTok ban is slightly obscured, but the app has been blamed by politicians and Jewish groups alike for the rise in support among young people for the Palestinian cause.

In late October, US Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) called the app a “purveyor of virulent antisemitic lies,” on Twitter.

Billionaire Bill Ackman, one of Israel’s most virulent supporters who gained infamy last year after publicly doxing Ivy League students who made pro-Palestinian statements, blamed the app directly for the support of Palestine among America’s youth. “TikTok is massively manipulating public opinion,” he wrote.

“Compare the generational differences on support for Hamas. 51% of the TikTok generation say that Hamas’ barbaric acts are justified,” Ackman wrote on Twitter/X while saying TikTok should “probably” be banned.

Ackman’s sentiments were reflected by McCaul himself in November, when he, too, blamed TikTok and China specifically for young people turning against Israel’s actions in Gaza.

“China controls the algorithms on TikTok, so if you type in Israel or Palestine you are going to get a lot of pro-Palestinian, Hamas material and videos pop up and that’s primarily the source of education for our young people,” claimed McCaul.

It is not just politicians blaming TikTok for the rise in support for Palestinians, Jewish groups have as well.

In December, Anti-Defamation League (ADL) CEO Jonathan Greenblatt blamed TikTok for “intensifying antisemitism” and anti-Zionism.

“TikTok, if you will, is the 24/7 news channel of so many of our young people and it’s like Al Jazeera on steroids, amplifying and intensifying the antisemitism and the anti-Zion[ism] with no repercussions,” Greenblatt claimed on American television.

For years, McCaul was a non-entity for pro-Israel lobbying groups like AIPAC. Elected in 2004, McCaul received no contributions from pro-Israel groups until the 2020 cycle when another group, Pro-Israel America PAC contributed $32,600 to his campaign, his largest donor that year, according to Open Secrets.

The next cycle, McCaul received $7,900 from AIPAC itself in addition to another $6,000 from other pro-Israel groups. But, it was not until this year that McCaul became the Republican darling for AIPAC in the House of Representatives.

To date, McCaul has received $119,550 from AIPAC in 2024 alone, a 1,413% increase and by far his largest contributor, dwarfing the second place Axxess Technology Solutions which donated $16,600.

Open Secrets lists the “pro-Israel industry,” including AIPAC, as having contributed $372,468 to McCaul’s campaign overall in 2024, a 681% increase from the $47,673 in contributions he received from the “pro-Israel industry” in 2022.

This cycle, McCaul is AIPAC’s top Republican recipient in the House and is the sixth overall House recipient of AIPAC funds. Only Democratic Reps. Ritchie Torres (NY), Hakeem Jeffries (NY), Kathy Manning (NC), Josh Gottheimer (NJ) and Pete Aguilar (CA) sit above McCaul on the list. All of them voted for the bill.

Of the bill’s 10 co-sponsors, all Republicans, four of them list AIPAC as their top contributor for this year: Reps. Joe Wilson (SC), Mark Green (TN), Doug Lamborn (CO), and Dan Crenshaw (TX). Another co-sponsor, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (PA) lists AIPAC as his second-largest contributor. Only Delegate Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen from American Samoa, who does not have voting rights in the House, and US Rep. Maria Salazar (FL) co-sponsored the bill without taking campaign contributions from AIPAC or any other pro-Israel group.

Sputnik emailed McCaul’s campaign for comment on the increase in AIPAC contributions, but did not receive a response by press time.

April 22, 2024 Posted by | Corruption, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance, Wars for Israel | , , , | Leave a comment

US threatens sanctions if Pakistan continues gas pipeline project with Iran

By Ahmed Adel | March 28, 2024

Despite Pakistan dealing with a crippling economic situation, the US has shown little concern for its strategic ally’s issues and, instead of offering support, has threatened tough sanctions if Islamabad decides to continue with the Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline project. Ironically, though, such an action will only push Pakistan closer to China, which the US views as a greater threat to its hegemony than Iran.

“We always advise everyone that doing business with Iran runs the risk of touching upon and coming in contact with our sanctions, and would advise everyone to consider that very carefully,” a US State Department spokesperson told reporters in a press briefing on March 26.

“We do not support this pipeline going forward,” the spokesperson added.

Washington continually emphasises that Pakistan is one of its closest allies and a partner in the fight against terrorism, making the sanctions threat a major development in their bilateral relations. For this reason, Pakistan Petroleum Minister Musadik Malik said on March 27 that Islamabad would seek an exemption from US sanctions over the gas pipeline project.

The Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline, known as the Peace Pipeline, will transport natural gas from Iran to Pakistan. Despite the pipeline’s several years of delays and funding challenges, Pakistan and Iran signed a five-year trade plan in August 2023 with a target of $5 billion. Tehran is evidently desperate for the project to be completed, which had an original deadline of 2015, since it signed the trade plan and overlooked Pakistan not laying the pipeline when Iran has already completed the laying of its 900-kilometre pipeline.

Islamabad claims it could not lay the pipe due to the US sanctions imposed on Iran, but Tehran rejects this excuse. Pakistan is now in a difficult position with the latest US sanction threat when recalling that Tehran issued a third notice in January to Islamabad and announced intentions to go to arbitration court to receive $18 billion for breach of contract.

The threat of US sanctions or paying a huge fine to Iran is only compounding Pakistan’s difficult economic situation, especially as the country is seeking a 24th bailout from the International Monetary Fund.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on March 26 that his country needs another IMF loan programme to stabilise its fragile economy. An IMF mission that visited Islamabad for five days earlier this month said Pakistan had to meet IMF conditions, including revising its budget and raising interest rates, generating revenue through more taxes, and hiking electricity and gas prices.

Effectively, ordinary Pakistanis are going to suffer a lot more than they already are.

Islamabad and Washington have had longstanding relations rooted in their opposition to the Soviet Union. After the Cold War, the US became dependent on the South Asian country for supplies during its long occupation of Afghanistan. Due to the US’s double standard of using Pakistan as a security partner but also threatening to worsen the country’s economic situation, China has been able to fill the financial void.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar met with Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing on March 22 in Brussels, where the latter emphasised Beijing’s commitment to aiding Pakistan in addressing its financial challenges. However, just like the Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline, Islamabad continues to stall the implementation of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship project of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative launched in 2013 to link the Gwadar port in southwestern Pakistan with China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Worsening the situation for CPEC is the constant stream of terror attacks against Chinese workers and nationals.

In the latest attack, on March 26, a suicide bomber in the Shangla district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa rammed an explosive-laden car into a vehicle, killing five Chinese workers and engineers and their Pakistani driver heading to the Dasu Dam, the biggest hydropower project in Pakistan. Less than a week before the suicide attack, Pakistani security forces killed eight Balochistan Liberation Army separatist militants who opened fire on a convoy carrying Chinese citizens outside Gwadar port in the southwestern Balochistan province.

Given that Pakistan is facing a dire economic situation and needs to turn to the IMF and seek more funding from China, US sanctions would be a devastating blow. Sanction threats are especially contradictory for the US since it not only considers Pakistan an ally but overlooks the fact that India invests in the Iranian port of Chabahar, located only 170 kilometres from Gwadar port. Washington overlooks this contradiction since Chabahar rivals the China-funded Gwadar, signalling that the US views China as a much larger threat to its hegemony than Iran, which makes sanction threats more confusing since it will only push Pakistan to be even closer and more aligned with China.

Ahmed Adel is a Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher.

March 28, 2024 Posted by | Economics | , , , , | Leave a comment

US opposes Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project, trying to halt its construction: Official

Press TV – March 21, 2024

The US assistant secretary of State for South and Central Asia says the United States opposes the Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline project.

Speaking to congressmen during a congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday, Donald Lu said the US is exerting maximum efforts to prevent the construction of the IP project.

He added that the US is concerned about the strain in Pakistan’s relations with neighboring Iran, particularly on the IP gas pipeline project.

The US official noted that Washington was in contact with Islamabad on the matter.

Emphasizing the importance of monitoring the funding for the mega energy project, Lu said the US is keeping a close watch on it.

“Washington has not received any request from Islamabad regarding sanctions relief, so our efforts to stop Pakistan from Iran’s gas project will continue,” the diplomat added.

Lu claimed that the project was not in the interest of Pakistan as international companies would not invest in it.

Back in February, Pakistan gave the green light for advancing much-delayed work on the joint gas pipelines project with Iran within its territory in a significant step towards enhancing energy cooperation between the two countries.

Pakistan’s Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCoE) granted its approval to start construction on the 80-kilometer pipeline from the Pak-Iran border to Gwadar.

The project, launched in 2013, had initially required Pakistan to finish the construction of the pipeline on its territory by the end of 2014.

However, the project faced prolonged delays due to the potential challenges it posed for Pakistan amid international sanctions targeting Iran.

Pakistan is likely to face an $18-billion fine if it terminates the gas pipeline agreement.

March 21, 2024 Posted by | Economics, Wars for Israel | , , , | Leave a comment

Iranian firms turn the page with $20 billion gas deals

Press TV – March 11, 2024

Iranian companies have signed contracts worth $20 billion to boost gas pressure at the giant South Pars (SP) field in the Persian Gulf, in a plan which is expected to generate $900 billion in revenue.

This is the most strategic project in the history of Iran’s oil and gas industry and its long-sought empowerment of domestic entities, under which 90 trillion cubic feet of gas and two billion barrels of gas condensates will be available for use.

Top Iranian companies Petropars, Oil Industries Engineering and Construction (OIEC), Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters, MAPNA Group, and a consulting company are the contractors of the megaproject.

They inked the contracts in Tehran on Sunday in a ceremony attended by Minister of Petroleum Javad Owji and National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Managing Director Mohsen Khojastehmehr.

The world’s biggest gas field is shared between Iran and Qatar which is also installing platforms to boost pressure in the field.

The massive project has created an opportunity to kickstart economic prosperity and employment in the face of sanctions. It has also allowed Iranian producers and companies to proactively engage in the economic growth and industrial development of the country and neutralize the sanctions.

Inattention to domestic companies in various sectors in the past and overreliance on foreign expertise and knowhow undermined their growth and expansion, but the accruing exponential costs on a macro level cascaded on the country which found itself in the lurch for the execution of major projects as foreign firms withdrew in the face of sanctions.

This is while the Iranian companies had always proven their mettle through shouldering grave responsibilities in the most difficult times from eight years of the war on Iran in the 1980s to unfair Western sanctions imposed intermittently since the Islamic Revolution in 1970.

If domestic companies are trusted and engaged in industrial projects, not only will it provide an opportunity to take advantage of their power, capacity and experience, but it will also protect and generate jobs and help achieve the high economic goals of the country.

Every project ceded to domestic companies means providing employment for a number of young people and professionals in the country. This is especially important in provinces such as Khuzestan, where employment does not match the capacities and facilities available in the region.

Therefore, supporting domestic companies – which, of course, does not mean financial support, but giving them a share in industrial projects – will have an irreplaceable effect in the country’s economic growth, job creation, national production jump, economic prosperity and neutralization of sanctions.

Domestic companies, if supported and trusted, can dispense us from the need to foreign firms and provide for their growth and expansion, enabling them to undertake projects overseas and win honor for the region.

While sanctions have forced the governing bodies to change their attitude towards domestic companies and entrust them with tasks which normally they would have not, it should be noted that Iranian producers are not perennial supporters of sanctions. Rather, they would like to interact and acquire world-class technologies from foreign companies to empower themselves.

In sum, many Iranian companies have the ability to produce the equipment needed for projects with the lowest cost and the highest quality and provide it to the applicants, provided that officials continue to put their trust in their capabilities both during the times of sanctions and in their absence.

March 11, 2024 Posted by | Economics | , , | Leave a comment

Iranian Court Seizes US-Owned Tanker to Compensate Sanctions Victims

By Ilya Tsukanov – Sputnik – 06.03.2024

The decision comes in the wake of a series of frivolous rulings by US courts over the past decade ordering the confiscation of frozen Iranian assets to pay American plaintiffs, including an outrageous 2018 decision requiring the Islamic Republic to pay $6 billion in compensation to families of 9/11 victims.

An Iranian court ordered the confiscation of a American-owned oil tanker on Wednesday on the basis of a complaint by Iranians suffering from a rare skin disease affected by crushing US sanctions.

The ship – the Advantage Sweet, a Marshall Islands-flagged crude tanker chartered by Chevron and carrying crude oil from Kuwait to Texas, was detained by Iranian Navy commandos in April of 2023, “in compliance with a confiscation order issued by Iranian judicial authorities,” after it collided with an Iranian fishing vessel in the Gulf of Oman and attempted to flee the scene.

Wednesday’s ruling was made after a group of Iranians suffering from Epidermolysis Bullosa – a painful skin condition resulting in easy blistering of the skin which can evoke skin cancer, appealed to a Tehran court to challenge US sanctions which blocked the export of life-saving medications and special medical bandages exported from Sweden.

Gothenburg-based medical device company Molnlycke Health Care was forced to stop selling its products to Iran in 2018, citing US sanctions unilaterally imposed by the Trump administration after Washington walked out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal. The Biden administration revived talks on US reentry into the agreement, but talks stalled after Joe Biden said he would be ready to “kill” the JCPOA to keep Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Washington’s “terror” listing.

The Fars News Agency confirmed Wednesday that the Advantage Sweet had been seized, and that Iran would be unloading about $50 million worth of crude oil from the vessel following the ruling.

Wednesday’s ruling comes following a series of US seizures of commercial ships carrying Iranian crude oil, including the move by US authorities last year to seize and unload a cargo of Iranian oil in Texas from the Suez Rajan, another Marshall Islands-flagged tanker, on grounds that it violated US sanctions by trying to ship Iranian oil to China. The tanker, renamed the St. Nikolas, was consequently seized by Iran in January in a tit-for-tat move while carrying 145,000 of crude oil from Iraq to Turkiye.

The ruling also follows a series of controversial lawsuits in US courts over the past decade ordering the Islamic Republic to pay for acts of terrorism it had nothing to do with, including the 1983 bombing of a US Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, and the 9/11 terror attacks.

In December, a Tehran court ordered the United States to pay nearly $50 billion in compensation for the 2020 assassination of IRGC Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani, with the award issued to over 3,300 plaintiffs for “material, moral and punitive damages” ruled to have been caused by Soleimani’s murder. The court held Donald Trump, former Secretary of Defense Mike Pompeo, US intelligence agencies including the NSA and the CIA, and 38 other individuals, organizations and entities responsible for the commander’s killing.

The US has shown no indication of plans to honor the Iranian court-ordered payout.

March 6, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Wars for Israel | , , , | Leave a comment

Iranian Navy Detains US Oil Tanker in Gulf of Oman

Press TV – January 11, 2024

The Navy of the Islamic Republic of Iran has announced the seizure of an American oil tanker with a court order in the Sea of Oman.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) identified the tanker Marshall Islands-flagged St Nikolas, saying it was boarded at about 7:30 am (0330 GMT) off Sohar in Oman and changed course towards Bandar-e-Jask in Iran.

Ambrey, a British maritime risk company, said the recently renamed tanker was previously prosecuted and fined for carrying Iranian oil, which was confiscated by US authorities.

“Iran has previously taken action against those it has accused of cooperating with the US,” it added.

The vessel had been loaded with 145,000 tonnes of crude oil in Basra, Iraq and was destined for Aliaga in Turkey via the Suez Canal, the tanker’s Greece-based management company Empire Navigation said.

Last August, the US Navy unloaded a tanker of stolen Iranian oil worth around $56 million off the Texas port, despite warnings from Iran and after American oil firms had resisted the temptation of touching the 800,000-barrel tanker for fear of Iranian retaliation in the Persian Gulf waters.

The decision came as Iran was marking the 70th anniversary of the CIA-engineered military coup against Iran’s then-PM Mohammad Mosaddeq.

The Marshall Islands-flagged Suez Rajan tanker carrying Iranian oil was illegally seized by Washington in April 2023 under the guise of “a sanctions-enforcement operation” and guided toward the Texas port.

It came days after a group of US senators and House representatives, at the behest of the Israeli lobby in Washington, began mounting pressure on the Joe Biden administration to unload the tanker, without considering its possible repercussions.

It was not the first time the US had resorted to the unconventional step of seizing a sovereign country’s cargo in international waters.

In May 2022, the US seized a Russia-operated ship, the Pegas, carrying Iranian oil off the shore of Karystos near Greece to dispatch the oil cargo to the US but the Greek court ruled against the move.

In February 2021, Washington seized a tanker carrying Iranian oil off the coast of the Emirati city of Fujairah and sold more than a million barrels of oil confiscated from it for $110 million, or $55 a barrel.

The Unite States has also regularly stolen Syrian oil in recent years under the guise of anti-terror operations in the Arab country. In August 2022, the Syrian oil ministry accused the US and its mercenaries of stealing 66,000 barrels of oil per day, accounting for almost 80 percent of the country’s oil production.

January 11, 2024 Posted by | Wars for Israel | , , , | Leave a comment

Russia Receives Proposals From US on Arms Control

By Oleg Burunov – Sputnik – 25.10.2023

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov touched upon a spate of pressing issues, including US arms control proposals, Moscow-Tehran cooperation and prisoner exchange.

Russia has received proposals on strategic stability and arms control from the United States that are currently being studied, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told a news briefing earlier in the day.

According to him, there are no new elements in these proposals and Moscow will respond to Washington in due time.

Ryabkov added that the US is “proposing to discuss strategic stability and arms control on a systematic basis” and “in isolation from current events”. The Russian diplomat stressed that Moscow is “not willing to do that.”

“We believe that a return to the dialogue on strategic stability, including the issue of strategic offensive weapons and other issues, is simply impossible in its previous form without a change in the fundamentally hostile attitude of the United States towards Russia,” Ryabkov pointed out.

Russia-Iran Cooperation

Separately, Ryabkov touched on Iran-related issues, saying Russia intends to use the lifting of UN Security Council restrictions on the Islamic Republic’s missile program to develop cooperation.

“We will continue to develop our cooperation on a mutually beneficial basis in full accordance with international obligations and existing regimes in this area. Now, after the expiration of some restrictive provisions of [UN] Resolution 2231, there are fewer such restrictive regimes. Of course, we will take advantage of this, and this should not raise any questions for anyone,” he told reporters.

Moscow cooperates with Iran within a strictly legal framework, the Russian diplomat said, adding that the Kremlin foresees all politicized attempts to prevent this and will try to stop them.

Prisoner Exchange

In addition, Ryabkov commented on a recent statement by the US State Department by saying that the Russian Foreign Ministry had not received any additional proposals from the US on the exchange of prisoners through its channels.

Ryabkov was referring to Washington’s “serious proposal” to Moscow for the release of former US Marine Paul Whelan, who is serving a prison sentence in Russia for espionage.
“The issues of prisoner exchange, or rather, the issues of release of Russian citizens who, in the vast majority of cases, have received long sentences on unjust verdicts and false charges, are being discussed through the special services. The Russian Foreign Ministry has not recently received through its channels any additional ideas or proposals in this regard from the American side,” Ryabkov stated.

“If such proposals are received, they will be forwarded to those involved in the distribution of responsibilities on this issue so that the proposals can be considered. At the moment, there is no news or updates on this issue,” the Russian diplomat added.

Russian authorities charged Whelan with espionage and arrested him in December 2018, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison by a Moscow court. Whelan, who is a citizen of Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, has maintained his innocence, claiming that he came to Russia for a friend’s wedding.

October 25, 2023 Posted by | Militarism | , , , | 2 Comments

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