Sanctions must be just, and must not lead to the suffering of innocent people, says United Nations Special Rapporteur Idriss Jazairy.
“The reimposition of sanctions against Iran after the unilateral withdrawal of the United States from the Iran nuclear deal, which had been unanimously adopted by the Security Council with the support of the US itself, lays bare the illegitimacy of this action,” Mr. Jazairy observed.

“This illegitimacy was confirmed by the opposition of all other permanent members of the Security Council and indeed of all international partners. The UN Charter calls for sanctions to be applied only by the UN Security Council precisely to ensure such wanton attacks on nations are avoided.

“International sanctions must have a lawful purpose, must be proportional, and must not harm the human rights of ordinary citizens, and none of these criteria is met in this case,” the UN expert stressed. ››read more

But now, with the return of the US sanctions in the wake of Washington's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, Morsadegh and his hospital staff are facing the dilemma of how to take care of their most vulnerable patients. Just like other hospitals across Iran, Dr Sapir Hospital's access to imported medications for life-threatening conditions has turned precarious. Although medicines from abroad are not covered in the first round of US sanctions that was announced earlier in August, the effect is the same as bank payments from Iran for these drugs are now blocked. As a result, the disruption could have life-and-death consequences on ailing Iranians. ››read more

Iran is still allowing intrusive International Atomic Energy Agency inspections while keeping its nuclear capacity and material below thresholds allowed under the July 2015 deal, inspectors wrote Thursday in a six-page restricted report seen by Bloomberg News. Publication of the report coincides with European Union consultations about the deal, which was jettisoned by President Donald Trump in May. The IAEA conducted snap inspections “to all the sites and locations in Iran which it needed to visit,” read the report, which will be released when the IAEA’s board meets in September. “The agency continues to verify the non-diversion of declared nuclear material at the nuclear facilities and locations outside facilities where nuclear material is customarily used.” ››read more

Yet, in defiance of Trump's warning, the European Union responded to the Iran sanctions on Tuesday by calling on companies to disregard threats from Washington. "If there is one piece of international agreements on nuclear non-proliferation that is delivering, it has to be maintained. We are encouraging small and medium enterprises, in particular, to increase business with and in Iran as part of something (that) for us is a security priority," Federica Mogherini, the EU's foreign policy chief, said Tuesday. ››read more

Another tripartite aggression based on pretexts and plotting appears imminent, this time involving the US, UK and France ››read more

France and Germany are seeking to develop an independent European financing mechanism with the aim of sidestepping US sanctions against countries, including Iran, and asserting the continent’s “sovereignty.”

Speaking at a meeting with press association AJEF on Monday, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Paris and Berlin are making joint efforts to develop either a European or a Franco-German financing system. ››read more

The ICJ is expected to take a couple of months to decide whether to grant Tehran’s request for a provisional ruling, while a final decision in the case could actually take years. International sanctions against Iran were lifted in 2015 when it a struck a landmark accord with the US, Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia, agreeing to rein its nuclear ambitions. ››read more

Iran has filed a lawsuit at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) seeking a court order to lift US sanctions against them. The sanctions were imposed in recent weeks as part of the US withdrawing from the P5+1 nuclear deal, and subsequently trying to reimpose nuclear sanctions on the Iranians. ››read more

The pernicious role of neocon think tanks in influencing US foreign policy is no laughing matter.

In fact, the growing influence of these think tanks bespeaks the pushing back of the frontiers of democracy in the land of the free. With their sources of funding often concealed, they exist as the epitome of what President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned against in his chilling 1961 'military industrial complex' speech:

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex… We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes." ››read more

BEIJING/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Chinese buyers of Iranian oil are starting to shift their cargoes to vessels owned by National Iranian Tanker Co (NITC) for nearly all of their imports to keep supply flowing amid the re-imposition of economic sanctions by the United States.

The shift demonstrates that China, Iran’s biggest oil customer, wants to keep buying Iranian crude despite the sanctions, which were put back after the United States withdrew in May from a 2015 agreement to halt Iran’s nuclear program. ››read more

ZarifIranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif said on Sunday that a new Iran Action Group in the U.S. State Department aimed to overthrow the Islamic Republic, but would fail.
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MossadeghA previously excised section of an internal CIA history titled “The Battle for Iran“ released in 2013, reads: “The military coup that overthrew Mosaddeq and his National Front cabinet was carried out under CIA direction as an act of U.S. foreign policy, conceived and approved at the highest levels of government.” The documents, published on the agency’s archival website under freedom of information protocols, describe in detail how the United States — with British help — engineered the coup, codenamed TPAJAX by the CIA and Operation Boot by Britain’s MI6. ››read more

CIAThe creation of the Iran Action Group formalizes an Iran policy that inflicts cruel collective punishment on the Iranian people while pretending to care about their welfare. Pompeo’s announcement happened to fall on the 65th anniversary of the 1953 U.S.-backed coup. The administration’s Iran policy reflects the same contempt for Iran and its people that our government showed then. ››read more

Many observers believe that Trump is reaching back to his North Korean playbook in engaging in the current hostile exchange with Iran. Iran, however, is not North Korea.

What follows are major reasons why Trump is wrong if he thinks Iran will accede to his demands that it renegotiate a nuclear agreement with the United States to replace the JCPOA. ››read more

Mogherini“If there is one piece of international agreements on nuclear non-proliferation that is delivering, it has to be maintained. We are encouraging small and medium enterprises in particular to increase business with and in Iran as part of something [that] for us is a security priority.” ››read more

Research on sanctions by myself and others has shown that they can sometimes be effective. But there are three key elements: allies, a willingness to enforce them and incentives to bargain. The absence of all three means they probably won’t work with Russia and Iran. ››read more

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has said that the world is "sick & tired" Washington's unilateralism in response to a tweet by US President Donald Trump warning other countries against doing business with Tehran.

"Tantrums & CAPPED TWEETS won't change the fact that the world is sick & tired of US unilateralism. Stopping US trade and killing 100K US jobs is fine with us, but the world won't follow impulsive tweeted diktats. Just ask EU, Russia, China & dozens of our other trading partners," tweeted Zarif on Tuesday. ››read more

Speaking on state TV, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif warned that President Trump, along with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamain Netanyahu are isolating themselves with their push for hostility toward Iran.

“The world has distanced itself from their hostile policies,” Zarif said, adding that they “have become the symbol of mistrust in the world.” President Trump withdrew the US from the Iran nuclear deal earlier this year, and began reimposing sanctions on Iran Monday. ››read more

Companies told to ignore White House demands to drop all business with Iran ››read more

ChinaThe oil market has been speculating about how much of Iran’s exports could be eroded by the U.S. sanctions, with analysts from BMI Research to Mizuho Securities predicting that China might boost its imports of cheap supplies from the state and offset cuts by other nations. Countries including South Korea and Japan are reducing purchases from OPEC’s third-largest producer before the deadline to avoid the risk of buyers losing access to the U.S. financial system. China -- the world’s top crude buyer and Iran’s No. 1 customer -- has said previously that it opposed unilateral sanctions and lifted monthly oil imports from the country by 26 percent in July. It accounted for 35 percent the Iranian exports last month, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. ››read more