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Germany is leading the charge to rescue the Iran deal and the economic inroads German and European companies have made into the restricted economy since 2016. EU leaders are keen to salvage the deal shaped by Obama’s administration after President Trump on May 12th pulled the US out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The deal, in which Iran committed to denuclearize in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions, was signed by Iran, the US and the international community in 2015. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and a host of other EU leaders have...

European Union Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker announced Thursday that the bloc plans to reactivate a law that would seek to block European companies from complying with any sanctions the US would reintroduce against Iran. Juncker’s announcement came during the second day of an EU meeting in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, which had already been marked by sharp criticism from European leaders over American President Donald Trump’s decision to pull the US out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. […] German-headquartered insurance firm Allianz and Danish shopping company Maersk have already said they plan to close operations in Iran in order...

Danish shipping group Maersk Tankers on Thursday said it would cease its activities in Iran due to the US decision to leave a landmark nuclear deal and reimpose sanctions against Tehran. Maersk Tankers would honour customer agreements entered into before May 8th, but then wind them down by November 4th, "as required by the reimposed US sanctions," the company told AFP. The group said it "has been transporting cargoes for customers in and out of Iran on a limited basis," without providing precise figures for its activities.

Two European Parliament lawmakers from Ireland on Sunday expressed support for boycotting Israel following its winning the Eurovision song contest, JTA reported. Lynn Boylan of Ireland’s far-left Sinn Féin party wrote on Twitter following Saturday’s win, “Israel wins Eurovision so let’s make BDS more successful than ever in 2019.” Nessa Childers, another Irish lawmaker for the Party of European Socialists, retweeted Boylan’s message, adding the word: “This!” She later wrote: “Jerusalem? The mind boggles. I thought Tel Aviv.” Órla Nic Biorna, a regional lawmaker for Sinn Féin, an Irish nationalist movement that was affiliated with the now-defunct Provisional Irish Republican...

The United States on Monday blocked the adoption of a UN Security Council statement that would have called for an independent probe of deadly violence on the Israel-Gaza border, diplomats said, according to an AFP report. "The Security Council expresses its outrage and sorrow at the killing of Palestinian civilians exercising their right to peaceful protest," read a draft of the statement, a copy of which was seen by the news agency.

One in five Germans would like to see the monarchy restored, according to a survey released on Thursday. Young Germans were even keener on replacing the president with a new Kaiser. … Despite swelling support among the young, most Germans still oppose the idea. 51 percent of all respondents said that having a king or queen would cost too much money. Sixty nine percent said they were completely against the idea. …

Preparations are underway for the grand opening of the new United States embassy to Israel in Jerusalem. While the President won’t be able to attend as he prepares for his summit with North Korea, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump have arrived to do the honors along with a number of other delegates. But not everyone is quite so thrilled with this development, particularly in some parts of the European Union. They were preparing to put forward a resolution condemning the embassy move, delivering a statement which was explicitly designed to “embarrass and isolate the Trump administration” ahead of the ceremony....

No-go zones are growing rapidly in the suburbs of all of France's main cities. Shanty towns built by illegal migrants from Africa and the Middle East have sprung up in parts of Marseilles and Paris in the last few years. Islamization is everywhere. In hundreds of mosques, imams deliver fiery anti-Western speeches. Churches are vandalized. The number of rapes is rapidly increasing. Groups of veiled women roam the streets and insult the "immodest", unveiled, women. Macron's most important project since he was elected has been the creation of new Islamic institutions destined to adapt France to Islam -- not to...

The man behind a deadly knife attack in central Paris was born in Chechnya and had been on police radar for radicalism, and his parents have been detained for questioning, French authorities said Sunday. Counterterrorism investigators are working to determine whether the man who stabbed five people in a busy neighborhood in the heart of the French capital Saturday night had any help. The attacker killed a 29-year-old man and wounded four others, before being shot by police. Among the injured was a 34-year-old man from Luxembourg, the foreign ministry of the small country north of France said in a...

The person who stabbed five people in Paris on Saturday night, killing one, yelled the Arabic phrase "Allahu Akbar," meaning "God is great," during the attack, city prosecutor François Molins told reporters at the scene. Four people were wounded during the Saturday night knife attack in the touristy 2nd arrondissement, or district, of Paris. Two of the victims were gravely wounded and two others were lightly injured, police said The attacker, who French President Emmanuel Macron called a terrorist, is dead, according to police. The media wing of ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement published online. The...

One unintended consequence of Donald Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of the Iran nuclear agreement has been to bring Germany and Russia together again. German-Russian relations had soured because of alleged Russian cyberattacks and the Kremlin’s annexation of Crimea. But the US President’s hardline policy on around the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) for Iran has intensified the search for common ground in Berlin and Moscow. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is scheduled to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi on May 18, and on Friday morning the two spoke on the telephone. “The importance of...

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas says Berlin is set to change its policy towards the US after Washington’s walkout on the Iran nuclear deal. In the comments published by the German Spiegel magazine on Friday, Maas addressed the diplomatic crisis that saw Donald Trump ignore the appeals of the USA’s European allies to keep the deal in place. While Germany intends to continue seeking cooperation with the US, Maas said his country would take a tougher stance towards Washington.“We are prepared to talk, negotiate and also fight for our interests where necessary,” Maas told Spiegel. “This goes for all levels,...

Leading politicians in Denmark were broadly critical of the announcement on Tuesday by President Donald Trump that the United States would violate the Iran nuclear deal. In a statement at the White House on Tuesday, Trump said the US would “exit the Iran deal” agreed with other major powers in 2015, and warned that “any nation that helps Iran in its quest for nuclear weapons could be strongly sanctioned”. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran nuclear deal, was agreed in 2015 between Iran, the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus...

EU leaders expressed concern on Friday about the rise of populism within the bloc, fueled by the migrant crisis, as Italy came a step closer to forming its first anti-establishment government. “Being a good Italian also means being a good European citizen. It needs to be repeated out loud, especially now,” EU parliament head Antonio Tajani said at the State of the Union conference in the Tuscan city of Florence. Italy’s populist Five Star Movement and far-right League party are currently locked in negotiations to form a coalition to lead the country. Should they succeed, the new government would represent...

Two former Obama administration officials suggested in a New York Times op-ed published Thursday that European countries allied with the United States could expel American ambassadors in retaliation for President Donald Trump withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal. "Europe Doesn't Have to Be Trump's Doormat," wrote Steven Simon and Jonathan Stevenson. Simon served as the National Security Council's senior director for the Middle East and North Africa, while Stevenson served as the regional director for political-military affairs. "After months of swaggering hesitation, President Trump finally announced the United States' withdrawal from the nuclear deal with Iran, to which Britain, France,...

France’s President Emmanuel Macron urged Germany to take on the mantle as a leading force reforming Europe at a “historic moment” for the bloc, hours before he was due to receive a key award Thursday for his efforts in boosting EU cohesion. With Berlin so far proving resistant to his flagship reform proposals for the European Union such as a common finance minister or budget, Macron stressed the importance for the bloc to speak with one voice. At a time when the United States is going its own way in ditching the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate accord,...

National crime figures released on Tuesday show that crime dropped significantly last year, but attacks on emergency service workers is one of several types of crime on the rise. Last year, the authorities recorded 5.76 million crimes — the lowest number since 1992 — and in relation to the population, the recorded crime rate is lower than at any point in the past 30 years, the Interior Ministry announced in Berlin on Tuesday. For every 100,000 inhabitants, less than 7,000 crimes were recorded last year. “Germany has become safer, but there is no reason to sound the all-clear,” Interior Minister...

French President Emmanuel Macron warned on Sunday that war could ensue if U.S. President Donald Trump withdraws from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, Reuters reported. “We would open the Pandora’s box. There could be war,” Macron was quoted as having told German weekly magazine Der Spiegel. At the same time he added, “I don’t think that Donald Trump wants war.” Trump has imposed a May 12 deadline to reimpose sanctions on Iran unless the flaws in the existing agreement are fixed. …

After a large group of migrants aggressively tried to prevent the deportation of a Togolese man this week, right-wing politicians called for mass deportations. But a senior Christian Democrat (CDU) figure said on Friday that deportations can have a bad impact on families. “Deportations often hit the wrong people — families who have lived in Germany for an eternity and who are well integrated,” Daniel Günther, the Minister-President of Schleswig-Holstein told the Funke Media Group. Günther, who is a key figure in Angela Merkel’s CDU made the comments in reaction to calls for more deportations of migrants after ugly scenes...

BERLIN - Police raided a migrant shelter in southern Germany on Thursday three days after officers clashed with residents over the deportation of an asylum seeker from Togo. The unrest at the shelter in the southern town of Ellwangen has been seized upon by politicians from across the spectrum to highlight the difficulties Germany faces in integrating the more than 1.6 million migrants who have arrived since 2014 and that the influx poses a security risk. Police said it arrested a handful of individuals suspected of drugs offences during Thursday’s raid and moved 17 residents of the hostel, home to...