Free Republic

Tehran and Baghdad have reached an agreement on a plan to export oil from Kirkuk in northern Iraq to Iran... Until recently, all oil from the fields around Kirkuk was shipped to the Turkish port of Ceyhan via a pipeline owned and operated by the Kurdistan Regional Government. ...With the Kurdistan autonomous region heavily dependent on oil revenues, chances are the government will seek to come to a mutually beneficial agreement with the central government in Baghdad.

A Ukrainian political leader said she received assurances from President Donald Trump that he would look out for Ukraine in its ongoing dispute with Russia, according to people briefed in the aftermath of a quick, informal conversation between the two political figures. Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko had a momentary meeting with Trump just before he spoke to the National Prayer Breakfast at the Washington Hilton on Thursday. Tymoshenko and a group of supporters who traveled with her from Kiev this week quickly relayed word of the exchange, telling allies in Washington that Trump had said he would not abandon...

U.S. prosecutors last month charged a former Turkish economy minister and the ex-head of a state-owned bank with conspiring to violate Iran sanctions by illegally moving hundreds of millions of dollars through the U.S. financial system on Tehran’s behalf.

With its coffers empty and its financial moves restricted by U.S. sanctions, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government is facing a nightmarish scenario with the approach of Halloween, when a series of debt payments totaling more than $3.5 billion are due. Analysts said the government will do everything possible to make the payments, even if it means further cuts in already reduced food imports, which would deepen shortages in a country where a majority of people cannot get three meals a day. But a default cannot be ruled out because of the precarious state of the country’s finances, the low level...

Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.) slammed the Trump administration on Wednesday for missing a key deadline in implementing sanctions against Russia. “The delay calls into question the Trump administration’s commitment to the sanctions bill which was signed into law more than two months ago, following months of public debate and negotiations in Congress. They’ve had plenty of time to get their act together," the pair said in a joint statement on Wednesday. By Oct. 1, the McCain and Cardin-penned sanctions bill required the administration clarify which targets would be identified and punished as part of Russia's defense...

Hosting Proms and Selling Cows: North Korean Embassies Scrounge for Cash By DAVID SEGAL OCT. 7, 2017 SOFIA, Bulgaria — While the embassies of most countries promote the interests of companies back home, North Korea’s are in business for themselves. A series of tough sanctions by the United Nations and an executive order recently signed by President Trump have sought to economically isolate the nuclear-armed regime of Kim Jong-un. But Pyongyang has held on to an array of profit-making ventures, some of which operate in the roughly 40 embassies of the hermit kingdom. Many of these enterprises are hard to...

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro called on his nation's military leaders Tuesday to prepare for war against the U.S. days after the Trump administration banned Venezuelan officials from entering the nation. "We have been shamelessly threatened by the most criminal empire that ever existed and we have the obligation to prepare ourselves to guarantee peace," said Maduro, who wore a green uniform and a military hat as he spoke with his army top brass during a military exercise involving tanks and missiles. "We need to have rifles, missiles and well-oiled tanks at the ready....to defend every inch of the territory if...

5 things to know about Trump's new North Korea sanctions BY JONATHAN EASLEY AND REBECCA KHEEL - 09/21/17 05:45 PM EDT /snip “Foreign financial institutions are now on notice that, going forward, they can choose to do business with the United States, or with North Korea, but not both,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters at a briefing on the sanctions. The executive order does that by giving the Treasury Department the authority to suspend U.S. correspondent account access to any foreign bank that knowingly conducts or facilitates significant transactions tied to trade with North Korea. /snip In another move...

President Trump may be maneuvering towards a position that uses the threat of restoring sanctions, and imposing new secondary sanctions on firms doing business with certain individuals and entities in Iran. President Trump used his address to the United Nations General Assembly on September 19th to lash out at Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). He called it an “embarrassment” and “one of the worst and one-sided transactions the U.S. has ever entered into,” warning the General Assembly that “you haven’t heard the last on it, believe me.” President Trump said...

Lebanese and Syrian media report Israeli aerial attacks early Friday on targets near Damascus airport. Explosions were heard coming from the airport.....

Han Tae-song, Pyongyang's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, took advantage of a hearing by a U.N. committee on children to whine about how sanctions "seriously threaten" the health and well-being of North Korea's children. What's ironic about the ambassador's warning is that the hearing he was testifying at was held to look into independent allegations of forced child labor, sexual abuse, and trafficking in North Korea. Reuters: Han said North Korea, whose population is 26 million, is a "people-centered socialist country... where protection and promotion of the rights and welfare of the child are given top priority ......

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday designed to choke North Korea's economy by penalizing nations that trade with the communist dictatorship. The order enables the Treasury Department to ramp up punishing sanctions in an effort to dissuade Pyongyang from pursuing its nuclear missile program. 'Our new executive order will cut off sources of revenue that fund North Korea's efforts to develop the deadliest weapons known to humankind,' the president told reporters ahead of a luncheon meeting with the leaders of Japan and South Korea. Trump warned that Pyongyang's textiles, fishing, information technology and manufacturing industries were potential...

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has called Donald Trump “the new Hitler” of international politics, responding to the US President’s call for world leaders to help ‘restore’ democracy in the South American country, reported The Independent. Mr Trump had used a portion of his stark address to the United Nations General Assembly to single out Mr Maduro’s regime, which the US leader has called a “dictatorship”. “The magnate thinks he is the owner of the world, but no one threatens Venezuela,” said Mr Maduro, who did not attend the annual gathering of world leaders and diplomats. Mr Maduro also accused Mr...

The Department of Homeland Security announced that the US would impose sanctions on 4 countries for not accepting their nationals who have been deported from the United States. Cambodia, Eritrea, Guinea, and Sierra Leone will not be allowed to issue visas for various classes of individuals. The sanctions had been discussed for several months as the US is at odds with several countries over returning their nationals who entered the country illegally.  Fox News: “International law obligates each country to accept the return of its nationals ordered removed from the United States,” Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke...

The United Nations Security Council on Monday voted unanimously to pass its strongest sanctions yet on North Korea following its sixth ever successful nuclear missile launch and claims that the country now has a Hydrogen bomb it can place on an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). The sanctions, while watered down from original drafts, fully ban the country’s textile exports and reduce its oil and petroleum exports. This means about 90 percent of North Korea’s exports are now banned, as well as a complete ban on the country’s overseas laborers that provide nearly $500 million in revenue. Additionally, all foreign investment...

Russian smugglers are scurrying to the aid of North Korea with shipments of petroleum and other vital supplies that could help that country weather harsh new economic sanctions, U.S. officials say in an assessment that casts further doubt on whether financial measures alone can force dictator Kim Jong Un to abandon his nuclear weapons program. The spike in Russian exports is occurring as China — by far North Korea’s biggest trading partner — is beginning to dramatically ratchet up the economic pressure on its troublesome neighbor in the face of provocative behavior such as last week’s test of a powerful...

The resolution is designed to accomplish six major goals: cap North Korea’s oil imports, ban textile exports, end additional overseas laborer contracts, suppress smuggling efforts, stop joint ventures with other nations and sanction designated North Korean government entities, according to a US official familiar with negotiations. ... The Reuters news agency reported Monday that the sanctions had been softened to appease China and Russia, citing diplomats. Ahead of the vote, North Korea warned the United States that it would pay a “due price” if harsh sanctions were passed by the Security Council. North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement...

U.N. Security Council Meeting on North Korea The U.N. Security Council meets to consider additional sanctions against North Korea over its ongoing testing of its nuclear program.

To Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro, the harsh economic sanctions, coupled with Trump's threat to use force, sounded like a bid for regime change. But it's a longer and more complex process, say analysts. WASHINGTON—The Trump administration slapped tough sanctions on Venezuela last month that for the first time aimed to restrict the teetering southern neighbor’s access to international financial lifelines. And it raised a smoldering question: Is the United States gunning for regime change? For some – including embattled Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro – any doubts as to the answer were erased by President Trump himself. He punctuated the sanctions...

The US envoy to the UN has urged the Security Council to take the "strongest possible measures" against North Korea after its latest nuclear test. "The time has come to exhaust all diplomatic means before it is too late," Nikki Haley told an emergency meeting of the council in New York. She also warned countries which did business with the North that they were aiding their nuclear ambitions. Reports suggest the North is preparing new test missile launches. Ms. Haley said North Korean leader Kim Jong-in had shown through his actions that he was "begging for war"....