Free Republic

Iran rejected on Sunday an invitation from global powers who signed the 2015 nuclear deal to discuss the regime’s potential return to the negotiating table, a significant setback in the Biden administration’s efforts to revive the agreement. The Biden administration has previously said that it wants to revive the nuclear deal but won’t suspend sanctions until Tehran comes back into compliance. Tehran has refused to negotiate while U.S. sanctions remain in place. The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), brokered by the Obama administration, lifted sanctions on Iran that had crippled its economy and cut its oil exports roughly...

A major crisis was narrowly averted Sunday over Iran's nuclear facilities and the planned booting of IAEA inspectors from key sites, scheduled according to a prior Iranian parliament decision for Feb.21. Tehran reached a last-minute agreement with the UN nuclear watchdog, now being described as a temporary "technical understanding" to keep the inspections going for another three months.According to the agreement, the IAEA will no longer conduct last-minute "snap inspections" after Tehran argued that it shouldn't be subject to such after the US tore up the deal under Trump. IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi said Sunday that "This is not a...

With Joe Biden in the White House, the mullah-led Iranian regime is pressuring the U.S. to provide "compensation" for the "damage" from sanctions imposed by the Trump administration. Iran also wants to leverage its nuclear accomplishments and gain additional ones, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) MEMRI sai Iran wants to be "recognized as a nuclear threshold state with the ability to produce a nuclear bomb within a short time, in order to move towards a nuclear balance of terror in the Middle East, to block European initiatives to include the issue of Iran's ballistic missile development...

Newly filed lobbying records show Venezuela’s socialist government previously hired a longtime Democratic Party donor for $6 million at the same time it was lobbying to discourage the U.S. from imposing sanctions on the oil-rich nation. The documents, which were disclosed Thursday, show a U.S. subsidiary of Venezuela’s state oil giant PDVSA agreed to hire Marcia Wiss’ Washington law firm in March 2017. That’s the same month it signed a consulting deal for $50 million with scandal-tainted former Congressman David Rivera. Wiss, an international trade lawyer with a history of donations to the Democratic Party, including a $1,500 contribution to...

The State Department is warning of the potential for "civil and political unrest in Burma" following the dramatic military takeover of the country and arrest of its civilian leadership Monday. This as all international travel has been halted, and various communications including internet were cut to the capital. The Biden administration has now formally declared it as a coup d'état, which means Washington is required by law to cut off all foreign assistance to the southeast Asian country. It further announced that targeted action will be taken "against those responsible" for the arrests and continued detention of the elected civilian...

The Trump administration plans to return Cuba to the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, a person familiar with the matter said on Monday, a move that could complicate any efforts by the incoming Biden administration to revive Obama-era detente with Havana. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who could announce Cuba's designation as soon as Monday with just nine days left in office for President Donald Trump, is expected to tie the decision to Cuba's long-time harboring of U.S. fugitives as well as Colombian rebel leaders, the source said.

Power struggle at the head of the ruling regime in Iran Since the Iranian revolution in 1979, understanding the structure of the ruling system in Iran and the decision-making mechanism, at times, has sometimes been challenging and difficult to understand and analyze. Although the "Vali-Faghih or the Supreme Leader" is at the top of the system's pyramid of power, the president holds the executive power. Still, the order of decision-making institutions in Iran is not clear, and this has long led to a dispute over authority between leaders of the regime who are at the center of its influence and...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — During reporter questions after his Monday COVID-19 briefing, Gov. Gavin Newsom warned against trying to cut in line for a coronavirus vaccine. Newsom said health care providers who violate the vaccine priority guidelines will be sanctioned and that the state will be putting out details soon on how the COVID-19 vaccine hierarchy will be enforced in California.

Days ago into last week there were widespread rumors spreading on Mideast social media of the severe health decline of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The persistent rumors ranged from saying he was in a coma even to some claiming his death.But Khamenei put the unfounded speculation to rest after on Wednesday morning he appeared at an event marking the first anniversary of the death of IRGC Quds Force General Qassem Soleimani. He hasn't made a public appearance in three weeks.But more importantly he emerged to give final high level backing to prior statements of Iranian leaders, most notably President...

(Firewall) LONDON—Iran has circumvented U.S. sanctions and exported more oil to China and other countries in recent months, providing a lifeline for its struggling economy and undermining the Trump administration’s so-called maximum pressure campaign against Tehran. The scale of Iran’s petroleum sales is difficult to gauge, given their often covert nature. Several firms that monitor the global oil trade say shipments from Iran have roughly doubled from the low levels seen earlier this year, although estimates vary widely. On the high end, U.S.-based TankerTrackers.com, which uses satellite imagery to follow deliveries, estimated Iranian crude oil exports hit 1.2 million barrels...

Ana Nuñez, a 62-year-old retired municipal worker in western Venezuela, says her meals often consist of just a few corn-flour pancakes, known as arepas. Even when she has money to buy groceries in the city of Maracaibo’s teeming flea market, she said that “instead of quality food they sell garbage, like animal hides and rotten cheese.” A widespread scarcity of gasoline is the latest blow to domestic food production in Venezuela, preventing goods from getting to market and farmers from filling up their tractors. Food production in this oil-rich nation, led by its socialist president, Nicolas Maduro, had already been...

The annual conference is hosted by Great Wall Club (GWC), a group comprised of executives from Chinese companies such as Tencent and their Silicon Valley counterparts. This collaboration, however, poses a national security threat and runs the risk of intellectual property theft and espionage per the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Tencent, for example, has been characterized by the U.S. State Department as a “tool of the Chinese government” with “no meaningful ability to tell the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ‘no’ if officials decide to ask for their assistance,”and is among the bevy of Chinese companies banned or on track...

Two senators and two prominent rights advocates are calling on the Canadian government to apply Magnitsky sanctions against Chinese officials for forced organ harvesting and other human rights atrocities in China.Conservative senators Thanh Hai Ngo and Leo Housakos, along with former Liberal cabinet minister David Kilgour and prominent rights lawyer David Matas, sent a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urging Magnitsky sanctions to help end the “gruesome and systematic forced organ harvesting perpetrated by China” that is “longstanding, substantial and has been taking place on a large scale.” The letter notes the groups most targeted for illegal organ...

Essentra FZE Company Limited (Essentra FZE), a global supplier of cigarette products that is incorporated in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has agreed to pay a $665,112 fine and enter into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department for conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and defrauding the United States in connection with evading sanctions on North Korea.  Today’s public filing against Essentra FZE is the first ever Department of Justice corporate enforcement action for violations of these regulations.  Essentra FZE has also entered into a settlement agreement with the Treasury Department’s Office of...

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on Monday sanctioned four American officials and a U.S. entity, days after the U.S. punished CCP officials linked to the persecution of Muslim minorities in China. Chinese officials said they were sanctioning Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), and Sam Brownback, the ambassador at large for international religious freedom. The U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China was also included. “The Communist Party of #China has banned me from entering the country. I guess they don’t like me?” Rubio said in a social media statement. Smith, Cruz, and Brownback didn’t immediately...

AFP/File Photo: The UN-appointed panel probing the scandal-tainted oil-for-food program for Iraq, headed by Paul Volcker, seen... Slideshow: Oil-for-Food Corruption Probe Video AP Video By NICK WADHAMS and EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writers 39 minutes ago NEW YORK - A formerUnited Nations procurement officer pleaded guilty Monday to soliciting a bribe under the oil-for-food program, making him the first U.N. official to face criminal charges in connection with the scandal-tainted operation. Alexander Yakovlev, a Russian, also pleaded guilty in federal court to charges of wire fraud and money laundering for accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes...

The United States warned further measures were on the table to revoke its preferential treatment for Hong Kong, as Beijing imposed a controversial national security law on the city... The sweeping law would heighten the risk that sensitive US tech exports to the city – including metal alloys, high-powered computers and lasers – would be diverted for use by the Chinese military or the Chinese Ministry of State Security, Ross said... The US was Hong Kong’s second-largest trading partner in 2019, with trade worth HK$516 billion (US$67 billion), official data showed... “Further actions to eliminate differential treatment are also being...

China said Tuesday it will retaliate after the U.S. announced it was ending the export of sensitive military items to Hong Kong in response to Beijing imposing a controversial national security law on the semi-autonomous city. China's rubber-stamp parliament formally passed the sweeping law for Hong Kong on Tuesday, which critics and many western governments fear will smother the global financial hub's freedoms and hollow out its autonomy... The State Department will end the export of all items on its controlled list to Hong Kong, which includes products ranging from advanced ammunition to military hardware that already require approval from...

Syria devalued its currency by 44% on Wednesday, announcing a new official exchange rate for the pound amid chaos in the market, hours before new U.S. sanctions aimed at cutting off revenue for Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government took effect. The sanctions, known as the U.S. Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, are the toughest set of measures to be imposed on Syria yet, preventing anyone around the world from doing business with Syrian officials or state institutions or from participating in the country’s reconstruction... Syria’s already troubled economy has sharply deteriorated, prices have soared and the national currency, the Syrian...

The Chinese Communist Party has threatened that American politicians seeking to hold China accountable for the coronavirus pandemic will face “severe consequences,” including targeted economic sanctions. An article in the Communist Party’s propaganda outlet, the Global Times, names many Republicans by name, including Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), and Rick Scott (R-Fla.), along with Reps. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) and Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas). It also names the attorneys general of Missouri and Mississippi, the two states that filed lawsuits against China.