Washington: The US has slapped new sanctions on Iran for the third time in a week, targetting the country's already-devalued currency and automobile industry, as it pressured Tehran to abandon its nuclear programme.
This is the first time the US has directly targeted the Iranian currency as the sanctions include penalties on anyone facilitating "significant" transactions in the rial or holding significant amounts of the currency outside Iran.
The fresh actions, contained in an executive order effective July 1, were issued by President Barack Obama. This is the ninth set of sanctions that the Obama administration has imposed against Iran.
Last week, the US blacklisted companies in Iran's petrochemical industry for the first time and issued sanctions against more than 50 Iranian officials for what it called their efforts to stifle political dissent in Iran....
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12:16 PM, Jun 04, 2013
Almaty: World powers and Iran failed again to ease their decade-old dispute over Tehran's disputed nuclear programme in talks that ended on Saturday, prolonging a stand-off that risks spiralling into a new Middle East war. The lack of a breakthrough in the two-day meeting in Kazakhstan aimed at easing international concern over Iran's contested nuclear activity marked a further setback for diplomatic efforts to resolve the row peacefully. It is...
06:45 AM, Apr 07, 2013
US President Barack Obama faces a stony reception when he travels to the West Bank on Thursday for talks with Palestinian leaders who accuse him of letting Israel ride rough-shod over their dream of statehood. ...
07:05 AM, Mar 21, 2013
President Barack Obama pledged on Wednesday to hold Syria to account if it used chemical weapons and assured Israel, in his first official visit to the Jewish state, of US resolve to curb Iran's nuclear programme. ...
04:25 AM, Mar 21, 2013
India may slash import of crude oil from Iran by as much as 27 per cent this fiscal because US and European sanctions have made it difficult to ship oil from the Persian Gulf nation. ...
03:32 PM, Mar 18, 2013
Moving quickly after the UN Security Council passed an unanimous resolution against North Korea, the United States has slapped additional sanctions against the regime in Pyongyang, including three individuals involved in its proliferation programme. ...
12:04 PM, Mar 08, 2013
World powers hope Iran will respond positively on Wednesday to their new offer to lift some sanctions if Tehran scales back nuclear activity the West fears could be used to build bombs. But any hopes of a significant easing of the deadlock in the decade-old nuclear dispute were dented when Russian media cited a source close to the talks as saying there had been no clear progress in the discussions...
01:30 PM, Feb 27, 2013
Iran's Revolutionary Guards have brought down a foreign surveillance drone during a military exercise, the official Islamic Republic News Agency said on Saturday. ...
02:36 PM, Feb 24, 2013
Iran said it had made some progress in resolving its disputes with the UN atomic watchdog, state media reported, even though the two sides' latest talks failed to seal a deal on letting inspectors visit a military site. ...
03:58 AM, Jan 20, 2013
UN inspectors and Iran failed again in talks this week to revive an investigation into suspected nuclear arms research by Tehran, a setback for diplomatic efforts to resolve the atomic dispute with the Islamic Republic peacefully. ...
03:58 AM, Jan 19, 2013
Vienna: Iran is set to sharply expand its uranium enrichment in an underground site after installing all the centrifuges it was built for, a UN nuclear report showed on Friday, a move that could increase Western alarm about Tehran's nuclear course. The latest quarterly International Atomic Energy Agency report on Iran came 10 days after the re-election of US President Barack Obama, which raised hopes for a revival of nuclear...
12:36 AM, Nov 17, 2012
Paris: France's foreign minister says Iran appears on track to reach the ability to produce a nuclear weapon by the first half of next year. France is one of six countries that have negotiated with Tehran over its nuclear program, which Iran insists is peaceful. Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told Europe-1 radio Sunday that unspecified experts "have established in an absolutely indisputable way" that Iran has compiled a full array...
03:41 AM, Oct 22, 2012
New Delhi: The US on Friday sought India's help to influence Iran to join international negotiations to break the logjam over Tehran's suspect nuclear programme and pitched for stronger economic and strategic ties between the two countries. US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns met National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon and Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai. During the talks, the two sides reviewed the entire gamut of bilateral relations and discussed...
01:16 AM, Oct 20, 2012
Tehran: Iran is ready to show flexibility at nuclear talks to ease Western concerns over its contentious nuclear program, its foreign ministry spokesman said on Saturday, as tensions rise in the standoff between the Islamic Republic, Israel and the West. The remarks by Ramin Mehmanparast, published by the official IRNA news agency, underscore Tehran's push to resume talks with world powers as Western sanctions squeeze the economy tighter and the...
02:54 AM, Oct 14, 2012
I was onboard the Prime Minister's Special Air India One to report the 16th NAM summit last August. As the plane began its descent towards ...
07:19 AM, Oct 07, 2012
New York: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday dismissed threats of military action against Iran's nuclear program, arguing that his country's project to enrich uranium is only for peaceful purposes and saying that Iran has no worries about a possible Israeli attack. Ahmadinejad spoke before a group of editors and news executives after his arrival in New York for the annual UN General Assembly. He told the group that it...
12:56 PM, Sep 25, 2012
MV Ramana Age: 45 Designation: Researcher in Science and Global Security at Nuclear Futures Laboratory and Program, Princeton University; member of International Panel on Fissile Materials and Science and Security Board, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Education: PhD in Physics, Boston University; IIT-Kanpur; post-doctoral fellow, University of Toronto and Center for International Studies, MIT Career: Author of 'The Power and the Promise: Examining Nuclear Energy in India' Interests: Food, South...
09:36 AM, Sep 01, 2012
Vienna: Iran has doubled the number of uranium enrichment centrifuges it has in an underground bunker, a UN report said on Thursday, showing Tehran has continued to expand its nuclear programme despite Western pressure and the threat of an Israeli attack. As Israeli politicians increased their talk of air strikes on Iran's nuclear sites in recent months, the Islamic Republic was rapidly increasing the enrichment capacity of its Fordow site,...
02:37 AM, Aug 31, 2012
Tehran: A senior official says Iran is willing to continue talks with world powers over its nuclear program until they reach a conclusion. Ali Akbar Velayati, international adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was quoted on Friday by the semiofficial news agency ISNA. He said Iran will pursue nuclear talks until their "positive and constructive conclusion." His remarks indicate willingness at the highest level of the Iranian leadership to...
03:40 AM, Jul 28, 2012
There is a whole lot of talk about how India does not have a robust enough strategic culture. So "Geek at Large", in its own ...
02:08 PM, Jul 11, 2012
