Sanctions - Page 26

The States of New York and California have no intention of complying with the Iran deal’s requirement that state and local governments lift their own sanctions against the Iranian regime.

Iran’s secretary of the Expediency Discernment Council and recently-returned head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Mohesen Rezaei says Iran is prepared to take 1,000 Americans hostages and demand millions of dollars in ransom for each of them if the United States even considers waging war against Iran.

Russian President Vladimir Putin reached out to President Barack Obama once again to wish him a Happy Independence Day, but also to ask for more dialogue. Russia and American relations soured greatly this past year since Moscow invaded Ukraine.

For the first time in four months, Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Barack Obama spoke on the phone. Putin made the call to discuss Iran, the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) in Syria, and violence in Ukraine.

As if the Iran nuclear deal farce were not ridiculous enough already, President Obama is ready to reward Tehran for its intransigence once again.

Russian President Vladimir Putin used his trip to Italy to attempt to persuade Italian officials to end the sanctions against his country, which he claims hurt Italian businesses. He also snuggled close with disgraced politician Silvio Berlusconi.

Seoul (AFP) – US Secretary of State John Kerry warned North Korea Monday of possible fresh sanctions as he slammed Kim Jong-Un’s “egregious” leadership with its reliance on reckless provocation and “grotesque” executions. Speaking in the South Korean capital Seoul,

The Norwegian government demanded Moscow explain why and how Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin visited the Svalbard Islands.

President Barack Obama appeared to yield Friday to Iran’s insistence that sanctions be removed immediately when a nuclear deal goes into effect, rather than over time. Rather than lifting sanctions only when Iran is shown to be complying with the agreement, Obama now wants sanctions to be able to “snap back” when Iran is found to be in violation of the deal.

When I travelled for two weeks in working class areas of Cuba last year, a Cuban worker explained to me that while they hear endlessly from the government about the “American embargo against Cuba,” the real problem is the “internal embargo”—the embargo that the government elite has imposed on the Cuban people to keep them from participating in the economies of the elite and the outside world.

Threats and arrests were made. Government workers lost their jobs. Free chickens were handed out. An all-encompassing mass media campaign against President Barack Obama took over Venezuelan state airwaves, where President Nicolás Maduro vowed to hand Obama a 10-million-signature petition against his recent sanctions on Venezuela. Yet, when the time came to show President Obama– and the American public– those signatures, Maduro came up empty-handed.

The sanctions on Iran have not technically been removed – in fact, we learned today that even the timing of their removal under the Lausanne framework is a matter of great dispute between Iran’s Supreme Leader and the Obama Administration. But Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL) is already talking about passing a bill to keep them in place, effectively killing whatever remains of Obama’s deal.

Iran, which has had its oil exports restricted between 2012 and 2014 by economic sanctions so its exports were virtually cut in half, would likely increase its imports if the U.S. and the other P5+1 nations make a deal regarding Iran’s nuclear program. Their increased exports might cause American gas prices to dip, leaving consumers happier until the Iranian nuclear program becomes operational.

In Nicaragua this week on an official visit, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro urged Latin Americans to send “millions of letters to Obama” denouncing a new round of sanctions on Venezuela over the Maduro regime’s many human rights violations. This, according to official correspondence obtained by Latin media, will include letters teachers are to force schoolchildren to write and send to the U.S. President.

Over the weekend, top Democrats went berserk over Senator Tom Cotton’s (R-AR) open letter to the Iranian regime warning them that President Obama’s executive agreement with them was not the final legal word.

In a speech Tuesday evening, in which he called American officials “genocidal” and promised that “Yankee boots will never touch our ground,” Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro demanded the nation’s legislature expand his already unconstitutionally developed executive order powers in light of President Obama’s new sanctions against the socialist regime.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro responded to the announcement of expanded sanctions on his regime on behalf of the Obama administration yesterday in an extensive public broadcast in which he repeatedly called President Obama “nefarious” and claimed the United States had organized a false-flag style operation to make it appear that Maduro had bombed his own government buildings.

Economic woes may force Russia to shrink its military budget by 10 percent in 2015. State owned defense conglomerate Rostec vowed to keep an eye on military spending this year while announcing a plan to give Iran Antey-2500 missiles.

Russian soldiers and pro-Russian separatists continue to shell in strategically important Debaltseve, Ukraine, despite an official ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia set to begin at midnight on February 15. In response, the European Union (EU) passed new sanctions and admitted Russia sent forces to east Ukraine.

A Chinese news agency reported the country of Cyprus was ready to host Russian air and navy bases. Russian news site Lenta.ru printed the story, which was then picked up by numerous international outlets. However, on Monday, Cypriot officials denied the reports.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is calling for his government to draft a blacklist of Venezuelans exiled in the United States calling for Congress to impose further sanctions on his socialist regime for both economic and political crimes, as well as ties to drug trafficking.

Sen. Rand Paul signaled that the Senate should give President Obama room to negotiate with Iran before it votes on economic sanctions on the country. “If it fails I will vote to resume sanctions and I would vote to– vote to actually have new sanctions,” he said. “But if you do it in the middle of the negotiations you’re ruining it.”

President Barack Obama delivered his sixth State of the Union Address on Tuesday evening and set a record with the amount of times he threatened to veto Republican bills over the course of his final two years in office. While Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst delivered the official Republican rebuttal, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA) issued a response of his own, focusing on foreign policy.

The United States placed new sanctions on North Korea Friday in retaliation for what it claims is the country’s involvement in the November 24 cyberattack against Sony Pictures Entertainment.

President Barack Obama hinted that he might be prepared to establish a new U.S. embassy in Tehran ” if we can get a deal on making sure that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon,” and the deal led to warmer relations with the Iranian regime.

Ukraine cut power and cancelled trains to Crimea as Visa and Mastercard announced the company will not process business cards due to sanctions from the West.