Al-Arabia – Iran was “highly likely” behind the attacks on the four tankers off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, according to the official assessment by the US.The US has evidence – photos of the damage and forensics – linking Iran or its proxies to the attacks, reported NBC News.Explosive charges were used to damage the four ships, two from …

RFL/RE – U.S. oil giant ExxonMobil has evacuated its foreign staff from an oil field in Iraq, the country’s oil minister says. The evacuation of around 60 ExxonMobil employees, mostly Americans, comes amid escalating tensions between the United States and Iran, with concerns about a potential military conflict. Iraqi Oil Minister Thamir Ghadhban said in a May 19 statement that …

RFL/RE – Saudi Arabia has called for two urgent meetings of its Arab allies later this month to discuss recent attacks on shipping and oil-production sites amid rising tensions with bitter regional rival Iran.Saudi King Salman on May 18 called for leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council and the Arab League to meet for the emergency summits in Mecca on …

VOA — Saudi Arabia said Sunday that it wants to avert war in the region but stands ready to respond with “all strength” following last week’s attacks on Saudi oil assets, telling Iran that the ball was now in its court. Riyadh has accused Tehran of ordering Tuesday’s drone strikes on two oil pumping stations in the kingdom, claimed by …

gatestoneinstitute.org – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif has acknowledged that…. if anyone notices the Islamic Republic it is because its leaders are or pretend to be anti-American. In other words, anti-Americanism upgrades a ramshackle and incompetent regime that is visibly incapable of running a kebab-shop let alone a modern developing society. Zarif says that without anti-Americanism we would, at …

Radiofarda – Amnesty International has urged Tehran’s Prosecutor General to allow an imprisoned Swedish-Iranian scientist to receive specialized medical care after months of suffering from serious health problems. In a letter to the prosecutor, Ali Alghasi Mehr, the international human rights organization has noted that Ahmadreza Jalali (Djalali), who has been in prison since 2016, suffers from a low white …

AFP – Syrian air defense batteries on Friday intercepted projectiles coming from Israel and downed a number of them, the official news agency SANA reported. “Our air defense systems intercepted luminous objects coming from the occupied territories (Israel) and downed several of them,” SANA said quoting a military source. A later report described the projectiles as “hostile targets” which were …

Radiofarda – The United States is “sitting by the phone” but has heard no message yet from Iran that it is willing to accept President Donald Trump’s overtures for direct talks, a senior Trump administration official said on Friday. “We think they should de-escalate and come to negotiations,” the official, who declined to be identified, told a small group of …

Radiofarda – Friday Prayers leaders in various Iranian cities have ruled out the possibility of a war with the United States in their sermons on May 17. One of the most prominent and outspoken Imams, Ahamad Alamolhoda in Mashad has said, “We are not the kind of people to start a war, and the United States too, does not deem …

Radiofarda – A deputy commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has accused a pro-western group of Iranian politicians of “playing into the hands of the enemy” and “trying to impose another JCPOA on Iran” Fars news agency quoted Mohammad Saleh Jokar, IRGC’s deputy commander for parliamentary affairs as having made the remarks at a gathering in Yazd in …