Al-Monitor – “The White House is suffering from mental disability,” said enraged Iranian President Hassan Rouhani June 25 in response to new US sanctions targeting the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and several other senior Iranian officials. The punitive measures were approved by President Donald Trump as “a strong and proportionate response” to what he called “Iran’s increasingly provocative actions.” Last week, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) shot …

Radiofarda – Iranian crude exports have dropped so far in June to 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) or less after the United States tightened the screw on Tehran’s main source of income, industry sources said and tanker data showed, deepening global supply losses. The United States reimposed sanctions on Iran in November after pulling out of a 2015 nuclear accord …

Radiofarda – Iran said Tuesday US sanctions on its leaders represent the “permanent closure” of diplomacy with Washington, after President Donald Trump tightened the screws on a nation he has threatened with “obliteration”. “Imposing fruitless sanctions against Iran’s supreme leader and the commander of Iran’s diplomacy is the permanent closure of the path to diplomacy with Trump’s desperate government,” ministry …

Radiofarda – US National Security Adviser John Bolton predicted on Tuesday that Washington’s pressure campaign against Iran would lead it to enter negotiations.“They’ll either get the point or … we will simply enhance the maximum pressure campaign further,” Bolton told reporters after meeting his Russian and Israeli counterparts in Jerusalem. “It will be, I think, the combination of sanctions and …

Al-Arabia – The US Mission in the United Arab Emirates said on Monday that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discussed countering the threat from Iran in the region with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed. The mission had earlier tweeted that Pompeo will also discuss “building a global coalition to counter the world’s largest state sponsor of terror” …

Al-Arabia – France, Britain, and Germany have sent an official diplomatic warning to Iran about the serious consequences Tehran faces if it scales back its compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal, two European diplomats said on Monday.Three diplomats said the European signatories to the deal lodged the diplomatic demarche, the term for a formal note, on June 22, with two …

Radiofarda – Iran says U.S. sanctions against the country’s top leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, marks the end of diplomacy and shows Washington is “lying” about its willingness to hold talks to steer the two countries away from military conflict.Speaking on June 25, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an order imposing “hard-hitting” sanctions on Iran, …

VOA – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Saudi King Salman Monday, before going for a “working lunch” with his son and heir, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, at a restaurant in the Red Sea resort town of Jeddah.  The visit took place at a time of strong tensions with Iran and what analysts say is growing frustration …

CHRI – In a letter addressing the chief of the Football Federation of the Islamic Republic of Iran (FFIRI) Mehdi Taj, the president of FIFA announced a July 15, 2019, deadline for Taj to inform him of the “concrete steps” the Iranian government would be taking to lift its ban on women in stadiums by September of this year. “…I …

Al-Monitor – President Donald Trump said the United States would introduce new sanctions on Iran today in response to its downing of a US drone in the Persian Gulf. Tensions have increased to new heights after Trump claimed that he decided against a military strike as a potential response for the downed US drone. Iran claims the drone was in …