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VOA – U.S. Vice President Mike Pence says the Trump administration “has put Iran on notice,” and will not tolerate Iranian efforts to “destabilize the region and jeopardize Israel’s security.” His comments Sunday night in Washington came at the opening of the three-day annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). View image on Twitter View image …

RFL/RE – U.S. senators from both major political parties introduced legislation on March 23 to tighten sanctions on Iran over its ballistic missile launches and other non-nuclear military activities. Authored by leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and co-sponsored by seven senators each from the Republican and Democratic parties, the bill mirrors the harder line against Tehran taken by …

Al-Arabia – While an agreement allowing Iranian pilgrims to join this year’s hajj is good news, this is no leap forward to future success for the regime in Tehran. Quite obvious is the fact that this regime is facing a new balance of power in the Middle East and across the globe as the Trump administration has begun overhauling his …

RFL/RE – Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE has pleaded guilty to violating U.S. sanctions by illegally shipping $32 million of U.S. technology to Iran. The guilty plea on March 22 was part of an agreement the company reached earlier this month with U.S. authorities that also called for nearly $900 million in fines, the largest penalty assessed to date in …

RFL/RE – A Luxembourg court has rejected Tehran’s demand to return $1.6 billion of Iranian assets claimed by the United States as compensation for the victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks. The judge ruled that the assets could remain frozen in Luxembourg for now, awaiting a separate judgment on the merits of the case. In 2012, a New York …

VOA – A U.S. lawyer for the family of a former FBI agent who went missing in Iran 10 years ago says the family is suing Tehran for damages based in part on leaked information from Iranian sources. “Iran, like the United States, leaks information,” said attorney David McGee in an interview with VOA Persian’s LateNews program Wednesday. McGee represents the …

RFL/RE – The family of a retired FBI agent who went missing in Iran a decade ago has filed a lawsuit against Tehran, claiming that it has held Robert Levinson captive and falsely denied any knowledge of his whereabouts. The lawsuit was filed in a Washington, D.C., court on March 21 on behalf of Levinson, his wife, Christine Levinson, and …

RFL/RE – China’s giant telecom company ZTE agreed to pay a record $892 million fine for providing Iran and North Korea with sensitive techology in violation of U.S. sanctions, the U.S. government announced on March 7. Under the agreement, which is pending approval before a U.S. district court in Texas, ZTE could face an additional fine of $300 million if …

Amnesty – In this joint statement, 20 human rights groups call on the Iranian authorities to stop the harassment, intimidation and prosecution of human rights defenders seeking truth and justice on behalf of individuals who were summarily executed or forcibly disappeared during the 1980s and their families. Over the past few months, several human rights defenders have been subjected to …

RFL/RE – Reuters is reporting that giant Chinese telecom company ZTE is expected to plead guilty to U.S. criminal charges that it sold restricted technology to Iran. The company has not yet signed a plea deal with U.S. enforcement agencies, Reuters reported on March 2, but ZTE is expected to plead guilty to conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic …