Category Archives: Iran

Iranian tanker seized by Gibraltar ‘photographed off Syria’

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Adrian Darya 1, formerly the Grace 1, was only released on condition it did not discharge its load of 2.1m barrels of oil in Syria

The Iranian oil tanker Adrian Darya 1 at the centre of a dispute between Tehran and western powers has been photographed by satellite off the Syrian port of Tartus, a US space technology company has said.

Maxar Technologies Inc said the image showed the tanker Adrian Darya 1 very close to Tartus on 6 September. The ship appeared to have turned off its transponder in the Mediterranean west of Syria, ship-tracking data showed. The tanker, which is loaded with Iranian crude oil, sent its last signal giving its position between Cyprus and Syria sailing north on Monday afternoon.

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Iran to free seven crew members of seized British-flagged tanker

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Move comes as president gives Europe two-month deadline to save nuclear deal

Iran has said it will free seven crew members of a British-flagged tanker seized in the strait of Hormuz in July, as the country’s president gave Europe a two-month deadline to save its nuclear deal.

The seven, who are part of a 23-member crew comprising Indian, Russian, Latvia and Filipino nationals, were allowed to leave the Stena Impero tanker on humanitarian grounds and will be able to leave Iran soon, Iranian state television reported. The vessel’s owner said it had yet to receive any official confirmation of the release date.

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Judo star left fearing for safety after defying orders from Iran

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Saeid Mollaei was told to pull out of world championships to avoid possible fight with Israeli

An Iranian judo athlete could seek asylum in Germany after he ignored orders from his national federation to pull out of the world championships to avoid a potential final against an Israeli.

The International Judo Federation (IJF) said that Saeid Mollaei, the defending champion, was pressurised by Iranian authorities to drop out before his quarter-final at the world judo championships in Tokyo last week to avoid the prospect of fighting Israel’s Sagi Muki in the final.

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Iran voices optimism over nuclear deal after talks with France

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Tehran says gap is closing on views after phone conversation between Macron and Rouhani

Iran and France have moved closer in their views on the future of Tehran’s nuclear deal with the west after talks between the countries’ presidents, the Iranian government has said.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, and his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, spoke for two hours by telephone, a spokesman said, as Paris continued its diplomatic initiative to salvage the deal, which has been at risk of unravelling since the US withdrew last year.

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US blacklists Iranian tanker Mike Pompeo says is heading to Syria

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  • Vessel seized by Britain and held in Gibraltar for six weeks
  • Adrian Darya’s captain also sanctioned by US

The US has blacklisted the Iranian tanker Adrian Darya, saying it had “reliable information” it was transporting oil to Syria in defiance of wide-ranging sanctions on the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

Related: Trump tweets photo of Iran rocket site and says US 'not involved' in failed launch

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Israel risks becoming the fall guy in Donald Trump’s ‘shadow war’ with Iran | Simon Tisdall

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Benjamin Netanyahu is counting on fear of conflict with Iran to win crucial election votes

Donald Trump’s offer to talk peace with Iran sent a shiver of alarm through Israel’s political and security establishment last week. With a too-close-to-call general election looming on 17 September, Benjamin Netanyahu is counting on his hardline anti-Tehran alliance with Washington – and fear of conflict – to win him crucial votes. A North Korea-style Trump tryst with Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, was the prime minister’s “ultimate horror scenario”, one analyst noted.

Yet after a recent series of escalatory strikes against Iran-linked forces in Iraq, Lebanon and Syria, Israel’s voters may reflect that if one thing is worse than peace with Iran, it’s war with Iran. Trump’s policy of “maximum pressure” on Tehran, strongly backed by Netanyahu and fellow Tel Aviv hawks, is placing Israel squarely in the firing line. The intensifying confrontation is also sucking in regional states, notably Iraq.

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Trump tweets photo of Iran rocket site and says US ‘not involved’ in failed launch

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US president’s release of high resolution photo raises concerns over disclosure of classified information

President Donald Trump has released a photograph of an apparently failed Iranian rocket launch and said the US had nothing to do with it, prompting concerns he disclosed classified information.

Tehran has made no official comment on the indications from aerial photos that a rocket exploded on Thursday on the launch pad at the Semnan Space Center in northern Iran.

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Why is China hiding its oil tankers from US trackers?

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Signs Beijing may be importing Iranian oil as Trump’s two biggest foreign policy headaches converge

In early June, a Chinese-owned supertanker abruptly went dark in the Indian Ocean, the tracking system signalling its course apparently deactivated.

It was not the first ship to vanish from the monitors. The deactivation of transponders that generate a unique ID issued to ships by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has become increasingly familiar in recent weeks to the companies that track tankers.

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Drone attacks in Middle East raise fears of escalating conflict

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Multiple attacks in region suggest drone warfare could extend to distant battlefields

A spate of drone attacks in Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and now Lebanon has raised the spectre of a new era of conflict in the region, due to the ability of stealth-like weapons to penetrate distant battlefields and hit closely guarded targets.

Drone warfare has become an instrumental factor in the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, now being fought over both sides of the Israeli border and in skies across the region.

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Iran president steps back from possible Trump talks

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Hassan Rouhani says US must first lift sanctions before summit can take place

Iran’s president has back-pedalled on possible talks with Donald Trump, saying the US president must first lift sanctions imposed on Tehran, otherwise a meeting between the two would be a mere photo op.

Hassan Rouhani’s change of heart came a day after Trump said there was a “really good chance” the two could meet after a surprise intervention by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, during the G7 summit to try to bring Washington and Tehran together.

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Iran: lengthy jail terms for dual national and British Council worker

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Aras Amiri and Anousheh Ashouri accused of spying as UK-Iran tensions rise

Iran has sentenced a British-Iranian man to 12 years in prison after accusing him of spying for Israel, while upholding the 10-year sentence of another UK resident.

A spokesman for the Iranian judiciary, Gholamhossein Esmaili, said on Tuesday that Anousheh Ashouri – the latest Iranian national with a western passport to be detained in Iran – had been sentenced to 12 years for ties to Israel’s Mossad spy agency.

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Donald Trump calls Iran ‘number one nation of terror’ – video

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The US president has accused Iran of being the world's 'number one nation of terror', saying it was 'too soon' for talks between the two countries. He said the US would be willing to 'make Iran rich again' if it halted its nuclear programme. Trump had opted not to meet Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran's foreign minister, who made an unscheduled appearance at the G7 summit, in Biarritz, on Sunday

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Troubled waters: Australia bets on Trump in Middle East deployment

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Analysts say sending a warship to patrol the Strait of Hormuz risks binding Australia to an incoherent and inflammatory US foreign policy

Australia’s announcement this week that it will join US-led freedom of navigation operations patrolling the Strait of Hormuz brings the number of American allies willing to contribute to America’s latest Middle East sortie to just three.

The increasing tensions in the narrow, but critical, strait are almost universally regarded as an avoidable, US-created crisis, the result of Washington tearing up the Iran nuclear deal.

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Iran sanctions scandal: Australian company offloads $15m cargo it says it was duped into carrying

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Quantum Fertiliser, part of ASX-listed Incitec Pivot, says it is reviewing its operations to avoid a recurrence

The Australian multinational at the centre of an Iran sanctions scandal has offloaded a $15m shipment of Iranian cargo it says it was duped into taking, and is reviewing its operations to avoid a repeat.

A subsidiary of ASX-listed company Incitec Pivot took hold of a cargo shipment of fertiliser from Iran late last month, potentially risking a contravention of strict United States sanctions.

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Britain to be ‘energetic partner’ after Brexit, PM to tell G7 allies

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Boris Johnson also expected to discuss Iran with Donald Trump at summit in Biarritz

Britain will continue to be an “energetic partner” to its international allies after Brexit, Boris Johnson has said, as he prepared to fly to Biarritz for the G7 summit – his first major appearance on the world stage as prime minister.

Fresh from Brexit discussions in Berlin and Paris this week, Johnson will use a string of bilateral meetings with world leaders in the French resort to underline Britain’s determination to remain internationalist.

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Aras Amiri’s fiance says UK government ‘utterly blind’ to responsibility

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James Tyson decries ‘diplomatic failings’ after Iran rejects fiancee’s appeal

My fiancee is in an Iranian prison, a victim of the depravity of international relations

The fiance of Aras Amiri, a British Council employee imprisoned in Iran on spying charges, has accused the UK government of being “utterly blind to their responsibility” to try to secure her release.

An appeal against Amiri’s 10-year sentence was rejected without a hearing earlier this week, in a decision that prompted her family to call on the UK government to intervene.

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Australia to join US military effort to protect shipping in the Strait of Hormuz

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Troops, planes and warships to help guard the Strait of Hormuz in the Middle East where tensions are flaring with Iran

Australia will send troops, planes and warships to help guard the Strait of Hormuz in the Middle East.

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, said Australia would make a “modest and time-limited” contribution to international efforts to protect freedom of navigation in the region.

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Rebels withdraw in key Syrian town as pro-Assad troops advance

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Move by insurgents in Khan Sheikhun marks a milestone for Idlib, the last major rebel stronghold

Insurgent groups have withdrawn from Khan Sheikhun in north-west Syria, clearing the way for pro-government forces to enter the town, in a milestone moment in the war for Idlib province, the country’s last major rebel stronghold.

The development came hours after Turkey deployed tanks and armoured cars deep into Syria, partly in response to days of advances by forces fighting on behalf of the Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad.

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Turkish convoy in Syria hit by airstrikes, Ankara claims

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Reported strike came after large number of Turkish forces crossed border into Idlib province

Turkey has sent significant numbers of tanks and troops deep into Syria in an apparent bid to reinforce the town of Khan Sheikhun, where 92 people died in a 2017 sarin gas attack, one of the war’s most infamous atrocities.

Columns of Turkish forces, amounting to Ankara’s largest incursion into Syria of the eight-year conflict, crossed the southern border into Idlib province early on Monday, accompanied by Arab proxy forces.

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Iranian tanker at centre of diplomatic row leaves Gibraltar

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Shipping data show vessel moving as territory rejects final US request to hold it longer

The Iranian supertanker at the centre of a diplomatic row between Britain and Iran left Gibraltar on Sunday night, according to shipping data.

The marine traffic monitoring site Refinitiv showed the vessel moving away from the British territory, where it had been held for six weeks. Shortly later Refinitiv said the tanker revised its destination to Kalamata.

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