Iran Focus

London, 6 July – According to a statement from the State Department, US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo will “travel to Abu Dhabi from July 9-10, where he will meet with UAE leaders to discuss ways to further strengthen the US-UAE partnership and advance our common security and economic priorities.”

Expected discussion will include the US pressure campaign on Iran, its role in Yemen, and Persian Gulf security. UAE’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation met Pompeo in Washington last month, but this is the secretary’s first trip to Abu Dhabi as Secretary of State.

Iran Focus

London, 6 July – Former Speaker of the US House of Representatives Newt Gingrich has demanded that European countries cut their shameful business ties with the Iranian mullahs and help the US to overthrow the Regime, during a speech at the Free Iran rally in Paris this weekend.

Donald Trump ended US business dealings with Iran back in May, when he pulled out of the fatally flawed 2015 nuclear deal and reimposed strict sanctions of the mullahs as part of an effort to bring political change to Iran.

Since then, he has warned China and India against continuing to buy Iranian oil lest they come under sanctions themselves.

Iran Focus

London, 4 July – Although Iran has pledged to keep to the terms of the country’s landmark nuclear deal, even after U.S. President Trump pulled America out of the accord, its officials say that it has restarted production at the Isfahan plant, which produces materials needed to make enriched uranium.

This appears to be a warning that is aimed at pressuring Europeans and others to come up with the means to circumvent the new American sanctions.

Many international organizations are pulling back from deals with Tehran and the country’s currency has faced an enormous drop against the dollar.

Iran Focus

London, 3 July – The US State Department has announced an incredible campaign consisting of “maximum economic and diplomatic pressure” to push Iran into negotiating a new and improved nuclear deal to replace the one that Donald Trump withdrew from in May.

State Department Director of Policy Planning Brian Hook explained on Monday that Iran is not a “normal” government and must meet the 12 demands, laid out by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in order to be free from US sanctions.

Hook said: “Normal countries don’t terrorize other nations, proliferate missiles and impoverish their own people… This new strategy is not about changing the regime; it is about changing the behaviour of the leadership in Iran to comport with what the Iranian people really want them to do.”