AP: The Obama administration’s chief nuclear negotiator is meeting Thursday with Iranian officials in Geneva as negotiations resume on a deal to prevent the Islamic republic from developing nuclear weapons. The State Department says Undersecretary Wendy Sherman will be part of a U.S. delegation that also includes Deputy Secretary of State William Burns.
US nuclear negotiator to resume talks with Iran
Iran seeks alternative to Maliki – sources
Reuters: Regional power broker Iran believes Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is no longer able to hold his country together and is looking for an alternative leader to combat a Sunni Islamist insurgency. Political deadlock since an inconclusive general election in April has paralysed efforts to fight back against Islamic State rebels who have captured swathes of northern and western Iraq and Syria and have threatened to march on Baghdad.
Russia: U.S. ruined Iranian oil deal
UPI: An official inside the Kremlin said Wednesday the U.S. government got in the way of a possible deal between Iranian and Russian oil companies. Iran can export around 1 million bpd under the terms of a November arrangement that brought some relief from economic sanctions in exchange for a commitment to curb nuclear research activity. In the wake of the agreement, Iran said it was in negotiations with the Russians to swap oil for goods.
UniCredit Iran probe for amounts ’far lower’ than peers
Bloomberg: The U.S. investigation of UniCredit SpA (UCG) on suspicions it violated economic sanctions with Iran involves far fewer transactions than those that surfaced in probes of other banks, Chief Executive Officer Federico Ghizzoni said. Italy’s biggest bank is one of several European financial institutions bracing for the outcome of investigations for alleged sanctions-busting for dealing with blacklisted countries.
Russia puzzles with deal/no deal with Iran on oil
Reuters: Months of oil talks between Russia and Iran, both heavily sanctioned by the West, took an unexpected twist on Tuesday when Moscow first announced it had agreed with Tehran to help it sell its crude – only to withdraw the statement shortly afterwards. In January, sources told Reuters Iran and Russia were negotiating an oil-for-goods swap worth $1.5 billion a month.
Iran nuclear talks could resume during UN General Assembly
The Hill: International negotiators are likely to resume talks on Iran’s nuclear program when world powers meet next month for the annual U.N. General Assembly. “A meeting between Iran and the [powers] is very likely to take place around the UNGA, but the level of the meeting has yet to be determined,” said Abbas Araghchi, an Iranian deputy foreign minister, to IRNA, his country’s state news agency.
Iran says it gave missile technology to Hamas
AP: Hamas is able to fire missiles into Israel because Tehran provided weapons technology to the militant group to defend itself against Israeli attacks, a senior Iranian official said Monday. Officials from Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards have said in the past that Fajr-5 missiles are part of Hamas’ Gaza Strip arsenal, whose technology has been supplied by Iran and produced locally without needing direct shipment.
The doubt at the heart of Iraq’s Sunni ‘revolution’
Reuters: Sheikh Ali Hatem Suleiman, one of the leaders of the Sunni revolt against the Shi’ite-led government of Iraq, sat cross-legged on a couch last month, lit another Marlboro Red, and discussed the struggle with visitors from his home city of Ramadi, where the uprising began late last year. The battle against Prime Minister Noori al-Maliki in Baghdad has spread north and east and threatens to fracture Iraq altogether.
Iran: New wave of attacks against journalists as repression escalates
Live News: The wave of repression which intensified after the disputed presidential election in 2009 has reached new highs over the past few months. The authorities appear to have widened the circle of repression in a bid to crumple any aspirations for change created by the promises of increased freedoms that followed the election of President Hassan Rouhani in 2013.
German business looks to renew Iran contacts
Wall Street Journal: German businesses are cooling on Russian investments amid anger over Russia’s role in the Ukrainian conflict while simultaneously warming on another big country hit by Western sanctions: Iran. Companies across Germany have quietly rekindled once-strong commercial ties with Iran, industry officials said.
