By Pooya Stone

In the coming days, the US will impose sanctions on Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, according to an announcement made by US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin this week.

This speech on Monday coincides with the US’s leveraging of sanctions against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and eight senior commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). These sanctions target individuals that the US says are responsible for Iran’s malign behaviours, including several attacks on oil tankers and the downing of a US drone.

By Jubin Katiraie

The US’s Acting Defense Secretary Mark Esper called on European allies on Thursday to publically condemn Iran’s actions and to join the US-proposed maritime security effort to protect the Strait of Hormuz, following several attacks in the key shipping lane that the US blames on Iran.

By Pooya Stone

The United States has called on the UN Security Council to take a series of measures to ensure that its sanctions blacklist is enforced as thoroughly and as tightly as possible.

In the letter to the UN Security Council, the United States pointed out that the sanctions blacklist had not been updated for quite some time, meaning that the effect is not as enforced as it could, or should, be. For more than nine years, aliases and other such relevant information have not been included on the list that is distributed to all UN member states.

By Pooya Stone

On Tuesday, June 25, Iran’s police arrested an Iranian citizen, who immolated himself at the entrance of the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology.

According to the ICT Ministry, the victim was identified as a private contractor in a branch of the ministry, and he committed self-immolation for not receiving his demands after entering the main door of the ministry’s headquarters.

By Jubin Katiraie

At the beginning of the week, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif took to social media to criticise the United States. In a message on Twitter, the Iranian Foreign Minister said that it is in the United States’ interests, and those of the rest of the world, to remove its forces from the Persian Gulf. He added: “But it’s now clear that the #B Team is not concerned with US interests—they despise diplomacy, and thirst for war.”