Iran Focus

London, 13 July – US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Andrew Peek said in an interview during his visit to Bahrain as part of his regional tour, that Washington is committed to halting Iran’s regional aggression.

The US is working with its Gulf allies to bring Iran to the negotiating table, stop it from supporting military proxies, terrorism, and proliferation of missiles, according to Peek.

He said, “The discussion in particular highlighted the ways in which Iran attempts to destabilize and provoke conflict in Bahrain through proxies that have their headquarters abroad, other key personnel abroad, and that work to cause cleavages in Bahraini society.”

Iran Focus

London, 12 July – Iran recently announced that they planned to circumvent US sanctions on Iranian oil by offering their crude oil to buyers through the national stock exchange.

Eshaq Jahangiri, Iran’s first vice-president said: “We have friendly countries to which we sell our oil, and we’ve started negotiations with them. The private sector can openly buy oil and export it.”

However, this plan has its own limitations according to Senior Fellow at the OCP Policy Francis Perrin, who explained that this is not an efficient and effective way to evade sanctions on Iranian oil and that this would not become a significant method of trade as the US would still impose sanctions on it, no matter how the purchaser came across it.

Iran Focus

London, 12 July – US President Donald Trump will be meeting his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on 16th July. The purpose of the visit is to soothe the tense relations between the two countries and it is a much anticipated meeting between the two leaders.

The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, has spoken about his interest in the outcome of the meeting and has said that he is anticipating the “deal of the century”.

Iran Focus

London, 10 July – The US is looking to halt all of Iran’s crude oil exports from November and in relying on Saudi Arabia and other oil-producing countries to fill the gap.

They are hoping that by cutting off Iran’s oil exports, they can further destabilise the Iranian economy enough to bring it back to the table for a new nuclear deal or enough that the people can make a major change.