Iran

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US Fires Warning Shots at Speedboats From Iran

13 Revolutionary Guard speedboats appear to harass US Navy vessels

(Newser) - A group of 13 armed speedboats of Iran's Revolutionary Guard made “unsafe and unprofessional” high-speed maneuvers toward US Navy vessels in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, and a US Coast Guard cutter fired warning shots when two of the Iranian boats came dangerously close, US officials said....

Iran Has Defiant Response to Attack on Nuclear Site

Tehran will significantly increase its uranium enrichment

(Newser) - After an attack on one of its nuclear facilities , Iran is more than doubling down. A Tehran official announced Tuesday that the nation will begin enriching uranium to 60%—a significant increase from its earlier mark of 20% and much closer to the 90% required for weapons-grade material, reports the...

Iran Accuses Israel of Sabotage at Nuclear Plant

It may have been a cyberattack at the Natanz site

(Newser) - Iran on Monday blamed Israel for a sabotage attack on its underground Natanz nuclear facility that damaged the centrifuges it uses to enrich uranium there, warning that it would avenge the assault, per the AP . The comments by Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh represent the first official accusation leveled against...

Iran Frees South Korean Ship It Held for Months

Move comes hours before talks on nuclear deal

(Newser) - A South Korean oil tanker held for months by Iran amid a dispute over billions of dollars seized by Seoul was freed and sailed away early Friday, just hours ahead of further talks between Tehran and world powers over its tattered nuclear deal. MarineTraffic.com data showed the MT Hankuk...

It's a 'Healthy Step Forward' for US, Iran

Countries to begin indirect talks on nuclear deal compliance

(Newser) - The US and Iran said Friday that they would start indirect talks with other major world powers next week to try to get both countries back into an accord limiting Iran's nuclear program. The move comes nearly three years after former President Trump pulled the US out of the...

In a Message to Iran, US Bombers Buzz Mideast

Flights are the second ordered during Biden administration

(Newser) - A pair of B-52 bombers flew over the Mideast on Sunday, the latest such mission in the region aimed at warning Iran amid tensions between Washington and Tehran. The flight by the two heavy bombers came as a pro-Iran satellite channel based in Beirut broadcast Iranian drone footage of an...

Biden's Ready to Talk With Iran About Nuclear Deal

US would be willing to meet with nations that negotiated the treaty

(Newser) - If invited, the Biden administration said Thursday, the US would meet with Iran and the other nations that signed the 2015 nuclear treaty about reinstating it. EU High Commissioner Josep Borrell said he'd be willing to set such a meeting up, USA Today reports. The US goal would be...

UN Report: North Korea, Iran Have Teamed Up

Iran denies cooperative missile development

(Newser) - North Korea is funneling millions of dollars stolen by hackers into nuclear weapons, according to a new and confidential UN report, which also points the finger at Iran. The document accuses Kim Jong Un's regime of coordinating "operations against financial institutions and virtual currency exchange houses" to pay...

Facing 9 Years in an Iranian Prison, He Made a Run for It

It was 'very cold, very long, very dark, and very scary,' says UK-Iranian academic Kameel Ahmady of escape

(Newser) - A British-Iranian anthropologist facing almost a decade in an Iranian prison after speaking out against female genital mutilation and child marriage has made a daring escape. Kameel Ahmady tells the BBC he fled across Iran's mountainous border on foot upon learning his fate was as good as sealed. Ahmady,...

Confusion Abounds Over Tweet Showing 'Golfing Trump'

Twitter suspended 'fake' Khamenei account over apparent threat, but Iranian leader's site has the pic

(Newser) - Log onto the website of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and an unusual photo appears on the homepage: a graphic representation of a man who appears to be Donald Trump, playing golf in a red shirt. Look more closely, however, and the image turns more ominous, with the...

Critics Raise Alarm on 11th-Hour Foreign Policy Move
Critics Raise Alarm on
11th-Hour Foreign Policy Move
the rundown
Jan 12, 2021 11:10 AM CST

Critics Raise Alarm on 11th-Hour Foreign Policy Move

Designation of Houthi rebels as terrorists could make it harder to deliver food amid crisis

(Newser) - The Trump administration just made two big foreign policy moves. The one that drew most of the headlines was the designation of Cuba as a sponsor of terrorism. The other, though, is causing plenty of consternation on Capitol Hill and among humanitarian groups. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that...

Iran: Vaccine From US, Britain Can't Be Trusted

With more than 1.3M infections, nation already is struggling to contain outbreak

(Newser) - Calling them "completely untrustworthy," Iran has prohibited importing coronavirus vaccines produced by the US or Britain. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made the announcement Friday in a televised address, the Guardian reports. "It's not unlikely they would want to contaminate other nations," he said. Mentioning the Pfizer...

Air Traffic Controllers Hear Threat to Fly Plane Into US Capitol

Message alleges that attack will come Wednesday to avenge assassinated Iranian general Soleimani

(Newser) - A year after a US drone strike killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani , air traffic controllers in New York heard a chilling threat to Washington, DC. "We are flying a plane into the Capitol Wednesday. Soleimani will be avenged," said the digitized voice recording , obtained by CBS News . It...

Iran Makes 2 Big Moves Against the West

Country seizes South Korean tanker, increases nuclear enrichment

(Newser) - Iran began enriching uranium Monday to levels unseen since its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and also seized a South Korean-flagged tanker near the crucial Strait of Hormuz, a double-barreled challenge to the West that further raised Mideast tensions. Both decisions appeared aimed at increasing Tehran's leverage in...

Hard-Line Ayatollah Dies in Iran
Hard-Line Ayatollah Dies in Iran
Jan 2, 2021 12:30 PM CST

Hard-Line Ayatollah Dies in Iran

Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi was a supporter of ex-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

(Newser) - Iranian Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi, a prominent hard-liner and supporter of the country's ex-president, died on Friday, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. He was 85. The cleric was known as a backer of former hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who questioned the Holocaust and claimed there were no...

Juvenile Offender's Execution Outrages UN

Iran violated international law, human rights office says

(Newser) - A United Nations agency has condemned Iran's execution of a man who was 16 when he was charged with crime. Mohammad Hassan Rezaiee, 30, was put to death Thursday, the BBC reports. Amnesty International said he was forced to confess to stabbing a man in 2007. Rezaiee was convicted...

US Philanthropists Getting Vaccine to Iran

Unidentified group aims to ship 150K doses of Pfizer vaccine to hard-hit country

(Newser) - An unidentified group of US-based philanthropists plans to send 150,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine to Iran in the coming weeks, Iranian media reported Monday, per the AP . Details remained scarce in the report by the semiofficial Tasnim News Agency. It quoted the chief of the country's Red...

He Vanished 13 Years Ago. Now, the US Places Blame

Finger officially pointed at Iran for abduction, death of retired FBI agent Robert Levinson

(Newser) - The Trump administration for the first time on Monday formally blamed Iran for the presumed death of retired FBI agent Robert Levinson, publicly identifying two Iranian intelligence officers believed responsible for his abduction. Levinson disappeared in Iran under mysterious circumstances more than a decade ago, and though US diplomats and...

&#39;Zombie Angelina&#39; Is Sentenced
'Zombie' Teen Gets 10 Years
Dec 12, 2020 10:00 AM CST

'Zombie' Teen Gets 10 Years

Sahar Tabar was arrested in Tehran after posting distorted images of herself on social media

(Newser) - The crime: posting on Instagram. The sentence: 10 years. An Iranian court has sentenced teenager Sahar Tabar to a decade behind bars after she posted distorted images of her face on social media, Metro reports. The 19-year-old was celebrated for the Instagram posts, in which she resembled a "zombie"...

Iran to Step Up Enrichment After Scientist's Assassination

The country also says it will halt UN inspections.

(Newser) - Less than a week after the assassination of its top nuclear scientist, Iran on Wednesday passed a law requiring the government to increase the enrichment of uranium far beyond the maximum level established under a 2015 nuclear deal struck by the Obama administration, the New York Times reports. Scientist Mohsen...

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