Tag: US-Iran tensions

  • Britain, France, Germany bypass US sanctions to send medical aid to virus-hit Iran

    Britain, France, Germany bypass US sanctions to send medical aid to virus-hit Iran

    Britain, France and Germany have for the first time used a complex financial system that bypasses United States’ (US) sanctions to send medical aid to Iran, raising hopes of salvaging the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, Telegraph reported.

    The German Foreign Ministry said the medical goods were now in Iran and added that the Instex trade mechanism and its Iranian counterpart would now work on more transactions and on enhancing the system.

    Britain, Germany and France had earlier offered a $5.5 million package to Iran to help fight coronavirus there and said they would also send medical material, including equipment for laboratory tests, protective body suits and gloves.

    Washington’s major European allies opposed the decision by US President Donald Trump in 2018 to abandon the nuclear deal, under which international sanctions on Iran were lifted in return for Tehran accepting curbs on its nuclear programme.

    The European trade vehicle was conceived as a way to help match Iranian oil and gas exports against purchases of EU goods. However, those ambitions have been toned down, with diplomats saying that, realistically, it will be used only for smaller trade, for example of humanitarian products or food.

    The three European powers are shareholders in the Instrument In Support Of Trade Exchanges, or Instex, and hope other states will join later.

  • Iran offers $80 million bounty for Donald Trump’s head: report

    Iran offers $80 million bounty for Donald Trump’s head: report

    An $80 million bounty has been placed on United States (US) President Donald Trump’s head in the wake of General Qasem Soleimani’s assassination and the dramatic escalation that followed, a foreign media outlet has reported.

    During the televised funeral of the top Iranian military leader, official state broadcasters said one US dollar would be tabled for every Iranian in the country, with the cash going to whoever killed the US president.

    “Iran has 80 million inhabitants. Based on the Iranian population, we want to raise $80 million which is a reward for those who get close to the head of President Trump,” it was announced, according to en24.

    Commander of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, Soleimani was killed in a US airstrike last week. The attack took long-running hostilities between Washington and Tehran into uncharted territory and raised the spectre of wider conflict in the Middle East.

    While Trump has threatened “major retaliation” if Iran avenges the killing, Iran has announced it was further reducing compliance with a tattered international nuclear accord, ending limitations on numbers of centrifuges used to enrich uranium.