Iran

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told NBC that Iran is an active threat to US interests and “sowing chaos” in the Middle East. It strikes me that exactly the opposite is true. The Islamic Republic of Iran has in recent years, despite its heritage in the 1979 revolution, acted as […]

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Trump, hostage to Bolton and Pompeo, Pleads with Iran to call and Rescue Him

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Julian Borger at The Guardian reports that Trump gave an impromptu news conference on Thursday in which he urged Iran to call him, as though he was being held hostage by John Bolton and Mike Pompeo and was signalling that Iran should rescue him. I happened to see the bizarre […]

Iran

“Ghost Tankers:” Can Iran Evade Trump’s Severe Sanctions on its Oil Sales?

Frud Bezhan

(RFE/RL) – The United States has pledged to cut Iran’s oil exports to “zero,” denying Tehran a key source of revenue through tough sanctions and the threat of stiff penalties to potential buyers. But economists say that while the U.S. measures will hit Iranian oil sales, which account for 70 percent of the country’s revenues, […]

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Pompeo in Baghdad to Pressure Iraq to join Press against Iran; Iraq declines

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – US secretary of state Mike Pompeo made a surprise four-hour visit to Baghdad on Tuesday in connection to the panic he is trying to trump up, along with US national security adviser and Sheldon Adelson plant John Bolton about Iran supposedly planning to attack US troops in the Middle East. […]

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Warmongers Bolton & Pompeo send Aircraft Carrier to Menace Iran, still Hoping for Confrontation

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Uber warmongerers John Bolton and Mike Pompeo, somehow the National Security Adviser and Secretary of State of the United States, respectively, have sent an aircraft carrier battle group toward the Gulf in the vicinity of Iran, in hopes of provoking a military confrontation with that country. Iran does not have […]

Iran

Trump appointee Bolton inventing a new “Axis of Evil,” including Iran, to put US on War Footing

John Feffer

(Foreign Policy in Focus ) – Bolton’s broadsides against Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela hint at ambitions for much more dangerous geopolitical conflict — and nothing short of a new Cold War. If you’re in the market for a troika of tyranny, Donald Trump, John Bolton, and Mike Pompeo certainly fit the bill. Or, if you’d […]

Iran

Trump’s Crackdown on Iran’s Oil Exports Could Backfire Badly– With Serious Risks to Global Economy

The Conversation

By Nafis Alam | – The US has unnerved the world oil market by ramping up the pressure in its long-running dispute with Iran. It has announced that, after May 1, it won’t renew the exemptions given to eight countries that enable them to buy Iranian oil. Those affected, which include China, India, Japan, Italy […]

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Iran designates US CENTCOM Troops “Terrorists”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Iran is responding in kind to Trump’s harassment, with the Iranian parliament having voted to declare that the US troops of the Central Command or CENTCOM (which is responsible for the Middle East) are terrorists. The move came in retaliation for Trump’s designation of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), […]

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In Drive to Overthrow Iran, Trump stops Waivers for Oil Purchases from Tehran

Juan Cole

The Trump administration announced Monday that it would cease granting waivers to countries allowing them to buy Iranian petroleum as of May 2. Iran is only exporting 1.1 million barrels of petroleum per day, down from 2.5 million before the Trump administration violated the 2015 Iran deal and imposed unilateral severe sanctions. Secretary of State […]