The US on Wednesday announced sanctions on entities engaged in the trading of Iranian oil, as talks between Tehran and Washington over a new nuclear deal are set to reconvene this weekend.
President Donald Trump reinstituted a “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran after he returned to office in January, with the stated goal to drive Iran's petroleum exports down 90 per cent.
The State Department said the new sanctions take aim at four sellers and one purchaser of Iranian petrochemicals worth hundreds of millions of dollars, as well as a marine management company accused of playing a major role in Tehran's crude energy supply train, and an Iran-based cargo inspection company.
Two vessels managed by the marine management company have also been identified as blocked property, the State Department said.
“So long as Iran attempts to generate oil and petrochemical revenues to fund its destabilising activities, and support its terrorist activities and proxies, the United States will take steps to hold both Iran and all its partners engaged in sanctions evasion accountable,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.
These are the latest in a series of sanctions against Iran enacted by the Trump administration, and come after the US and Iran scheduled continuing talks in Rome on Saturday on the development of a new nuclear agreement.
During Mr Trump's first term in office, he withdrew the US from a deal between Iran and world powers that placed limits on its nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief. In March, he indicated openness to drawing up a new deal.
Despite the continuing talks, the US has continued to hit Iran with sanctions and Mr Trump has threatened possible military action if a deal does not come to fruition quickly.
Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
How to avoid crypto fraud
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- Use an offline private key, a physical device that requires manual activation, whenever you access your wallet.
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Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021
Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.
The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.
These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.
“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.
“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.
“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.
“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”
Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.
There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.
“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.
“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.
“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”
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