Iran yesterday played down the threat of new US sanctions as Washington was expected to tighten punitive measures on Tehran in a standoff sparked by the US withdrawal from a nuclear deal.
Tensions have flared after Iranian forces shot down a US drone on Thursday, the latest in a series of incidents including attacks on tankers in sensitive Persian Gulf waters that have raised fears of an unintended slide toward conflict.
Both the US and Iran have repeatedly said they want to avoid going to war, but the spiralling tensions saw US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo yesterday travel to meet with Saudi Arabian leaders to build a “global coalition” against the Islamic republic.
Photo: AFP
Iran said the drone breached its airspace and Iranian Minister of Foreign Affair Mohammad Javad Zarif has backed the claim with maps and coordinates — allegations dismissed by Washington.
US President Donald Trump said he called off a planned retaliatory military strike on Iran at the last minute, tweeting that the US would instead place “major additional sanctions on Iran on Monday.”
“Are there really any sanctions left that the United States has not imposed on our country recently or in the past 40 years?” Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Abbas Mousavi said at a press conference in Tehran.
“We really do not know what [the new sanctions] are and what they want to target anymore, and also do not consider them to have any impact,” he added.
Last year, Trump pulled the US out of a landmark 2015 deal meant to curb Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
The US has since imposed a robust slate of sanctions on Tehran designed to choke off Iranian oil sales and cripple its economy — which he now plans to expand.
Trump, who has waged a “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran, has also said the US is prepared to negotiate with the Islamic republic with “no preconditions.”
“America’s claim of readiness for unconditional negotiation is not acceptable with the continuation of threats and sanctions,” Hesamodin Ashna, an adviser to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, said on Twitter.
“We consider war and sanctions to be two sides of the same coin,” he said.
Pompeo met Saudi Arabian King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Red Sea city of Jeddah and was later due to hold talks in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), US officials said.
Saudi and Emirati leaders advocate a tough US approach against common foe Iran.
Pompeo described Saudi Arabia and the UAE as “two great allies in the challenge that Iran presents.”
“We’ll be talking with them about how to make sure that we are all strategically aligned and how we can build out a global coalition,” Pompeo said.
He said the US sought a coalition “not only throughout the Gulf states, but in Asia and in Europe that understands this challenge and that is prepared to push back against the world’s largest state sponsor of terror.”
However, Russia, one of the world powers that negotiated the nuclear deal with Iran, denounced the planned sanctions as “illegal.”
US media reports said Trump ordered a retaliatory cyberattack against Iranian missile control systems and a spy network after the drone was shot down.
Iranian Minister of Information and Communications Technology Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi said no cyberattack against his country had ever succeeded.
“The media are asking about the veracity of the alleged cyberattack against Iran. No successful attack has been carried out by them, although they are making a lot of effort,” he said on Twitter.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique