asdasdasdasdasdasdasdasdasdasd
All tagged China
◢ Four more people have died of coronavirus in Iran, a spokesman for parliament said Monday, bringing the country's overall death toll to 12—by far the most outside China. "The minister of health announced the deaths of 12 people and 47 cases of infection in the country," Assadollah Abbassi was quoted as saying by semi-official news agency ISNA after a closed session of parliament.
◢ Iran on Friday reported two more deaths among 13 new cases of coronavirus in the Islamic republic, bringing the total number of deaths to four and infections to 18. The COVID-19 outbreak first appeared in Iran on Wednesday, when officials said it killed two elderly people in the Shiite holy city of Qom.
◢ Iran has confirmed three new coronavirus cases following the deaths of two elderly men, the health ministry told AFP on Thursday, as Iraq banned travel to and from its neighbor. The pair who died were elderly Iranian citizens and residents of the city of Qom. They were the first confirmed deaths from the COVID-19 virus in the Middle East.
◢ Two people have died in Iran after testing positive on Wednesday for the new coronavirus, the health ministry said, in the Islamic republic's first cases of the disease. Kianoush Jahanpour, a ministry spokesman, said the cases were detected in the holy city of Qom, south of the Iranian capital.
◢ The U.S. lifted sanctions against a unit of China’s biggest shipping company that was accused of hauling Iranian crude in violation of American restrictions. The penalties had barred U.S. citizens and companies from dealing with the firms, effectively blocking them from American banks at the heart of the global financial system.
◢ The U.S. sanctioned four companies that it says have traded hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Iranian petroleum and petrochemicals in its latest effort to clamp down on Iran’s revenue sources. All property and interests in the property of the designated companies are blocked and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them.
◢ The Trump administration imposed new sanctions on Iran on Friday, including penalties on the Islamic Republic’s metals and some senior leaders, following Tehran’s attack on U.S. military bases. The sanctions target the nation’s steel industry, as well as eight senior Iranian officials and other sectors of the economy.
◢ China, Russia and Iran will hold joint naval drills starting Friday in the Gulf of Oman, Beijing and Tehran said. For Iran, the drill's purpose was to bolster "international commerce security in the region" and "fighting terrorism and piracy," said senior armed forces spokesman Brigadier General Aboldazl Shekarchi.
◢ Iran will seek to modernize its forces by purchasing advanced weapons systems once a United Nations arms embargo expires next year, the Pentagon is warning in a new report. Iran wants to purchase weapons “it has largely been unable to acquire for decades” when the embargo expires in October 2020.
◢ China plans to ask the U.S. to lift sanctions on its biggest shipping company at high-level trade negotiations in Washington this week, people familiar with the matter said. Officials plan to raise the issue of penalties against the Dalian units of China COSCO Shipping Corp., which the U.S. accuses of knowingly violating restrictions on carrying Iranian oil.
◢ Oil-tanker costs are surging after the U.S. slapped sanctions on Chinese companies it accused of hauling Iranian crude, prompting a scramble in freight markets to secure alternative vessels. Rates for ships hauling 2 million-barrel cargoes of Middle East oil to Asia jumped 15% or more, according to brokers. Shares of tanker operators also gained.
◢ China on Monday urged the United States and Iran to "exercise restraint" after a drone attack on Saudi oil infrastructure, which Washington has blamed on Tehran. Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying also said it was not responsible to accuse others "in the absence of a conclusive investigation or verdict.”
◢ Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif kicked off his Asian tour in Beijing Monday, presenting a 25-year plan to cement Iran's ties with its biggest Asian trading partner amid biting US sanctions. Zarif's Asian tour—which also includes stopovers in Japan and Malaysia—comes fresh on the heels of a surprise visit to the G7 summit in France over the weekend.
◢ US National Security Advisor John Bolton was Monday to sound out British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on global disputes that include an escalating Gulf standoff with Iran. The hawkish White House aide is the most senior US official to meet Johnson since he succeeded Theresa May as UK government leader last month.
