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◢ Azerbaijan’s state oil company is turning to Russia to supply a new $6.3 billion refinery it built in Turkey because shipments from one of its preferred suppliers—Iran—are off the table due to U.S. sanctions. “If there were no restrictions, we would buy Iranian crude,” he said, adding that the refinery can purchase oil from anywhere “as long as our model supports it,” although in practice Azerbaijan’s own light crude isn’t really suitable.
◢ Yukiya Amano, the Japanese diplomat who led the International Atomic Energy Agency for a decade, handling the investigation of Iran and the aftermath of the Fukushima meltdowns, has died at the age of 72. Amano had planned on resigning from the agency because of poor health, which had interfered with his day-to-day duties over the last year.
◢ An Iranian tanker held in Saudi Arabia since being forced to seek repairs at Jeddah port has been released and is returning to the Islamic republic, a minister said Sunday. The Happiness 1 tanker "has been released following negotiations and is now moving toward Persian Gulf waters," said transport minister Mohammad Eslami, quoted by state news agency IRNA.
◢ At least two Iranian vessels set to carry Brazilian corn are stranded off the Latin American nation’s coast because they can’t get fuel, according to the port authority at Paranagua. State-controlled oil company Petroleo Brasileiro said it won’t supply the ships—which have been floating for over a month—due to the risk of U.S. sanctions.
◢ Iran warned Sunday that the fate of a UK-flagged tanker it seized in the Gulf depends on an investigation, as Britain said it was considering options in response to the standoff. Authorities impounded the Stena Impero with 23 crew members aboard off the port of Bandar Abbas after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized it Friday in the highly sensitive Strait of Hormuz.
◢ The US Treasury named a group of companies in Iran, Belgium and China to its sanctions blacklist Thursday for acting as a supply network for Tehran's nuclear enrichment program. The companies served as a procurement network for Iran's Centrifuge Technology Company (TESA), which produces enrichment centrifuges for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), the Treasury said.
◢ President Donald Trump said the U.S. “immediately destroyed” an Iranian drone that approached the USS Boxer near the Strait of Hormuz, the latest sign of escalating military tensions around the critical oil chokepoint. The drone was a threat to the ship and its crew, Trump said at the White House on Thursday.
◢ Gibraltar's Chief Minister Fabian Picardo said Thursday he had a "constructive and positive" meeting with Iranian officials in London aimed at defusing tensions around an oil tanker carrying Iranian oil being held in the British territory's waters. Picardo's government said the meeting took to discuss the continued detention of the Grace One tanker "and to seek to de-escalate all aspects of the issues arising.”
◢ Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin made clear that participating in the U.S. financial system means abiding by its sanctions amid a European effort to sidestep American economic pressure on Iran to continue trade. “We’ve been very clear that we expect U.S. sanctions to be adhered to,” Mnuchin said in response to questions from reporters on Thursday.
◢ The U.S. has “shot itself in the foot” by pulling out of the nuclear accord with Iran, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said, offering a grim outlook for the chance of restarting talks with President Donald Trump. Zarif signaled that Iran will continue to pursue what he called the Islamic Republic’s rights under the accord to respond to the U.S. pullout and failed European efforts to deliver promised benefits to the Iranian economy.
◢ The international body in charge of inspecting Iran’s nuclear program is searching for new leadership after health problems forced its director to plan an early end to his term. International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Yukiya Amano seeks to leave the Vienna-based agency by March, according to two diplomats briefed on the matter.
◢ Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tuesday that the Islamic republic will keep rolling back its commitments under the landmark 2015 nuclear deal. "You did not carry out a single one (of your commitments), why do you want us to stick to our commitments?" Khamenei said, criticizing European countries which are party to the deal.
◢ A small oil tanker that had gone missing in the Persian Gulf had technical difficulties and was towed into Iranian waters for repairs, an Iranian foreign ministry official said, according to the ISNA news agency. Further details on the ship, the Panamanian-flagged RIAH, will be announced later, Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said, according to the semi-offficial ISNA.
◢ The United Nations voiced concern Monday after the United States imposed unusually harsh restrictions on the movements of Iran's foreign minister. Weeks after the United States threatened sanctions against Zarif, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Washington issued him a visa but forbade him from moving beyond six blocks of Iran's UN mission in Midtown Manhattan.
◢ European foreign ministers held crisis talks Monday on saving the beleaguered Iran nuclear deal as Britain warned the "small window" for success was closing and Tehran issued fresh threats of restarting its atomic program. British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt—who held phone talks with his US and Iranian counterparts at the weekend—insisted "the deal isn't dead yet.”
◢ French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday called on Tehran to explain why a Franco-Iranian academic based at a Paris university has been arrested in Iran, expressing concern for the woman's welfare. The detention of Fariba Adelkhah, a well-known expert on Iran and Shiite Islam at the prestigious Sciences Po university, risks increasing tension between Paris and Tehran at a critical moment.
◢ Iran’s battered currency is starting to recover in the unregulated market as government policies to defend it against U.S. sanctions take effect. The central bank sought ways to protect the currency with measures that include setting up a government-run foreign-exchange platform known as NIMA to quell the black market and controlling interest rates offered by lenders.
◢ British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt sought to ease tensions with Iran on Saturday, saying a tanker held by Gibraltar would be released if Tehran guaranteed it was not heading to Syria. He said he had a "constructive call" with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif, who he said assured him that Tehran "is not seeking to escalate" tensions between the countries.
