DUBAI: Iranian oil exports will continue regardless of who is elected as the next US president, Iranian Oil Minister Javad Owji said on Wednesday, amid concerns that a Donald Trump presidency could curb Iranian crude sales.
“Whatever government comes to power in the United States will not be able to prevent Iranian oil exports,” Owji said in comments quoted by Iran’s official news agency IRNA.
In 2018, then-President Trump withdrew from a 2015 nuclear pact with Iran and re-imposed sanctions which hurt Iran’s oil sector, with production dropping to 2.1 million barrels per day (bpd).
US President Joe Biden took office in 2021 and since then Iran has managed to raise output to 3.5 million bpd while tripling exports, according to Owji.
Iran has expanded oil trade with China.
Iran will elect a new president on June 28 following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash in May.
The US presidential election is scheduled for November 5.
No future US government can prevent Iran oil exports, minister says
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No future US government can prevent Iran oil exports, minister says
- In 2018, then-President Trump withdrew from a 2015 nuclear pact with Iran and re-imposed sanctions which hurt Iran’s oil sector
- US President Joe Biden took office in 2021 and since then Iran has managed to raise output to 3.5 million bpd while tripling exports
Iranian court orders US to pay $6.7 billion after sanctions allegedly stopped special bandage supply
Iranian court orders US to pay $6.7 billion after sanctions allegedly stopped special bandage supply
- Epidermolysis bullosa is a rare genetic condition that causes blisters all over the body and eyes
- The young who suffer from the disease are known as ‘butterfly children’ as their skin can appear as fragile as a butterfly’s wing
The order by the International Relations Law Court in Tehran comes after Iran last year seized a $50 million cargo of Kuwaiti crude oil for American energy firm Chevron Corp. in the Strait of Hormuz amid tensions with the West, something it later said came over the court action for those suffering from Epidermolysis bullosa.
A report Thursday by the state-run IRNA news agency described the $6.7 billion order as being filed on behalf of 300 plaintiffs, including family members of victims and those physically and emotionally damaged. IRNA said about 20 patients died after the Swedish company’s decision.
Epidermolysis bullosa is a rare genetic condition that causes blisters all over the body and eyes. It can be incredibly painful and kill those afflicted. The young who suffer from the disease are known as “butterfly children” as their skin can appear as fragile as a butterfly’s wing.
The order comes as US judges have issued rulings that call for billions of dollars to be paid by Iran over attacks linked to Tehran, as well as those detained by Iran and used as pawns in negotiations between the countries — something Iran has responded to with competing lawsuits accusing the US of involvement in a 2017 Daesh group attack. The United Nations’ highest court also last year rejected Tehran’s legal bid to free up some $2 billion in Iranian Central Bank assets frozen by US authorities.
In 2018, then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, apparently sparking the Swedish company to withdraw from the Iranian market. Iran now says it locally produces the bandages.
The nuclear deal’s collapse also escalated tensions between Iran and the US, sparking a series of attacks and ship seizures. Iran seized the Marshall Islands-flagged ship carrying the Chevron oil last year. The ship, called the Advantage Sweet, began transmitting its position for the first time since the seizure on Wednesday, potentially signaling the vessel is preparing to depart Iran.
Chevron, based in San Ramon, California, has maintained that the Advantage Sweet was “seized under false pretenses.” It since has written off the cargo as a loss.
Iran’s acting foreign minister says indirect talks with US ongoing via Oman
- Efforts being made to leave “suitable grounds” for negotiations for the new Iranian government that will take office in the next few weeks.
Ali Bagheri Kani’s reported comments followed remarks on Monday in which a White House spokesperson said the United States was not ready to resume nuclear talks with Iran under the newly elected president, Masoud Pezeshkian.
“Indirect talks are being conducted through Oman but the negotiation process is confidential and its details cannot be recounted,” Bagheri Kani was quoted as saying.
Efforts were being made to leave “suitable grounds” for negotiations for the new Iranian government that will take office in the next few weeks.
Pezeshkian, a low-profile moderate who won Iran’s run-off presidential vote last week, has said he will promote a pragmatic foreign policy and ease tensions with the six powers that have been involved in now-stalled nuclear talks to revive a 2015 nuclear pact.
However, foreign policy in Iran is ultimately decided by the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who warned last month prior to elections that “one who thinks that nothing can be done without the favor of America will not manage the country well.”
Pezeshkian is taking office at a time of growing Middle East tensions over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and over cross-border fire between Israel and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, which have exacerbated disputes between Tehran and Washington.
In a letter to Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas, Pezeshkian reiterated on Wednesday Tehran’s continued support for Palestinians against “the occupation of the Zionist regime (Israel).”
Shi’ite Muslim Hezbollah and Sunni Muslim Hamas are part of a group of Iranian-backed factions in the region known as the Axis of Resistance.
Bodies trapped in Gaza City under Israeli assault as mediators push for truce
- Home to more than a quarter of Gaza’s residents before the war, Gaza City was destroyed during the first weeks of fighting last year
CAIRO: Residents of Gaza City were trapped in houses and bodies lay uncollected in the streets under an intense new Israeli assault on Thursday, even as Washington pushed for a peace deal at talks in Egypt and Qatar.
Hamas militants say a massive Israeli assault on Gaza City this week could wreck efforts to finally end the war just as negotiations have entered the home stretch.
Home to more than a quarter of Gaza’s residents before the war, Gaza City was destroyed during the first weeks of fighting last year, but hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have returned to homes in the ruins. They have now once again been ordered out by the Israeli military.
The Gaza health ministry said it had reports of people trapped and others killed inside their houses in the Tel Al-Hawa and Sabra districts of Gaza City, and rescuers could not reach them.
The Civil Emergency Service said it estimated that at least 30 people had been killed in the Tel Al-Hawa and Rimal areas and it could not recover bodies from the streets there.
Despite army instructions on Wednesday to residents of Gaza City that they can use two “safe routes” to head south, many residents refused to heed the order. Some posted a hashtag on social media: “We are not leaving.”
“We will die but not leave to the south. We have tolerated starvation and bombs for nine months and we are ready to die as martyrs here,” said Mohammad Ali, 30, reached by text message.
Ali, whose family has relocated several times within the city, said they had been running short of food, water and medicine.
“The occupation bombs Gaza City as if the war was restarting. We hope there will be a ceasefire soon, but if not then is God’s will.”
FIGHTING IN RAFAH
Israel launched its assault on the Gaza Strip last year after Hamas-led militants stormed across the border fence into southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, Israel’s assault has killed more than 38,000 according to medical authorities in Gaza.
The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said Israeli forces had quit the Shejaia suburb east of Gaza after over two weeks of a new military invasion, in which dozens of people were killed and residential districts were destroyed.
At the southern edge of the enclave in Rafah near the border with Egypt, where tanks have been operating in most of the city since May, residents said the army continued to blow up houses in the western and central areas, amid fighting with Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other smaller factions.
Palestinian health officials said four people were killed, including a child, in an Israeli air strike in Tel Al-Sultan in western Rafah.
The Israeli military said earlier on Thursday around five rockets fired from the Rafah area were successfully intercepted.
The negotiations in Qatar and Egypt follow important concessions last week from Hamas, which agreed that a truce could begin and some hostages released without Israel first agreeing to end the war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces opposition within his rightwing cabinet to any deal that would halt the war until Hamas is vanquished, says a deal must allow Israel to resume fighting until it meets all its objectives.
Two Hamas officials contacted by Reuters had no immediate comment on the content of the ongoing talks, led by Egypt, Qatar, and the United States.
“There will be a meeting today between Hamas and the mediators to check on what responses they have received from the occupation,” said one Palestinian official close to the mediation, without elaboration.
Arab League, Japan officials discuss cooperation, Mideast stability
- End war on Gaza and release all hostages, urges FM Yoko Kamikawa
- Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit seeks to boost economic ties
TOKYO: Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa and the Arab League’s Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit held talks late Wednesday on boosting economic ties, and the security and stability of Middle East nations.
At a working dinner on the sidelines of the 5th Japan-Arab Economic Forum in Tokyo, Kamikawa urged all parties involved in the war on Gaza to abide by international human rights laws.
Tokyo wants the release of all hostages and a ceasefire as soon as possible, she said.
Kamikawa added that Japan was encouraging Southeast Asian nations to support the work of the UN’s Conference on Cooperation among East Asian Countries for Palestinian Development.
Aboul Gheit said he wants to deepen economic relations between the parties at the forum, which he is currently attending for the first time as Arab League secretary-general.
Kamikawa echoed this view and said cooperation was “steadily developing.”
The two sides agreed to continue cooperation on the culture and education fronts.
On security, they emphasized the importance of secure and open maritime corridors.
They also discussed events in Syria and Libya and pledged to continue working together for Middle East peace and stability.
In addition, they discussed the progress of women’s empowerment in society.
Aboul Gheit also held talks with Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi on Wednesday, which included cooperation on education.
Gazan paramedic recounts alleged mistreatment in Israeli detention
- He says Israel held him in detention for 35 days, blindfolded, restrained and beaten
- His account is consistent with those of other detainees
AL-ARISH: His right leg heavily bandaged because of a gunshot wound, Palestinian Tamer Ossama Salem Al-Hafy lies in an Egyptian hospital recalling his ordeal in Gaza, where Israel accused him of being a terrorist.
A paramedic at the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, 40-year-old Al-Hafy said he was shot below the knee by Israeli forces as he helped the injured onto stretchers after an Israeli airstrike last November.
He briefly became a patient at the same hospital before fleeing on Nov. 20 when it came under attack. His father, Ossama, had to carry him over his back as they headed for another medical center in southern Gaza.
At an Israeli military checkpoint, Al-Hafy said, soldiers accused him of being a “terrorist” and took him to a detention facility where he was blindfolded.
He said he was held for 35 days and released without charge. While in detention, he was cuffed by his arms and legs to a bed inside a tent, he added.
Reuters could not independently verify Al-Hafy’s account. Israeli authorities did not respond to a request for comment on his account.
Al-Hafy said he was blindfolded except during interrogations and received only “liquid vitamins” through a straw every three or four days as nourishment.
“I was in a prison. I had no idea where it was located,” he told Reuters at a makeshift hospital aboard a cargo ship docked in Al-Arish, an Egyptian city in the Sinai Peninsula near Gaza.
“They would uncover my eyes and put it (the blindfold) back after. I didn’t see the sun until I was released,” he said.
Al-Hafy said he was beaten and humiliated and did not receive medical care while in detention, and believes his job as a paramedic made him a target.
“The words ‘medical personnel’ and working at a hospital, that was enough for them to treat you as a suspect,” he said.
Medical groups, including the World Health Organization, have called for a halt to attacks on Gaza health care workers during Israel’s offensive, launched after Palestinian gunmen led by the Islamist militant group Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7.
Israel’s military has accused fighters from Hamas and its ally, Islamic Jihad, of hiding in hospitals and using human shields, allegations they deny. The military also says it has captured fighters in medical facilities.
Rights groups concerned
Al-Hafy’s account of being blindfolded, restrained and beaten is consistent with comments by other Palestinians who have been detained by Israel, and with statements by human rights groups on alleged abuse and mistreatment.
The UN rapporteur on torture voiced concern in May, saying she was concerned about alleged emerging patterns of violations against Palestinian detainees and an absence of accountability.
Israel’s military has said detainees are treated in accordance with international law and that allegations of abuse against Palestinian detainees were being investigated.
The military advocate-general said in May that allegations were treated seriously and that military police investigations had been opened where there was suspicion of criminal offenses.
Some 1,200 people were killed in the Oct. 7 attack and about 250 were taken as hostages back to Hamas-governed Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel has killed more than 38,000 people, according to Gaza health authorities, and has destroyed much of Gaza’s infrastructure including thousands of homes in its military response, which it says is intended to eliminate Hamas.
Al-Hafy said he was “dumped” in southern Gaza after being released from detention and, still unable to walk, had to crawl for 3.5 km (2.2 miles). Over the next few months, he was treated in four different hospitals in Gaza, suffered from a blood clot in his lung and fell into a coma, he said.
When he awoke some 25 days later, he had lost his sight in his right eye, he said. He was eventually medically evacuated to receive care in Egypt.
He is now being treated in an Emirati-funded and operated makeshift hospital aboard a cargo ship in Egypt near Gaza. Many of the patients at the “floating hospital” are children from Gaza, some with amputated limbs.
“They (medical staff), may God bless them, have tried everything with me but God hasn’t permitted my healing yet,” Al-Hafy said.
