Tag: Iran

Families of Americans Held in Iran Ask Trump to Revoke Visas for Children of Iranian Diplomats

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by Hanna Bogorowski   Multiple families of United States citizens currently imprisoned in Iran are urging President Donald Trump and his administration to pull the visas of children of top Iranian officials, according to a Monday report. The Trump administration has yet to take action on such requests, NBC News reported, leaving the families feeling even more hopeless on the fate of their loved ones in an endeavor the administration once put at the top of its list. At least four American citizens and one legal U.S. resident are currently imprisoned in Iran, and a few family members have reportedly given members of Congress a list of Iranian nationals living in the U.S., family friends told NBC News. The list alleges to have relatives of top Iranian officials on it as well as a few of President Hassan Rouhani’s. When Trump was a candidate, he tweeted that such detainments and imprisonments wouldn’t happen if he got elected. Well, Iran has done it again. Taken two of our people and asking for a fortune for their release. This doesn't happen if I'm president! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 23, 2016 “I’m at a loss why this administration would be so…

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Trump’s Security Chief Bolton Vows to Squeeze Iran

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  President Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser John Bolton vowed Tuesday to “squeeze” Iran “until the pips squeak,” a week after a tough new round of sanctions came into force. Trump has dramatically increased pressure on Tehran, withdrawing from an international agreement aimed at ending its nuclear program and introducing several rounds of unilateral U.S. sanctions. The latest tranche of measures have been touted as the toughest yet, and aim to significantly reduce Iran’s vital oil exports and cut off its banks from international finance. Speaking in Singapore, Bolton said: “We think the government is under real pressure and it’s our intention to squeeze them very hard.” “As the British say, squeeze them until the pips squeak….We are also going to significantly increase the enforcement of sanctions,” Bolton said. The United States has repeatedly said that humanitarian needs, food and medicine are exempt from the sanctions and the Iranian people are not the targets. But Iran says the sanctions are inhumane and go against international law. The sanctions on banks have meant that few if any international lenders are ready to facilitate transactions for fear of upsetting the United States, even for humanitarian purposes such as medical supplies. Coupled with…

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Pompeo Terminates Iran Treaty After UN Court Hands Tehran a Victory in Sanctions Lawsuit Against Washington

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by Will Racke   Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Wednesday the U.S. will terminate a 63-year-old treaty with Iran, hours after a top United Nations court ruled in favor of Tehran in a lawsuit challenging U.S. sanctions. Pompeo said the abrogation of the 1955 Treaty of Amity was “39 years overdue,” referring to the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran that resulted in the overthrow of the U.S.-friendly shah. Until Pompeo’s announcement, the Treaty of Amity had remained in force even though Washington and Tehran have not had normal diplomatic relations since 1980. The move follows a ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that ordered Washington to lift any sanctions on Iran affecting humanitarian exports. Iran had sued the U.S. in July, arguing the renewal of sanctions that had been lifted as part of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal violated the 1955 treaty. At a press briefing Wednesday morning, Pompeo called Iran’s claims under the treaty “absurd.” He also accused Tehran of exploiting the ICJ for propaganda purposes as it tries to preserve the framework of the nuclear deal. In its ruling, the ICJ said U.S. sanctions had violated Iran’s rights under the treaty by making it “difficult if not…

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Promoting Religious Liberty Affirms ‘Human Dignity,’ Pompeo Tells Values Voter Summit

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by Fred Lucas   Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reaffirmed Friday that the Trump administration is committed to religious liberty, both at home and abroad. Speaking at the conservative Values Voter Summit in Washington, Pompeo said that more than 80 percent of the world’s population lives in countries that place significant limitations on religious freedom. He singled out Iran and China. “We are assuring human dignity by advancing one of our most cherished, indispensable liberties, enshrined in the First Amendment. It is our religious liberty,” said Pompeo, a former member of the House from Kansas and CIA director before becoming the nation’s chief diplomat in April. “Religious freedom is a universal, God-given right, to which all people are entitled,” Pompeo said. “Religious freedom is also a building block for free societies. Our Founders knew this.” Pompeo talked about the success of getting American detainees released from captivity in North Korea in May. “Far and away, the greatest highlight to date of my job as secretary of state has been bringing three Americans home from captivity in North Korea,” Pompeo said. He said the State Department now is focused heavily on securing the release and repatriation of Andrew Brunson, an American pastor who has been…

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Mattis Backs Up Trump’s Strong Words On Iran

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by Evie Fordham   Secretary of Defense James Mattis backed up President Donald Trump’s fiery message about Iran at the Hoover Institution in Stanford, California, on Tuesday. “[Iran] cannot continue to show irresponsibility as some revolutionary organization that is intent on exporting terrorism, exporting disruption across the region,” Mattis said, reported The Hill. Trump tweeted an all-caps message to Iran on Sunday night. “NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!” he wrote. To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 23, 2018 “The president was making very clear that they’re on the wrong track,” Mattis said at the Hoover Institution. Mattis was in California with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for a  meeting with Australian officials, reported The Hill. The defense secretary discussed Iran’s role…

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In Another Blow to Iran’s Faltering Economy, Shipping Giant CMA CGM Announces Exit, Citing US Sanctions

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CMA CGM Shipping

Reuters   One of the world’s biggest cargo shippers announced Saturday that it was pulling out of Iran for fear of becoming entangled in U.S. sanctions, and President Hassan Rouhani demanded that European countries to do more to offset the U.S. measures. The announcement by France’s CMA CGM that it was quitting Iran dealt a blow to Tehran’s efforts to persuade Europeancountries to keep their companies operating in Iran despite thethreat of new American sanctions. Iran says it needs more help from Europe to keep alive anagreement with world powers to curb its nuclear program. President Trump abandoned the agreement in May and has announced new sanctions on Tehran. Washington has ordered all countries to stop buying Iranian oil by November and foreign firms to stop doing business there or face U.S. blacklists. European powers that still support the nuclear deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, say they will do more to encourage their businesses to remain engaged with Iran. But the prospect of being banned in the United States appears to be enough to persuade European companies to keep out. Foreign ministers from the five remaining signatory countries to the nuclear deal — Britain, France, Germany, China…

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President Trump Withdraws from Iran Deal; Marsha Blackburn and Diane Black Praise Decision

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President Trump

Ahead of the May 12th deadline and against the many requests from European allies,  President Trump announced Tuesday afternoon the United States will withdraw from the Obama-era “Iran Deal.” The president announced his decision in a speech at the White House in the Diplomatic Room as Trump’s National Security Adviser John Bolton, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Vice President Mike Pence looked on, Breitbart reported. In his remarks, Mr. Trump revisited the many atrocities against the West and the United States by the theocratic regime. “Over the years, Iran and its proxies have bombed American embassies and military installations, murdered hundreds of American service members, and kidnapped, imprisoned, and tortured American citizens,” he said. After a summarizing the short history of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – commonly known as the “Iran Deal” he President Trump noted: Since the Agreement, Iran’s bloody ambitions have grown only more brazen. In light of these glaring flaws, I announced last October that the Iran Deal must wither be renegotiated or terminated. Three months later on January 12th, I repeated these conditions. I made clear that if the Deal cannot be fixed, the United States would no longer be a party to the…

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What Trump Calls ‘Right Message’ to North Korea After Evidence Iran Cheats on Nukes

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by Fred Lucas   President Donald Trump, without saying he would pull out of the Iran nuclear deal, said Monday that he is open to signing a better agreement with the Islamist regime. Commenting after Israel accused Iran of cheating on the deal, Trump also rejected the premise that by pulling out the U.S. would jeopardize a separate nuclear deal with North Korea. “No. I think it sends the right message,” Trump said of his possible move during a joint press conference with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari in the Rose Garden of the White House. [ The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution. Find out more ] The month of May could prove to be monumental for the Trump administration and global politics. The United States has until May 12 to decide whether it will remain in the 2015 multilateral deal, led by the Obama administration, to temporarily delay Iran’s development of nuclear weapons. The president said he will meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un in late May or early June. “I’m not telling you what I’m doing, but a lot of people think they know,” Trump said…

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Trump Expresses Support for Iranian Protests as Regime’s Hard-Liners Counter Opposition

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President Trump voiced support Saturday for Iranians protesting in the streets against their government, saying Tehran’s oppressive regime “cannot endure forever.” “The entire world understands that the good people of Iran want change, and, other than the vast military power of the United States, that Iran’s people are what their leaders fear the most,” Mr. Trump tweeted. “Oppressive regimes cannot endure forever, and the day will come when the Iranian people will face a choice. The world is watching!”

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Trump Decertifies Iran Nuclear Deal, Announces New Crackdown

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President Trump said Friday he’s decertifying the Iranian nuclear deal forged under the Obama administration, but stopped short of ending the international agreement, instead giving Congress 60 days to take a tougher approach toward Tehran’s lawless behavior. In an address from the White House, the president also said he’s directing the Treasury Department to sanction Iran’s…

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Trump Administration May Be Inching Toward ‘Regime Change’ in Syria, Iran and Venezuela

Tennessee Star Staff

The Trump administration and Congress appear to be inching toward policies of regime change in at least three countries — Iran, Syria and Venezuela — in what would be a dramatic reversal of the non-interventionism that Donald Trump advocated during the campaign. In a hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on June 14, Secretary of…

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Iran, the World’s Top Terror Sponsor, Is Upset With Trump’s Travel Ban

Tennessee Star Staff

Iran, the world’s top terror sponsor, denounced President Donald Trump’s travel ban on six Muslim-majority countries Friday, calling it a “shameful exhibition.” “US now bans Iranian grandmothers from seeing their grandchildren, in a truly shameful exhibition of blind hostility to all Iranians,” said Foreign Minister Javad Zarif in a Twitter post Friday. Trump’s travel ban went…

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How Radical Islam Penetrated The U.S. House of Representatives

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Tennessee Star

George Rasley, CHQ Editor Our friend Luke Rosiak, Investigative Reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation, should receive a Pulitzer Prize for his investigative reporting of the vast national security breach of the House of Representatives perpetrated by five Pakistani Muslims who were employed as information technology staff by dozens of House Democrats. In his latest report on a story that, we might add, has been completely ignored by the establishment media Rosiak documents how the five Pakistanis have been connected to the Iranian-backed terror organization Hezbollah, that has killed hundreds of Americans and Israelis. Brothers Imran, Abid and Jamal Awan, as well as their wives Natalia Sova and Hina Alvi, were all on the congressional payroll serving as IT administrators for House Democrats. Rosiak has reported that while working for Congress, the Pakistani brothers controlled a limited liability corporation called Cars International A (CIA), a car dealership with odd finances, which took–and did not repay–a $100,000 loan from Dr. Ali Al-Attar. Laundering money through used car dealerships is a known Hezbollah tactic. In 2011 the government filed a civil asset forfeiture action in New York against 30 car dealerships from Michigan to Florida. To launder the terrorist money, vehicles were moved from the US to West Africa and resold, and…

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