Iran

Iran has summoned the Swiss Ambassador to Tehran to protest the controversial supreme court ruling that $2 billion of frozen Iranian assets be used to compensate American victims of “terror”. Last week the supreme Court ruled that Iran must pay the sum to survivors and relatives of those killed in attacks blamed on the Islamic republic. Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif threatened to take legal action in the International Court of Justice against the United States if the amount in frozen funds is “diverted”.

Submitted by Rakesh Upadhyay via OilPrice.com,

Saudi Arabia single-handedly scuttled the Doha meeting, knowing all along that Iran would not participate, with a valid reason. The Russians and others agreed to proceed without Iran, planning to include them at a later date. So if everything was known beforehand, why did the Saudi’s pour cold water on the aspirations of the remaining members, risking its alienation from Russia and the OPEC community?

As Iran pledges to continue support for the Syrian government, they have also warned that a US plan to deploy more troops to Syria will worsen the crisis. The Iranian Foreign Ministry said on Monday: “We have announced from the start of the Syria crisis that any foreign intervention in Syria without coordination with its government will further escalate the crisis“ Press TV reports: President Barack Obama will announce plans on Monday to send up to 250 more military personnel to the war-torn country, US administration officials have said.

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has claimed credit for hindering the spread of ISIS terrorism and stopping radicals taking control of Iraq and Syria. RFE/RL reports: Hassan Rohani made his comments April 23 in Tehran at a United Nations-sponsored event. The IS group evolved in part from the remnants of Al-Qaeda’s network in Iraq after it was defeated by U.S. forces. The extremist Sunni group has slaughtered those groups it believes violate its strict interpretation of Islam, including Shi’a, who it considers to be apostates.

by David Haggith from The Great Recession Blog

As predicted relentlessly here, the scuttled meeting in Doha to limit oil production broke up with no agreement at all. The meeting foundered like a tanker snagged in the dessert sands because of the singular obvious factor that should have sunken all hope weeks ago but did not: Saudi Arabia said, “No deal without Iran.”

Doha disaster predictable yet not the disaster that was predicted