Eyes of the India

  The US has yet to respond to the new proposal, which includes lifting sanctions imposed against an economic arm of the Revolutionary Guard Corps Tehran has dropped its condition that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) be dropped from Washington's list of terror groups in return for sanctions relief in order to conclude the stalled efforts to revive the  nuclear deal , sources told Middle East Eye. The 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was signed between  Iran  and the United States during the administration of Barack Obama to limit Iran's nuclear programme in return for US sanctions relief. But in 2018, then-US President Donald Trump unilaterally exited the deal and reimposed the sanctions.  After Joe Biden came to power last year, talks to revive the deal restarted, but have been stalled since March as Iran demanded the White House reverse Donald Trump's April 2019 decision to designate the IRGC as a foreign...

  Senators in both parties briefed recently by senior Biden administration officials on negotiations with Iran say they doubt Tehran will agree to any new deal to limit its development of nuclear weapons.   Lawmakers say the administration has an offer on the table, but that Iran is showing little willingness to reestablish the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which placed significant restrictions on its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.   Former  President Trump  unilaterally withdrew the United States from the 2015 deal, which was one of former  President Obama’s  biggest foreign policy accomplishments.   Biden officials said in January that they were on the cusp of restoring the agreement but cautioned at the time that it would be up to Tehran to accept it.   Four months later, Iran still hasn’t shown any serious interest in accepting the offer from the United States and its European allies, which means...

Britain’s negotiations with Iran aimed at securing the release of dual citizen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe are “going right up to the wire”, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said. Mr Johnson said talks with Tehran over the fate of the mother of one were “moving forward” but he could not say more as “negotiations continue to be under way”. Liz Truss, the UK’s foreign secretary, said the government’s priority is to pay Iran the £400 million debt and reach an agreement with Tehran to allow Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 43, to return to Britain. Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of imprisoned Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, and their 7-year-old daughter Gabriella hold up pictures of Nazanin in Parliament Square in London in September 2021, to mark the 2,000 days she has been detained in Iran.  Hopes were raised on Tuesday that she might finally be freed after six years when a London MP disclosed that her British passport had been returned to her. Labour’s Tulip Siddiq said Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been ta...

 Vessels being held on suspicion of illegal shipments of crude The US has seized two tankers suspected of transporting Iranian oil as part of a sanctions-busting scheme involving forged documents and the repainting of a ship’s deck to conceal illegal shipments. Details of the seizure were contained in a federal civil case after the Greek-managed vessels discharged their cargo, worth more than $38 million, in Houston and the Bahamas at the direction of the US, AP reported. The incident comes as President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran that would most likely entail the US lifting sanctions. Talks have been made more urgent by President Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine and the US decision to retaliate by banning all Russian oil imports. The ban potentially removes from western markets more than 10 million daily barrels of oil. Some of that lost supply could be made up by Iran, which pumped an average 2.4 million barrels a day last year. Te...