Dubai

Iran's Zarif lands in France's Biarritz, talks with U.S. not on agenda

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who landed in Biarritz on Sunday, has no plans to hold talks with U.S. President Donald Trump or any member of the U.S. delegation who have attended the G7 meeting in the French town.

“Zarif will convey the Iranian leadership’s response to French President Emmanuel Macron’s proposal that is aimed to save Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal,” a senior Iranian official told Reuters.

Iranian oil tanker pursued by US says it is going to Turkey

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An Iranian-flagged oil tanker pursued by the U.S. amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington changed its listed destination to a port in Turkey early Saturday after Greece said it wouldn’t risk its relations with America by aiding it.

The crew of the Adrian Darya 1, formerly known as the Grace 1, updated its listed destination in its Automatic Identification System to Mersin, Turkey, a port city in the country’s south and home to an oil terminal.

Indian business ties underpin muted Arab response to Kashmir

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Gulf Arab countries have remained mostly silent as India’s government moved to strip the Indian-administered sector of Kashmir of its limited autonomy, imposing a sweeping military curfew in the disputed Muslim-majority region and cutting off residents from all communication and the internet.

This muted response is underpinned by more than $100 billion in annual trade with India that makes it one of the Arabian Peninsula’s most prized economic partners.

Iran says it helped a tanker with tow to harbor

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The Latest on tensions in the Persian Gulf amid a crisis between the United States and Iran (all times local):

5:30 a.m.

Iran’s state-run media is quoting the country’s Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying the Islamic Republic helped an oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz amid U.S. concern that Tehran seized one there.

The state-run IRNA news agency early Wednesday quoted Abbas Mousavi as saying Iran towed an unnamed vessel to harbor after it suffered a technical malfunction.

Iran says minister’s missile remarks meant to challenge US

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran says remarks by the country’s foreign minister about Iran’s missile program possibly being up for negotiations with the U.S. meant to challenge Washington’s arms sales policy to the region — and were not meant to indicate a readiness by Tehran for any such talks.

The Foreign Ministry’s spokesman, Abbas Mousavi, tweeted late on Tuesday that Mohammad Javad Zarif’s comments “threw the ball into the U.S. court while challenging America’s arm sales” to its Mideast allies.

Top Iran diplomat says talks on ballistic missiles possible

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s foreign minister has for the first time suggested his country’s ballistic missile program could be on the table for negotiations with the U.S. — if America stops selling arms to its Gulf allies in the Mideast.

Mohammad Javad Zarif’s comments came in an NBC News interview that aired Monday night.

Iran long has maintained its ballistic missile program, under the control of its Revolutionary Guard, is for defensive purposes only. The 2015 nuclear deal that Tehran struck with world powers did not include its missile program.

Britain says Iranian vessels tried to block tanker in Gulf

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The British navy said it prevented three Iranian paramilitary vessels from impeding the passage of a British oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz early Thursday, a day after Iran’s president warned of repercussions for the seizure of its own supertanker.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard denied the allegations, saying if it had received orders to seize any ships it would have done so immediately.

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