US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has warned allies that time is running out to squash Iran while it’s weakened by an arms embargo, urging them to halt Tehran’s “destabilizing behavior” before it regains the ability to fight back. [...]

Earlier, key European powers Germany, France and the UK appeared to snub Washington’s requests for them to join a US-led mission against “Iranian aggression” in the Persian Gulf, with the three countries signaling support for a European-led security effort to “protect” commercial vessels operating in the region instead. [...]

Germany will refuse to take part in a US-led maritime mission in the Strait of Hormuz, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas announced. Maas said that there “cannot be a military solution” to the current crisis in the Persian Gulf. [...]

UK authorities in Gibraltar seized Iran’s Grace 1 oil tanker and detained some members of its crew on 4 July over suspicions that it was circumventing EU sanctions against Syria. Tehran denies these allegations and has slammed London for endangering freedom of navigation. [...]

Iranian secret services uncovered a 17-member spy ring working against the country, according to state-affiliated media. Some of the agents have been given capital punishment. [...]

The US continues to “strangle” Iran’s economy by imposing sanctions on Tehran as well as other countries that attempt to trade with Iran, Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the peace group Code Pink, told Radio Sputnik’s Loud & Clear Friday. [...]

Iranian forces came to the aid of an oil tanker stranded in the Persian Gulf, a foreign ministry spokesman has said. The tanker is presumed to be the same Panama-registered vessel missing from radar screens since Saturday. [...]

Iran is right. The way to save the international nuclear accord on Iran is for all parties to honor it and to implement normal trading relations. That would also permit de-escalation of dangerous war tensions in the Gulf. [...]

The US has called an emergency meeting of the UN nuclear watchdog after Iran’s uranium stockpile exceeded the 2015 nuclear deal’s limits. That’s the same body whose reports of Iran’s compliance Washington has ignored for years. [...]

A special trade channel that will allow European firms to bypass American sanctions on Iran is operational - that was the outcome of the meeting between the countries who signed the nuclear deal ditched by US. [...]

Washington has unleashed a fresh barrage of threats against Tehran, with US President Donald Trump warning it against “playing with fire” and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo branding it a “top sponsor of terrorism.” Fresh from rekindling his strange bromance with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un, Trump has returned to his war-mongering ways, leveling a vague new warning at Iran. [...]

The already-strained relationship between Tehran and Washington ties worsened on 20 June, when Iran said that it had downed a US drone over Iranian soil. US President Trump then tweeted that he had halted a military strike against Iran 10 minutes before it was set to be carried out, upon learning that some 150 Iranians might die in the attack. [...]

It was the Spanish philosopher, poet and novelist, George Santayana (1863-1952), who warned us all: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it". [...]

Baghdad will not allow Washington to use its military bases to launch an attack on Iran, the country's president stressed, thrashing Donald Trump's warmongering policies towards the Islamic Republic. [...]

Earlier this week, Washington imposed a new round of sanctions on Tehran after the Iranian military downed an American drone, stating it had violated the country's borders. [...]

Tensions between Iran and the US have intensified since Tehran downed an American drone, which as Iran said, had violated the country's borders. Washington, meanwhile, has accused Tehran of allegedly attacking oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman, something that the Islamic Republic denies doing. [...]

US National Security Advisor John Bolton has said that defiant Iran stays silent over meaningful talks with Washington, when, in fact, Tehran repeatedly argued that a barrage of threats and sanctions has made talks impossible. [...]

Iran has shot down an American RQ-4 reconnaissance drone flying over Hormuzgan province, Tehran claims. The US military declined to comment. [...]

US President Donald Trump does not appear to be in control of his own administration’s Iran policy and he should fire national security adviser John Bolton, special adviser to EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini told RT. [...]

Iran’s envoy to the United Nations has called on the international community to end “unlawful destabilizing measures” by the US, declaring that while Iran does not seek war, it “reserves the right to counter any hostile act. [...]

As tensions with Iran threaten to spill over into war, the big question is who has sway over President Donald Trump, his hawkish advisers or a cautious Fox News host, and the answer might make all the difference. [...]

Iran dismisses Washington's calls to "talk" as a waste of time since Tehran is fighting for true economic autonomy and independence from the Western-led dollar diktat, says Pye Ian, an American economic analyst and private equity executive, explaining why US efforts to confuse and scare the Islamic Republic don't work. [...]