Donald Trump’s trashing of the Iran nuclear deal this week was not just an attack on Iranian sovereign interests. The US president was also poking European allies in the eye. In abruptly withdrawing the US from the international nuclear treaty, Trump warned that his administration was preparing to re-impose harsh sanctions on Tehran, and that those sanctions would also hit European commercial in [...]

Donald ‘Art of the Deal’ Trump demonstrated he can make ‘em as well as break ‘em by pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal. Of course, he risks causing more chaos in the Middle East, but that is what US presidents tend to do. Perhaps the most shocking thing is the level of surprise there appeared to be at Trump’s decision, as if nothing like this has ever happened before. [...]

The European Union has moved to protect the interests of its companies that do business in Iran, following the United States decision to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal. President Donald Trump’s announcement that the US was withdrawing from the landmark pact unleashed a wave of criticism from the international community. Now the EU has threatened to take the US to the World Trade Organizatio [...]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Monday that his country has a trove of secret documents detailing Iran’s continued expansion of the range of its nuclear-capable missiles - a display insulting to the international inspectors who have consistently found no evidence of such work, guests told Radio Sputnik’s Loud & Clear. [...]

Iran recently announced it is dropping the US dollar in foreign trade. Just as Iraq did shortly before it was invaded by the US, or Libya planned to before it was bombed by NATO-led allies. Lee Camp is starting to see a pattern. The US is gearing up to abandon the Iran nuclear deal, which has all but killed Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief, because it's not restrictive eno [...]

US hypocrisy over its self-righteous military attack on Syria over a recent alleged use of not-yet-verified chemical weapons in Douma raises the question: Is gassing bad, but OK for some countries? The reason for asking is the rush to judgment by the United States, Britain and France to bomb selected military locations in Syria, which these countries claim research and develop, manufacture and sto [...]

Russian Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak said the country is considering an option of payments for oil in national currencies, in particular with Turkey and Iran. According to him, both countries are interested but there is also a matter of conversion of currencies and their further use. [...]

Russia, Turkey, Iran, and Syria need to team up in order to clear terrorists from Syria, Turkish political analyst Bora Bayraktar told Sputnik, adding that the US military buildup in the region, as well as the threat of the creation of independent Kurdish entities, allow for new regional alliances to blossom. [...]

Major General Qassem Soleimani, senior commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force, has provided the country's Foreign Ministry with documents proving US collaboration with Daesh beyond a shadow of a doubt, Iranian media has reported. Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, special advisor on international affairs to Iran's speaker of parliament, said he had a meeting with Soleimani and received t [...]

Permanent Syrian envoy to the UN Bashar al-Jaafari has emphasized that the US presence in his country runs counter to a UN Security Council resolution which stipulates preserving Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity. [...]

It is highly unlikely that Washington would manage to convince its European allies as well as Russia and China to renegotiate the Iran nuclear deal, RIA Novosti contributors Vladimir Ardaev and Igor Gashkov noted, adding that the unilateral reintroduction of the sanctions regime may leave the US further isolated. [...]

As the situation around the decision of the US President on the Iran nuclear deal gains momentum, University of Minnesota Professor of Anthropology and Middle East historian William Beema and Center for Peace & Democracy Director Ivan Eland told Sputnik in an interview what could be behind Trump's steps, and their possible consequences. [...]

Earlier this week, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned that Tehran may pull out from the nuclear deal if the United States continues its policy of sanctions against Iran. Experts reached by Sputnik, however, do not believe that Tehran will go that far. [...]

A temporary agreement on establishing a free trade zone between the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and Iran may be signed in 2017, Chairman of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) Board Tigran Sargsyan said Monday. [...]

Iran has resumed oil swap operations in the Caspian Sea in a bid strengthen the country’s strategic position in the region, local Mehr news agency reported Monday. An oil tanker arrived to Neka terminal earlier in the month to discharge oil for swapping purposes for the first time in seven years, the Iranian Petroleum Ministry was cited as saying by Mehr. [...]

This could be the most uncomfortable State Department press briefing moment yet. During a press conference about US President Donald Trump’s recent trip to the Middle East, AFP journalist Dave Clark asked a department official why the US criticizes the Iranian elections and its record on democracy, but not Saudi Arabia. [...]

Russia strongly backs Iranian membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), now that UN Security Council sanctions have been lifted from the country, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. Iran is ready to become a full-fledged member of the organization, Lavrov said Friday during an SCO Council of Foreign Ministers meeting in Astana. [...]

In the last few days, both Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement exchanged threats, reviving the specter of another Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Even the Western mainstream media admits the root cause of the tension could be Mr. Trump’s threats to garbage the nuclear agreement with Iran, Hezbollah’s longtime supporter. [...]

German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel has promised to press Washington loosen its economic restrictions on Iran, as it promised to do as part of last year’s nuclear deal. During a public speech during a landmark two-day economic cooperation visit to Tehran, Gabriel said Germany intends to "remind the United States of the commitment to get to an effective dismantling of sanctions." [...]

On Sunday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump administration was looking to 'drive a wedge' between Russia and Iran in its effort to improve relations with Moscow while confronting Tehran. Multiple observers, from Russian foreign policy analysts to American paleo-conservatives, warn that a US-Iran clash would be a catastrophic mistake. [...]

Russia disagrees with a remark recently made by US President Donald Trump’s that branded Iran as “the number one terrorist state,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, citing partnership between Moscow and Tehran. “We do not agree with the definition,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday. [...]

Russia, Iran and Turkey have announced they will establish a trilateral mechanism to support the ceasefire in Syria. In a joint statement issued at the end of talks in Astana, they said the Syrian opposition should take part in Geneva peace talks on the issue. [...]