Harsh economic measures imposed by the EU on Russia hurts business on both sides of the divide, the president of one of the bloc’s largest industry bodies has bemoaned, saying politicians should focus on common ground instead. Writing in Austria’s daily Kurier newspaper on Monday, Christoph Leitl, the President of the European Chamber of Commerce (Eurochambres) […]

Multi-billion-euro gas pipeline project Nord Stream 2 was put on pause last year after the United States imposed sanctions against firms involved in its construction. The project’s operator said on Saturday that it was planning to resume “the pipe-laying work” this year. American sanctions will not stop the Nord Stream 2 project from being completed, […]

The Trump administration has long been critical of the EU, especially Germany, over their support for the transnational pipeline project, which will boost the capacity of Russia to sell natural gas to Europe. Washington insists that the EU must instead buy more expensive LNG from the US or other countries. The European Commission has condemned […]

Washington already imposed sanctions on the Russian-German energy project late last year, tacking them on to the US National Defence Authorization Act. Now, a bipartisan group of lawmakers from both the House and Senate is reportedly looking to introduce additional restrictions against it before the end of the year. An influential group of German businesses […]

The ongoing US trade war with China has raised concerns about the United States deploying the ‘nuclear option’ of freezing China’s banking sector out of the global US dollar payments system, prompting the use of alternative currencies such as the euro and the yuan to settle financial transactions. The European Union’s single currency was the […]

Iran will become free to sell and buy weapons starting Sunday as the UN arms embargo will be terminated under the 2015 nuclear deal despite the active resistance from the United States, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday. “This 10-year oppressive embargo will be lifted on Sunday, 18 October, with people’s resistance and the […]

Russian opposition figure Navalny, who has been discharged from the Charité hospital in Berlin where he was treated after an alleged poisoning, claimed in an interview with Der Spiegel that Putin “was behind the crime”. But some analysts pour scorn on the suggestion that the Russian president ordered the political figure to be poisoned. Claims […]

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has warned the United States not to interfere with the completion of the Russian-led Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project, stressing that Europe has the right to choose its own energy sources. “Sanctions between partners are definitely the wrong way to go,” Maas said during a joint press conference with […]

The US Treasury Department has slapped fresh sanctions on Iran, accusing several Iranian firms of aiding terrorism. Meanwhile, Tehran and the UN have called for the easing of sanctions amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The Treasury sanctioned 15 individuals and five companies on Thursday, accusing them of supporting and acting “on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary […]

The spread of Covid-19 may send the global economy into a lengthy recession, but lifting sanctions that aren’t backed by the United Nations may help avoid a total catastrophe. That’s according to a senior Russian senator. The drop in energy demand, unstable currency exchange rates, and the threat to people’s safety have put humanity at […]

This week, in defiance of the Trump administration, London formally granted Chinese tech giant Huawei the right to build part of the UK’s 5G mobile internet network, albeit capping its UK market share at 35 percent and restricting involvement to “non-core” infrastructure. The US, which lobbied intensely to block Huawei, expressed disappointment.

For some time now, London has been deciding on whether to allow Chinese tech giant Huawei to participate in a national fifth-generation technology rollout, following calls from Washington to ban the company amid security and intelligence sharing concerns. A final decision is expected to be made soon. The United Kingdom will allow Huawei to supply […]

Three European signatories to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as Iran nuclear deal, initiated the accord’s dispute mechanism on 14 January thus threatening to put an end to the agreement’s existence following the US withdrawal from it in 2018. German Defence Minister and head of a governing coalition party, the CDU, Annegret […]

France, Britain and Germany have betrayed the 2015 nuclear deal after being threatened with US tariffs, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has claimed, noting that Europe has lost the moral high ground. The three European states accused Tehran of non-compliance with the accord after buckling under pressure from the United Sates, Zarif wrote in […]

Donald Trump’s threat to cut off Iraq’s access to its account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York if Baghdad insists on a withdrawal of US troops from its soil is bare-faced, modern-day colonialism. Let’s set the scene. On January 5, the Iraqi parliament voted to approve a resolution calling for the removal of US troops. […]