General News of Thursday, 5 September 2019

Source: dailypost.ng

US takes major action against Iran -

The United States has offered 15 million dollars for information than can help it cripple the financial mechanisms of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

IRGC is an Iranian government agency whose mission is to defend the regime against internal and external threats.

The move, announced by the Department of State through a statement on Wednesday, also targets the Quds Force, an intelligence unit of the IRGC responsible for overseas operations, NAN reports.

The information being sought also borders on the “IRGC’s illicit oil sales, including via oil tankers like the Adrian Darya”.

The latest move came shortly after the administration blacklisted a number of companies, vessels and individuals who have allegedly breached U.S. sanctions by working with the IRGC.

Among others, the action targets “entities or individuals assisting the IRGC in evading U.S. and international sanctions, and IRGC donors or financial facilitators”.

Others included IRGC’s revenue sources, formal financial institutions doing business with it, and “front companies engaged in international procurement of dual-use technology on behalf of the IRGC”.

On Tuesday, the Department of State had announced imposition of sanctions against the Iran Space Agency for allegedly advancing the country’s ballistic missile programme.

Meanwhile, the Iranian President, Hassan Rouhani, said his country would not agree to bilateral negotiations with the U.S. until all sanctions were lifted.

Iran’s Mehr News Agency, Rouhani stated this at a parliament session in Tehran with a threat to further reduce commitments to the “crumbling JCPOA”.

Trump had earlier said he would meet his Iranian counterpart “under the right circumstances” to end the confrontation over the nuclear deal.

Speaking at a the just-ended G7 summit in France, the U.S. president, however, ruled out lifting economic sanctions to compensate for losses suffered by Iran.