Diplomacy

A UK appeals court has upheld an earlier ruling ordering the seizure of a London property owned by the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) to help satisfy a $2.4 billion arbitration award in favor of an Emirati firm, Iranian media reported on Monday.

Military strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites would have only short-term effects and fail to destroy its capabilities, the UN atomic watchdog chief said, urging diplomacy as the sole path to a lasting solution to concerns over Tehran’s disputed nuclear program.

With Russia’s UN Security Council presidency and China’s economic leverage, Tehran is betting Moscow and Beijing can shield it from the impact of UN sanctions through legal maneuvers, committee vetoes, and strategic investments.

Australia and New Zealand said they will implement revived United Nations sanctions on Iran, officials told Iran International, backing a decision by France, Germany and Britain to trigger the snapback mechanism over Tehran’s nuclear program.

Canada’s Federal Court has upheld a government decision to block a former Iranian oil executive from entering the country, dismissing his appeal as baseless, Global News reported on Friday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned that international law was at risk of being undermined by the United States, he wrote in letters to his counterparts in Sri Lanka and the Maldives, Iran’s ambassador in Colombo said on Friday.

A verdict looms for a British tourist couple tried in Iran over the weekend on espionage charges just as Tehran's relations with London plumb new lows over a European move to impose new international sanctions.

Iran is adopting a policy of “strategic patience” in response to mounting Western pressure, the government's news agency IRNA said on Thursday, after Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi returned from talks in New York.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei blocked any potential signal of compromise before President Masoud Pezeshkian even landed in New York—a move some saw as a reckless gamble but in fact a calculated strategy rooted in decades of survival.

One thing unchanged by the return of UN sanctions is Tehran’s internal discord, with hardliners and moderates battling it out over decisions ultimately taken elsewhere.

A Canadian move to deport a former Iranian roads official working as an Uber driver over his previous work has been rejected an immigration review body for his lack of seniority in Tehran's ruling apparatus.

Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen called Iranian state television’s decision to blur her legs during a broadcast of her UN meeting with Iran’s foreign minister a “sad” reflection of women’s treatment in the country.

A senior adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader said Tehran should consider joining a new Saudi-Pakistani defense pact while vowing to strengthen its offensive military power after the recent 12-day war with Israel and the United States.

Iran’s foreign ministry on Sunday rejected US and European efforts to restore UN sanctions, saying that “no obligation” rests on Tehran or other member states to abide by resolutions that were terminated in 2015.

On the eve of the return of UN sanctions against Iran, all sides insist the doors of diplomacy remain open, but the table beyond those doors looks less like one for negotiation than for autopsy—an exercise in assigning blame for a failure long deemed inevitable.

Russia and China have asked the UN Security Council to vote on a draft resolution on Friday that would delay the reinstatement of international sanctions on Iran by six months, Reuters reported citing diplomats.

France withdrew its case against Iran at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over the detention of two French citizens arrested in May 2022 on espionage charges, the court announced on Thursday without elaborating.

A clash over Iran’s nuclear path has intensified in Tehran, with hardliners demanding weaponization while others warn such moves invite disaster just three days before the automatic return of UN sanctions.