US will not interfere in EU trade with Iran: Tillerson

WASHINGTON: The United States does not aim to impede European trade and business transactions with Iran despite President Donald Trump’s decision last week to decertify the 2015 nuclear agreement, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told the Wall Street Journal.

European Union leaders in Brussels on Thursday highlighted the need to protect their companies and investors dealing with Iran from any adverse effects should c against Iran, officials said.“The president’s been pretty clear that it’s not his intent to interfere with business deals that the Europeans may have under way with Iran,” Tillerson told the Journal in an interview Thursday. “He’s said it clearly: ‘That’s fine. You guys do what you want to do.'”

Trump last week adopted a harsh new approach to Iran by refusing to certify its compliance with the nuclear deal struck with the United States and five other powers including Britain, France and Germany.

The Republican president gave Congress 60 days to decide whether to reimpose economic sanctions on Iran, lifted under the pact in exchange for scaling down a program the West fears was aimed at building a nuclear bomb, something Tehran denies.

Trump has criticized the nuclear accord as “the worst deal ever” and has vowed to withdraw if Congress and European allies do not address his problems with it. Tillerson’s comments appeared aimed at reassuring the Europeans that Washington is not trying to pressure them into avoiding business with Iran.

“We’ve been working with the Europeans for six months,” Tillerson said. “They have been brought along with this same thought process. It doesn’t mean that they necessarily agree entirely with it. … Now we will start a more formalized process with them now that the policy’s been adopted.”

The Journal said Tillerson would not discuss the multibillion-dollar deals reached by Boeing Co under the 2015 accord. Boeing, which was the first major US company to announce a major business venture with Iran, last year agreed to sell dozens of commercial planes to Tehran.

Comments

US drone strike kills leader of Pakistan’s Jamaat-ul-Ahrar militants: spokesman

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: The leader of Pakistani militant group Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, who planned some of the deadliest suicide bombings in Pakistan over the last year, died on Thursday of wounds sustained in a US drone strike in Afghanistan, a spokesman said. “Our leader, Omar Khalid Khorasani, was wounded in one of the recent drone strikes in Afghanistan. He was wounded badly, and today he was martyred,” Asad Mansoor, a Jamaat-ul-Ahrar spokesman, said by telephone.The killing comes ahead of American Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s visit next week and is likely to further ease tensions between the often-wary allies, as Islamabad has been asking Washington for years to target militants who attack inside Pakistan and then hide over the border in Afghanistan. A splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar has in the past also backed Middle East-based Islamic State and has increasingly targeted religious minorities in Pakistan. The group clai

PM commits all kinds of support for upcoming elections

KATHMANDU: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has committed to hold the upcoming federal and provincial elections on stipulated time. He further said that government was committed to extend all kinds of essential support for the elections. According to Election Commission’s spokesperson Nawaraj Dhakal, in a meeting with Election Commission’s office bearers at PM’s official residence, Baluwatar today, PM Deuba committed to reach all kinds of support for elections to the commission. PM Deuba expressed happiness on the preparations going on for the elections and directed the EC officials to work in full speed for remaining preparations as well.Chief election commissioner Dr Ayodhee Prasad Yadav briefed PM Deuba about their preparations for elections. He informed PM Deuba that the political parties submitted their closed lists of candidates for the proportional system under the federal and provincial elections in the stipulated time with enthusiasm. On the occasion, PM and

‘Contractor’s negligence responsible for collapse of Jabdighat Bridge’

The government’s study panel has found that Pappu Construction — the contractor that built the Jabdighat Bridge over the Babai River in Bardiya — deviated from the design approved by the government during the construction process of the bridge, which resulted in its collapse during heavy floods on Babai River on August 21. The probe panel formed by the Department of Roads (DoR) has concluded that the contractor had not followed through on the design approved by the government during construction of the 425-metre-long bridge. According to Ayodhya Prasad Shrestha, coordinator of the probe panel and chief of Mid-western Regional Road Directorate Surkhet, the contractor’s negligence is one of the major reasons for collapse of the bridge even before it had been handed over to the government authority. “In our preliminary study, we found that the distance between the pillars of the bridge is inconsistent to the approved design. The gap between the pillars should have been 25 metres, b

Nepalinews

Search This Blog