Politics of Iran

Turkey's state-owned Halkbank has denied any wrongdoing after U.S. prosecutors charged the lender with partaking in a scheme to evade U.S sanctions on Iran.

On the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, the three signatories to the agreement said that, in the event of new breaches of the agreement, they would launch a special dispute mechanism.
In that case, the entire nuclear deal would fail and the UN could re-impose sanctions on Iran.

Iran's president said on Sept. 22 his country should lead regional security in the strategic Persian Gulf and warned against the presence of foreign forces, as the country's nuclear deal with world powers collapses and the U.S. deployed more troops to boost security for its Arab allies.

Iran's foreign minister on Sept. 20 questioned U.S. plans for a coalition for a "peaceful resolution" in the Middle East while listing repeated Iranian diplomatic initiatives.

Iran's atomic agency chief hit out Sept. 8 at European powers, saying their broken promises gave the Islamic republic little choice but to scale back its commitments under a nuclear deal.  

Iran's nuclear chief said on Sept. 8 the European parties to the 2015 nuclear deal have failed to fulfill their commitments under the pact, a day after Tehran announced further breaches of limits on its nuclear activity set by the pact.   

Iran said on Sept. 6 it had taken a step to further downgrade its commitments to a 2015 nuclear deal with the world's most powerful nations, according to Iranian media, in retaliation to U.S. sanctions reimposed on Tehran.

Iran on Sept. 4 said it would take another step away from a 2015 nuclear deal by starting to develop centrifuges to speed up its uranium enrichment but it also gave European powers two more months to try to save the multilateral pact.

The United States has imposed sanctions on Iran's space program, saying the recent explosion  is a sign of rocket work.

"The United States will not allow Iran to use its space launch program as a cover for the progress of its ballistic missile programs," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.

The informal EU foreign ministers' meeting in Helsinki ends in today.

The agenda of the first diplomats includes a discussion on the Arctic and a working session with the countries of the Western Balkans and Turkey on regional cooperation.

The protests in Hong Kong are also expected to be discussed today.