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Total failure: United States fails in its attempt to get the Security Council to to extend arms embargo to Iran

This is the reaction that the United States has found in the UN Security Council to its proposal to extend indefinitely the arms embargo on Iran that expires next October, according to the Efe news agency this Thursday at dawn. Of the 15 members of this body, only the Dominican Republic has supported Washington’s request, far from the nine votes needed to move the project forward. China, Russia, France, Germany and the United Kingdom had already advanced the veto to the proposal before the vote. The remaining eight members of the UN’s highest body have chosen to abstain, leading the initiative to total failure. 

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China welcomes Russia’s Friday proposal of a video summit with the United States and the remaining parties to the nuclear deal – China, Britain, France, Germany and Iran – to try to avoid further “confrontation and escalation” at the United Nations over Iran

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Trump says “probably not” to join Putin-proposed summit on Iran

US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he would not participate in the summit on Iran that Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed on Friday. “Probably not,” Trump said when asked whether he would join the Putin-proposed video summit during a news conference at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. Trump also confirmed to reporters that the United States “will be doing a snapback” against Iran, referring to restoring all pre-2015 UN sanctions against Iran. “You will be watching it next week,” he added.

8-19-20 Trump demands full restoration of UN sanctions on Iran, as Pompeo warns Russia & China not to meddle.
“Today I’m directing the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to notify the United Nations Security Council that the United States intends to restore virtually all of the United Nations sanctions on Iran – it’s a snap back, not uncommon,” Trump told reporters during a White House press conference on Wednesday.

8-20-20 The US exited the Iran nuclear deal and therefore has no right to demand a ‘snapback’ of UN sanctions on Tehran, the foreign ministers of three European powers involved in the JCPOA said in response to Washington’s latest push.
“France, Germany and the United Kingdom, the so-called E3, note that the United States has not been a member of the JCPOA since their withdrawal from the agreement on May 8, 2018,” their respective foreign ministers Jean-Yves Le Drian,Heiko Maas and Dominic Raab said in a statement on Thursday. Therefore, the E3 “cannot support” the US demand for UN sanctions against Iran to be reimposed, as it is “inconsistent” with their current efforts to implement the deal, the trio added.

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F-16 fighter jet deal deemed another US provocation amid rising Taiwan Straits tensions

The island of Taiwan has formally signed an agreement with US arms firm Lockheed Martin to buy 66 F-16V fighter jets, reports said on Saturday, further raising tensions in the Taiwan Straits, and coming just two days after the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) announced large-scale drills in response to US provocations and Taiwan secessionist activities.

While the deal was approved by the Trump administration last year and a formal signing was expected to take place sooner or later, its announcement at this particular time is believed to be yet another US provocation and a step on the red line of the Taiwan question, which further risks confrontation, Chinese mainland experts said on Saturday, adding that the PLA is aiming not only to deter, but also to hone its capability of launching military action when necessary. 

A Pentagon announcement on Thursday said Lockheed Martin has been awarded a $62 billion, 10-year contract for the production of F-16s for foreign military sale, and the initial delivery order is for 90 aircraft. 

The Pentagon did not reveal the buyers of the fighter jets, but media outlets including Bloomberg and AFP reported on Friday that the deal includes Taiwan’s approved purchase of 66 F-16s.

The deal would involve 66 of the F-16V, the latest version of the F-16 fighter jet, costing $8 billion, reports said at that time the deal was initially approved.

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Czech PM cold to Pompeo’s anti-China lobby

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis on Thursday refused to take sides against China and also would not rule out working with Chinese telecom company Huawei despite a push by visiting U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

“We are a sovereign country, we treat these countries quite standardly like everyone else,” Babis told Mlada fronta Dnes, one of the country’s largest newspapers, after Pompeo used his visit to take swipes at both Russia and China. 

Speaking to the Czech Senate on Wednesday, Pompeo called on European countries to rally against the Communist Party of China, which he accused of leveraging economic might to exert its influence around the world.

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Huawei, Oi to deploy 8,000km of fiber backbone in Brazil’s Amazon

The company announced that, since July, it has been supporting a project by Brazilian Oi to activate an additional 8,000km of fiber backbone crossing eight states in Brazil’s Amazon region. Oi’s national backbone already spans over 388,000km.

The announcement of the Amazon project was made by the president of Huawei in Brazil, Sun Baocheng, at the online event “Amazonia Conectada” (Amazon connected), promoted by the municipal institute of innovation (IMI), a Brazilian think-thank that supports municipalities in PPP projects.

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US hints at deploying land-based intermediate-range missiles in Japan to “contain China”

　　Reportedly, the U.S. President’s special envoy for arms control affairs Marshall Billingsley said in an interview on the 14th, the United States is developing medium-range missiles is the absolute necessity of Japan and other countries in the future defense force, and Japan is also a candidate to deploy this missile. Billingsley also asserted that China is an “imminent threat,” and revealed attempts to expand military cooperation with relevant Asian countries.

　　Billingsley stated that he would consult with the relevant Asian countries on the threat posed by China’s nuclear capabilities, as well as on matters related to the defense of allied capabilities. And Billingsley was the first to mention the possible deployment of medium-range missiles in Japan.

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U.S. Seizes Iranian Fuel Cargo for First Time

“Pirates Of The Caribbean” – The United States has seized four Iranian tankers on the high seas, U.S. officials said on Thursday (14). The tankers were allegedly carrying Iranian oil in violation of U.S. sanctions. The four tankers are currently en route to a major oil port in Houston, Texas.

　　The U.S. seizure of the Iranian tankers was reportedly motivated by the arrival of five Iranian tankers earlier this year carrying 1.5 million barrels of gasoline to Venezuela, which is also under restrictive U.S. economic sanctions.

　　On Aug. 10, Pakistan seized an Iranian tanker at the port of Karachi at the request of the U.S. government, but since the name of the tanker was never reported, it is unclear whether it is one of the four now en route to Houston.

　　The Trump administration began imposing strangling economic sanctions on Iran in August 2018, with the goal of reducing the country’s oil exports to zero, while also attempting to cripple other Iranian industries.