Wanderlust

Tag: Iran

  • Iran financial protests close Tehran’s Grand Bazaar

    The Industrial sanctions had been lifted after the deal was carried out in 2016, however President Donald Trump introduced in Might that the us was forsaking it.

    Fears in regards to the affect of the united states sanctions in order to begin to be reinstated in August and probably trigger the cave in of the nuclear deal has ended in the rial falling to a report low in opposition to the buck on the unofficial foreign currency echange marketplace.

    The affect of Iran sanctions – in charts May the Iran deal collapse? Does US ‘Plan B’ on Iran possibility battle?

    A buck is these days price as so much as NINETY,000 rials, when compared with 65,000 rials prior to Mr Trump’s announcement and 42,890 on the end of 2017.

    The forex’s fall additionally induced investors at two shopping centres in Tehran that focus on mobile phones to go on strike in protest on Sunday.

    Media playback is unsupported to your instrument

    Media captionWhat is the Iran nuclear deal?

    Information and Communications Generation Minister Mohammad Javad Azari-Jahromi mentioned the merchants again to paintings after he promised to assist them access hard currency for their imports.

    The Iranian government attempted to halt the rial’s slide in April by way of unifying the authentic and black marketplace exchange rates and through banning trading at the rest rather than the reputable fee of 42,000 rials to the greenback. However dealers say the authorities have didn’t keep up with the call for for arduous foreign money in view that then.

    There had been additionally large-scale anti-government protests fuelled through Iran’s economic issues in past due December and early January. Alternatively, they have been targeted in provincial towns and towns rather than Tehran.

    (more…)

  • Aeolus: Wind satellite weathers technical storm

    Tips On How To degree the wind from area

    Symbol copyright ESA Aeolus will hearth a laser through the atmosphere and degree the return sign the sunshine will scatter backpedal air molecules and particles shifting in the wind Meteorologists will adjust their numerical fashions to compare this information the largest advantages must be in medium-range forecasts – a couple of days hence Aeolus should pave the way in which for operational climate satellites with lasers

    These Days, we measure the dynamics of the atmosphere using an eclectic mixture of equipment – the whole thing from whirling anemometers to other forms of satellite tv for pc that judge wind behaviour from the choppiness of seawater. However these are all limited signs, telling us what is happening in particular puts or at particular heights.

    Aeolus, on the other hand, will attempt to build a truly world view of what the winds are doing on earth, from the surface of the planet all the way in which up in the course of the troposphere and into the stratosphere (from 0km to 30km).

    “The Shortage of wind profile observations is one among essentially the most essential gaps to fill in order to improve numerical climate prediction,” Dr Florence Rabier, the DG on the Eu Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), informed BBC News.

    “The Aladin Doppler wind lidar software onboard Aeolus will probably be the first satellite instrument that provides wind profiles from area.

    “we’ve got very top expectancies in regards to the high quality of the Aeolus wind profile information, and we are anticipating forecast high quality to extend through 2-FOUR% within the additional-tropics and as much as 15% in the tropics. Aeolus is paving the way for vital improvements in climate forecasting”.

    Symbol copyright Getty Pictures Image caption There are sure commercial sectors that absolutely rely on wind forecasts

    there’s an example that meteorologists quote from March 2014 – storminess that ended in flooding in northern Europe.

    when they did the submit-experience analysis to work out why no-one had observed it coming, the conclusion was once that incorrect wind knowledge six days in the past had been used within the fashions. Dr Alain Dabas from MeteoFrance explained: “The Error used to be within the central Pacific at an altitude of about 11km. there was a mistake within the preliminary winds given to the models and that propagated to Europe.

    “The question now could be might Aeolus have solved this downside? More Than Likely, yes.”

    It goes with out announcing that realizing what the wind goes to do reaches past simply the nightly climate forecast on TV. the way it blows impacts the distribution and shipping of pollution, and how quickly dangerous air in a hazy town, say, can also be cleared away.

    Then there are the necessities of safety to consider – suppose sailors at sea, or construction on prime-rise buildings. and do not forget the sectors whose complete reason why to exist rests on the wind.

    “for instance, the wind energy trade,” said Dr Anne Grete Straume, Esa’s Aeolus venture scientist. “They Are exploiting the winds and so they want to know how much energy they are able to produce at any element in time. For that they want very accurate forecasts and we are hoping that our venture will help them with their management.”

    Image copyright Airbus Symbol caption Engineers needed to find a strategy to prevent the laser harmful its personal optics

    But all this relies at the UV laser doing its process. The engineers are very confident now that it could possibly. They lately placed the completed Aeolus satellite in an area chamber for six months to simulate the conditions of being in orbit. the entire device handed with flying colours.

    it’s value recalling some of the past frustrations. the first drawback used to be to find diodes to generate laser mild with an extended enough lifetime. While the ones were known, the challenge seemed in great form till engineers found out their layout would not in fact function in a vacuum – a vital barrier for a space challenge.

    Assessments revealed that in the absence of air, the laser used to be degrading its own optics; because the prime-energy gentle hit the lenses and mirrors, it will blacken them.

    Corporations across Europe have been driven to increase new coatings for a number of the elements. the important thing step forward, then again, was once to introduce a small quantity of oxygen to the instrument to forestall surfaces carbonising.

    it is a tiny puff of fuel – FORTY pascals’ worth; the similar drive you might be expecting to boost from the presence of a photosynthesising plant. however it is enough to oxidise contaminants and remove them.

    Image copyright Getty Pictures Symbol caption Saharan mud blown over London by way of the remnants of Typhoon Ophelia in 2017

    “When We started, the one references we had have been classified because those varieties of lasers are used to represent atomic bombs, and those applied sciences have been completely locked out,” mentioned Anders Elfving, Esa’s Aeolus venture manager.

    “the motivation for my workforce most of these years was that there’s no alternative, and after all the user group is still so enthusiastic for what we have constructed.

    “we wish to look what is invisible – to peer the wind in clear skies. And That I suppose active lidars like Aladin are the future – for far extra accurate measurements of CO2 and other trace gases in the atmosphere.”

    The release of Aeolus on a Vega rocket is lately set for 21 August.

    Media playback is unsupported for your software

    Media captionAnders Elfving: “There Were stages whilst i believed we wouldn’t get here”

    Jonathan.Amos-WEB@bbc.co.uk and observe me on Twitter: @BBCAmos

    (more…)

  • Russia eyes closer Iran ties, more trade if Trump nixes nuclear deal

    A top Russian official said bilateral relations and trade with Iran could actually be enhanced if President Trump follows through on a threat to take the United States out of the 2015 nuclear deal wit

    A top Russian official said bilateral relations and trade with Iran could actually be enhanced if President Trump follows through on a threat to take the United States out of the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran next week.

    Vladimir Yermakov, head of arms control and nonproliferation for the Russian Foreign Ministry, told reporters Friday that a U.S. withdrawal would not kill the deal, which Iran signed with the Obama administration and five international powers — Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany.

    The European allies have lobbied heavily for Mr. Trump not to withdraw from the deal, fearing that the reimposition of American economic and financial sanctions could cast a heavy cloud over their own business dealings with Tehran.

    But Mr. Yermakov argued the deal, which curbed Iranian nuclear programs in exchange for an end to international sanctions, would survive even without U.S. participation, according to the Moscow Times. He spoke to reporters at a nuclear nonproliferation summit in Geneva.

    “It might even be easier for us on the economic front, because we won’t have any limits on economic cooperation with Iran,” he said. “We would develop bilateral relations in all areas — energy, transport, high-tech, medicine.”

    Iranian officials have said they would not be bound by the nuclear restrictions in the deal if the U.S. withdrew, and have rejected any attempt to re-write its terms. But they have stopped short of saying the entire agreement would be void if the U.S. pulled out.

    Mr. Yermakov said Friday it would be smarter for Tehran to stay in the deal and honor its commitments not to seek nuclear weapons.

    “It’s not in anybody’s interest that Iran goes back to the kind of development of its nuclear program that all states would be concerned about,” he said. “But Iran is fully entitled to develop peaceful nuclear energy.”

    China this week also said it continued to support the nuclear accord and called on all sides to honor their commitments.

    The U.N. nuclear watchdog agency says Iran has met its commitments under the deal, but Mr. Trump and other critics say the accord has failed to restrain Iran’s other military programs and its moves to destabilize other states in the region. Many of the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear programs in the deal are also set to expire in just seven years.

  • Trump exit from Iran nuclear deal enters uncharted territory

    It’s not as simple as just saying “we’re out” of the Iran nuclear deal.

    WASHINGTON (AP) – It’s not as simple as just saying “we’re out” of the Iran nuclear deal.

    If President Donald Trump follows through on his threat to pull the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal on May 12, the rest of the world will be thrust into uncharted territory, forced to navigate a complex web of U.S. sanctions that were lifted under the landmark accord but would ostensibly be put back in place.

    Would Trump re-impose sanctions on those who do business with Iran? How quickly? And would Europe follow suit? How would Iran respond? And what happens to Iran’s pre-existing obligations to allow nuclear inspections?

    “It’s going to be very complicated,” said Ama Adams, who advises clients on international sanctions compliance at the law firm Ropes & Gray. “There are lots of opportunities to trip up and make mistakes. It’s going to be a period of a lot of activity and flurry.”

    A look at possible scenarios for what stays and goes if Trump exits the accord:

    U.S. SANCTIONS

    Under the 2015 deal, the United States issued waivers to longstanding sanctions punishing Iran for its nuclear program. Iran, in turn, restricted its program and allowed more inspections.

    Trump has essentially two options for re-imposing sanctions.

    On May 12, he faces a deadline on whether to renew the waivers that eased one basket of sanctions: those on Iran’s central bank, intended to hit Iranian oil exports. Another basket of sanctions waivers are up for renewal on July 11, focusing on more than 400 specific Iranian companies, individuals and business sectors.

    One of Trump’s options, being called “the nuclear option” by some experts, would re-impose all the sanctions at once – even those not scheduled for renewal until July. That would put the U.S. in immediate violation of the deal’s terms, which say sanctions remain lifted as long as Iran is complying with its terms. So far, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.’s nuclear monitoring agency, has said Iran is complying, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo agrees.

    A second option: re-imposing only the central bank sanctions. That would start a 180-day clock in which companies or countries would be expected to reduce their purchases of oil from Iran. Those that don’t would ultimately be penalized by Washington.

    Why not restore all the sanctions at once? Proponents of doing it piece by piece say it would give the U.S. more leverage to bring about a “fix” to the deal so that Trump could stay in after all. Trump has long said the deal needed to be strengthened or abandoned, but efforts with European allies to strengthen it haven’t yet succeeded. With sanctions about to kick in again in 180 days, there might be enough pressure on the Iranians, the Europeans and other members of the deal to give in to Trump’s demands, proponents say.

    But supporters of the nuclear deal say that’s not a viable option because the U.S., by starting the 180-day clock, would have already breached the deal. And as soon as Trump announces sanctions will be coming back, companies will immediately start shutting down their business with Iran. That means Iran would suffer from lost business and could decide to walk away from the deal itself.

    Adams, the sanctions attorney, said some companies have already started winding down business in anticipation that Trump may re-impose sanctions.

    __

    THE REST OF THE WORLD

    What would Europe do? Germany, France and the U.K. have suggested they have no intention of leaving the deal, even if the U.S. withdraws. But it might not matter much. The global financial system is so interconnected and so tied to New York that it would be almost impossible for anyone anywhere in the world to continue their business with Iran without risk of violating U.S. sanctions. For example, Europe businesses owned or controlled by American parent companies would breach the sanctions if they didn’t cut off Iran.

    It’s a major dilemma for European businesses, made even more complicated if the European Union decides to invoke a measure put in place in the 1990s to counter the U.S. embargo on Cuba. The EU can use those regulations to prohibit European companies from complying with some U.S. sanctions. That puts businesses in the position of choosing whether to defy the United States or the EU.

    __

    IRAN‘S RESPONSE

    Iran’s leaders have been coy, although Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told The Associated Press last week Iran would “most likely” abandon the deal if Trump withdraws. Yet the key question is whether Iran would resume nuclear activities, such as enrichment and processing, beyond the limits that were imposed by the deal – and how aggressively.

    How would the world even know? If the deal collapses, Iran would no longer be bound by the rigorous inspections regime by the IAEA that it agreed to in the deal. That regime included the so-called Additional Protocol, which expanded the IAEA’s access to sites in Iran, including giving inspectors insight into all parts of the nuclear fuel cycle, access on short notice to all buildings at an acknowledged nuclear site, and the right to obtain samples from military sites.

    Even without the nuclear deal, Iran would still be required to allow a more limited regime of inspections required by the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which Iran has signed. But it’s unclear how rigorously Iran would comply. After all, alleged cheating and delay tactics by Iran were a major concern prior to the 2015 deal. And Iranian officials haven’t explicitly ruled out the possibility that if Trump blows up the nuclear deal, Iran may also leave the Nonproliferation Treaty.

    Then there’s the question of whether Iran, feeling swindled on a deal the U.S. itself brokered, would take other steps to retaliate – such as ballistic missile tests or more support for militant groups abroad.

  • Airplane and oil deals at risk in Trump pullout of Iran deal

    From airplanes to oilfields, billions of dollars are on the line for international corporations as President Donald Trump weighs whether to pull America out of Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers.

    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – From airplanes to oilfields, billions of dollars are on the line for international corporations as President Donald Trump weighs whether to pull America out of Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers.

    Regardless of where they are headquartered, virtually all multinational corporations do business or banking in the U.S., meaning any return to pre-deal sanctions could torpedo deals made after the 2015 agreement came into force.

    That threat alone has been enough to scare risk-averse firms, like Boeing Co., into slow-walking deals agreed to months ago. A complete pullout by the U.S. would wreak further havoc and likely frighten off those considering making the plunge.

    “I absolutely think those on the fence will not jump in,” said Richard Nephew, a former sanctions expert at the U.S. State Department who worked on the nuclear deal and now is at New York’s Columbia University. “The only ones who will, will be those who see tremendous monetary benefit and no U.S. risk.”

    The 2015 Iran nuclear deal lifted crippling economic sanctions that had locked Iran out of international banking and the global oil trade. In return, Tehran limited its enrichment of uranium, reconfigured a heavy-water reactor so it couldn’t produce plutonium and reduced its uranium stockpile and supply of centrifuges.

    For Western businesses, the deal meant access to Iran’s largely untapped market of 80 million people. Most prominently, airplane manufacturers rushed in to replace the country’s dangerously dilapidated civilian fleet.

    In December 2016, Airbus Group signed a deal with Iran’s national carrier, IranAir, to sell it 100 airplanes for around $19 billion at list prices. Boeing later struck its own deal with IranAir for 80 aircraft with a list price of some $17 billion, promising that deliveries would begin in 2017 and run until 2025. Boeing separately struck another 30-airplane deal with Iran’s Aseman Airlines for $3 billion at list prices.

    But Boeing has yet to deliver a single aircraft to Iran. The Chicago-based company’s CEO recently stressed it understands the “risks and implications around the Iranian aircraft deal,” which would be the biggest business agreement between an American company and Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and U.S. Embassy takeover.

    “We continue to follow the U.S. government’s lead here and everything is being done per that process,” Dennis Muilenburg said during a quarterly earnings conference call on April 25. “We have no Iranian deliveries that are scheduled or part of the skyline this year, so those have been deferred again in line with the U.S. government process.”

    Airbus, a European airline consortium based in Toulouse, France, likewise continues its sales at the discretion of the American government. At least 10 percent of its aircraft components are of American origin, meaning it requires permission from the U.S. Treasury for its sales to Iran. Airbus has already delivered two A330-200s and one A321 to Iran.

    Airbus declined to comment when asked by The Associated Press about its possible plans ahead of Trump’s decision.

    European airplane manufacturer ATR struck a $536-million deal with IranAir for at least 20 aircraft last year. It’s already has delivered eight of its twin-engine turboprops to Tehran after earlier winning permission from the U.S. Treasury.

    “To date, we are on track to deliver the remaining ATR aircraft in due time, before the end of the year,” ATR spokesman David Vargas told the AP.

    The speed at which Western airplane manufacturers went into Iran is contrasted by a slow start by Western energy firms despite the country’s vast oil and gas wealth. The exception is French oil giant Total SA, which in July signed a $5 billion, 20-year agreement with Iran and a Chinese oil company to develop the country’s massive South Pars offshore natural gas field. The natural gas pumped by the deal will go toward Iran’s domestic market.

    The deal marked a return to Iran for Total, which pulled out of the country in 2008 as Western sanctions over its nuclear program began to ramp up. Total did not respond to requests for comment, though its CEO Patrick Pouyanne reportedly told Trump in February to stick with the deal.

    “If the framework, the rules of the game, change, of course we will have to re-evaluate,” Pouyanne told the Financial Times.

    French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen reached a deal in 2016 to open a plant producing 200,000 vehicles annually in Iran. Peugeot, once a major player in Iran’s car market before sanctions, did not respond to a request for comment.

    Meanwhile, fellow French automobile manufacturer Groupe Renault signed a $778-million deal to build 150,000 cars a year at a factory outside of Tehran.

    “The Renault Group is closely monitoring the evolution of the diplomatic situation,” the company said in a statement to the AP, without elaborating.

    Volkswagen also began exporting cars to Iran.

    “Currently we are tracking and examining the development of the political and economic environment in the region very closely,” the German carmaker said in a statement. “In principle, Volkswagen adheres to all applicable national and international laws and export regulations.”

    Nuclear deal co-signers Britain, France and Germany, which have urged Trump to preserve the deal, may seek exemptions to protect their companies if the U.S. snaps back sanctions, said Ellie Geranmayeh, a senior policy fellow studying Iran at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

    “This should include a series of exemptions and carve-outs for European companies already involved in strategic areas of trade and investment with Iran, with the priority being to limit the immediate shock to Iranian oil exports,” she wrote Wednesday.

    ___

    Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellap . His work can be found at http://apne.ws/2galNpz .

  • Donald Trump urged by U.K. not to nix Iran nuke deal

    U.K. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on Monday went on President Trump’s favorite TV show to urge him not to quit the Iran nuclear deal, although agreeing with the president’s assessment that it is a

    U.K. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on Monday went on President Trump’s favorite TV show to urge him not to quit the Iran nuclear deal, although agreeing with the president’s assessment that it is a bad deal.

    He stressed that there was no “Plan B” if the U.S. nixes the deal.

    “The president has a legitimate point,” Mr. Johnson said on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends,” which Mr. Trump regularly views. “He set a challenge for the world. We think that what you can do is be tougher on Iran.”

    He said ripping up the Iran deal would be like “throwing the baby out with the bathwater.”

    Mr. Trump has set a Saturday deadline to decide whether to pull out of the Obama-era agreement that lifted economic sanctions on Iran in return for halting the Islamic regime’s nuclear program until 2025.

    Mr. Johnson is in Washington this week but will not meet with the president. He took to the airwaves to deliver his message to Mr. Trump.

    Similar appeals were delivered directly to Mr. Trump in visits last month by French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. France, Germany and the U.K., as well as China and Russia, joined the U.S. in negotiating the deal.

    Mr. Trump’s concerns, from more rigorous inspections of Iran nuclear facilities to extending the moratorium beyond 2025, would be addressed by building on the current deal, Mr. Johnson said.

    “As I say, a Plan B does not seem to me to be particularly well developed at this stage,” the foreign secretary said.

    If Iran begins fast-tracking a nuclear weapon, the option of bombing its nuclear facilities or allowing a nuclear arms race in the volatile Middle East were both bad options, Mr. Johnson said.

    “At the moment there does not seem to be a viable military solution,” he said.

  • Emmanuel Macron, French president, in U.S. to visit Donald Trump

    Behind the pomp and circumstance of French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Washington starting Monday — including President Trump’s first state dinner for a fellow world leader since taking offi

    Behind the pomp and circumstance of French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Washington starting Monday — including President Trump’s first state dinner for a fellow world leader since taking office — lies a calculated and hard-nosed campaign to position Paris as the White House’s best friend in Europe.

    Much is riding on the visit by Mr. Macron, the banker and political neophyte who captured the French presidency last year, topped by the fate of the Iran nuclear deal that Mr. Trump is poised to kill next month and that Mr. Macron desperately hopes to save.

    The three-day visit will be a high-profile test of Mr. Macron’s studied charm offensive with the unpredictable American president, weighing whether the young leader can parlay his personal rapport with Mr. Trump into White House moderation on issues such as the Iran deal and Washington’s new skepticism over such internationalist causes as climate change and free trade.

    With German Chancellor Angela Merkel coming to Washington at the end of the week, European leaders will get their last best chance to persuade Mr. Trump to change his mind, or at least hold his fire as EU capitals try to devise new penalties for Tehran that could keep Washington in the deal.

    Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, on a visit to New York, increased the pressure on Mr. Macron Sunday by saying Washington’s withdrawal from the pact would only further diminish the U.S. standing among its allies and adversaries alike.

    Iran is ready to restart its nuclear program if the Trump administration leaves the 2015 nuclear agreement and reinstates sanctions, Mr. Zarif said.

    “We have put a number of options for ourselves, and those options are ready, including options that would involve resuming at a much greater speed our nuclear activities,” he added.

    Mr. Macron has unexpectedly emerged as one of the more moderate and accepting voices within the European Union concerning some of Mr. Trump’s unorthodox foreign policy stances.

    The 40-year-old French president has repeatedly defended Mr. Trump’s credibility on the world stage from criticism on several fronts, including his immigration ban from several Muslim countries, claims that Washington is abandoning its role as defender of the postwar liberal order, and views that he is creating a vacuum that China and Russia are filling.

    Other Western European leaders have struggled to get a read on Mr. Trump or even establish a personal working rapport, but the young English-speaking Mr. Macron has proved more deft.

    “I am not going to judge what should be your president, or to consider that because of these controversies or because of these investigations your president is less credible,” Mr. Macron told The Associated Press, dismissing any attempt to be drawn into the fierce U.S. controversy over Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

    But Mr. Macron will be under intense scrutiny back home to prove that his personal bonhomie with Mr. Trump translates into policy successes, starting with the May 12 deadline under which Mr. Trump must decide whether to stay in the multilateral Iran nuclear deal.

    Policy payoffs

    Although the visit will undoubtedly include all the trappings of a high-level diplomatic visit between two longtime allies, political observers in the U.S. and Europe will be keeping a keen eye on how the leaders interact over several issues on which they have found themselves at odds.

    The two leaders are certain to discuss the impacts of Mr. Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord, which France has championed but the Trump administration argues unnecessarily regulates American industries and international companies. Mr. Macron is also a champion of free trade, while Mr. Trump has questioned the North American Free Trade Agreement, killed an Asian trade deal and put in deep freeze a proposed free trade accord with the European Union.

    But no topic will likely loom as large between the two leaders as Washington’s reported desire to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran that the Obama administration strongly supported.

    Mr. Trump and his national security team, led by newly installed National Security Adviser John R. Bolton, have repeatedly called for the dissolution of the nuclear deal despite the continuing support of other world powers, including Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China.

    If Mr. Trump effectively withdraws from the deal, the U.S. will reimpose sanctions that Iran says negate the main purpose of the accord.

    Proponents of the pact, including Mr. Macron and Ms. Merkel, say there is no tangible proof that Tehran has failed to comply with the nonproliferation elements of the Iran deal, even if Iran continues to test other military systems and remains a destabilizing force for American allies across the Middle East.

    More pointedly, Mr. Macron is expected to argue that the U.S. and its Western allies will have no good option to restrain Iran’s nuclear programs if Mr. Trump takes Washington out of the deal.

    French officials warn there is “no plan B” if the Iran deal collapses. Mr. Macron himself asked on Fox News, “What do you have as an alternative?”

    Iran’s Mr. Zarif said Sunday that the Bolton appointment showed Mr. Trump would rather overthrow the government in Tehran that negotiate with it.

    The U.S. “never abandoned the idea of regime change in Iran,” he said, adding that some are just “more explicit about stating it.”

    France, Germany, the United Kingdom and other key European allies say the deal is the best chance the West has to keep Iran from becoming a nuclear power, potentially threatening the U.S. and Israel with an atomic attack. A furious negotiation is underway to see if the Europeans can formulate a new set of sanctions and penalties for Tehran outside of the nuclear deal to persuade Washington to stay in it.

    Mr. Macron, who treated Mr. Trump to an envy-inducing military parade and a dinner in the Eiffel Tower during his trip to Paris last year, has shown a talent for gestures that impress the billionaire former real estate developer.

    The French president plans to present Mr. Trump with an oak tree sapling from the site of one of the first World War I battles involving American troops, the Battle of Belleau Wood, The Associated Press reported Sunday.

    It’s a sign of appreciation for the sacrifices America has made for France — and a subtle nod to Mr. Macron’s environmental agenda.

    He wants it planted in the White House gardens.

    • This article is based in part on wire service reports.

  • John Bolton as Donald Trump national security adviser ‘a shame,’ Iran says

    Iran has called the appointment of the former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton to the role of National Security Adviser of the United States “a shame.”

    TEHRAN, Iran — Iran has called the appointment of the former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton to the role of National Security Adviser of the United States “a shame.”

    The Sunday report by the semi-official Fars news agency quotes Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the country’s Supreme National Security Council, as saying for an “apparent superpower it is a matter of shame that its national security adviser receives wages from a terrorist group,” referring to Bolton attending a gathering of the Iranian opposition group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK) group in 2017.

    The U.S. removed MEK from its list of foreign terrorist organizations in 2012.

    President Donald Trump said Thursday he would appoint Bolton to the post as his administration faces a key decision on whether to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal.