4, December 2016
Iran vows firm response to US 0
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has denounced a recent US Senate vote on a piece of anti-Iran legislation as a blatant infringement of last year’s nuclear deal between Tehran and six world powers, saying the Islamic Republic will give a firm response to the move.
President Rouhani made the remarks in the Iranian Parliament (Majlis) on Sunday as he submitted the government’s proposed budget bill for the next Iranian fiscal year, which begins on March 21, to the legislative body.
The Iranian chief executive further said the Islamic Republic would never violate last July’s nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which he described as “a signed and sealed international document.”
Iran “will not tolerate the JCPOA’s violation by any of the P5+1 group of countries,” adding that the US Senate’s vote to extend the Iran Sanctions Act (ISA) for a decade is “in blatant contravention of the JCPOA, and will be followed by Iran’s decisive response.”
The US Senate approved the ISA renewal 99-0 on Thursday after it easily cleared the House of Representatives last month. The sanctions law, which would authorize the US president to impose sanctions on Iran, was first adopted in 1996 to punish investments in the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program.
The ISA now needs President Barack Obama’s signature to be turned into law. Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia – plus Germany started to implement the JCPOA on January 16.
Under the deal, Iran undertook to put limitations on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related bans imposed against Tehran. Since January, when the JCPOA took effect, the International Atomic Energy Agency, which monitors the deal’s implementation process, has in numerous reports confirmed Iran’s commitment.
IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano said in April that Iran had even gone beyond its obligations under the JCPOA. Reacting to the Senate vote on Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the ISA’s extension would have no “executive effect” and would merely be a sign of the US government’s unreliability.
Last month, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei warned that Iran would consider the extension of the ISA a breach of the JCPOA and would respond accordingly.
Presstv
4, December 2016
Fake US embassy in Ghana shut down after a decade 0
Washington says a fake US embassy run by organized crime gangs has been shut down in Ghana’s capital, Accra, following almost 10 years of issuing counterfeit visas and counterfeit identification documents. According to a statement released by the US Department of State late on Friday, the sham embassy was operated by “figures from both Ghanaian and Turkish organized crime rings” along with a Ghanaian lawyer specializing in immigration and criminal law.
The statement added that the fake diplomatic mission, with a run-down, pink two-storey building, was raided by Ghana’s security forces in summer after the real embassy in the capital received a tip-off from an informant about the matter. Several suspects were arrested, including “Turkish citizens,” who played the role of “consular officers” at the building and who spoke English and Dutch. Authorities also seized legitimate and counterfeit US, Indian, South African and Schengen Zone visas and 150 passports from 10 different countries, a laptop, a number of smart phones and counterfeit identity documents.
The criminals, according to the statement, managed to run the fake embassy unhindered during the past decade by bribing corrupt officials as well as obtaining blank bank documents to be doctored. The crime ring provided prearranged customers with authentic, but illegally obtained, US visas and fabricated identification documents, including birth certificates, at a cost of $6,000 each, the statement added. In an attempt to make the sham embassy look real, the criminals had also raised an American flag outside the building and inside they had hung a photo of US President Barack Obama. They had also placed signs indicating that applicants were in the US embassy in Ghana.
The statement also revealed that further investigations led to uncovering a fake Dutch embassy in Ghana’s capital. Visa market is a tempting target for organized crime in Africa as visas for Western countries are in high demand in the continent.
Presstv