Iran says it will release U.S. permanent resident Nizar Zakka - NBC News

Iran said Tuesday it will release a Lebanese man with permanent U.S. residency who has been imprisoned since 2015 on spying charges that his family has dismissed as baseless.

Nizar Zakka in 2013.Courtesy of Friends of Nizar Zakka group via AP

IT expert Nizar Zakka, 52, was arrested in Tehran in September 2015 after being invited by the Iranian government to attend a conference. He had been living in Washington, D.C.

Iranian judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said Tuesday that Iran will hand Zakka over to Lebanese officials. The comment was the first official confirmation that Zakka would be sent back to Lebanon.

The U.S. had protested his imprisonment and called for his release.

With tensions rising between Tehran and the Trump administration, and as U.S. sanctions squeeze the Iranian economy, Zakka’s release could signal a potential opening in the standoff.

The move comes against the backdrop of a flurry of diplomatic activity by U.S. allies aimed at lowering the temperature between the two adversaries. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas met his Iranian counterpart on Monday in Tehran and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was due to fly to Tehran on Wednesday.

June 9, 201901:23

It’s unclear if Zakka’s release could open the door to the release of other foreigners held by Iran, including several Americans.

Although Iran in recent weeks has portrayed Zakka’s case as an issue between Iran and Lebanon, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif in 2016 said it was a problem primarily between Tehran and Washington. The Trump administration has cited the imprisonment of foreigners as one of a number of practices and policies that Tehran must stop to open the way for negotiations and an end to sanctions.

Zakka ran the Arab ICT Organization, an industry consortium that promotes information technology and internet freedom in Arab countries. Zakka was arrested on the way to the airport by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and was later sentenced to 10 years in prison on espionage charges in a closed-door trial.

In an interview last year, an adviser to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Shahindokht Molaverdi, expressed regret at Zakka’s imprisonment after she invited him to a conference and blamed it on the hard-line judiciary and limited authority of the civilian government.

“This is in no way approved by the government,” Molaverdi told the Associated Press. “We did all we could to stop this from happening, but we are seeing that we have failed to make a significant impact.”

Zakka's family and human rights groups have dismissed the allegations as without any foundation.

At least 11 dual and foreign nationals, or Iranian citizens with foreign residencies, not including Zakka, are imprisoned in Iran as of this month, according to the Center for Human Rights in Iran.

Those imprisoned include Siamak Namazi, an Iranian-American businessman, and his elderly father Baquer Namazi, a former UNICEF official; Xiyue Wang, an American graduate student from Princeton University; Morad Tahbaz, who has U.S., British and Iranian citizenship and was detained along with other environmental activists; and Michael White, a U.S. Navy veteran.

In early May, the U.S. ramped up economic pressure against Iran, threatening sanctions against any country that imports Iranian oil.

Zarif said Monday that the U.S. could not “expect to stay safe,” after launching what he called an economic war against Iran.

"Whoever starts a war with us will not be the one who finishes it," Zarif said at a news conference with Maas.

Iran threatened in late May to quadruple their production of enriched uranium unless Europe found a way to provide economic relief from U.S. sanctions.

One year after the U.S. withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal, Maas traveled to Tehran to try to rescue the accord from failing entirely.

The head of the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency, Yukiya Amano, said Monday that Iran has in recent weeks increased its production of enriched uranium. But he said it was unclear when the country’s stockpile would surpass the set limits of the deal and expressed concern about the increased tension surrounding the issue.

State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said the increased production shows that “Iran is going in the wrong direction, and it underscores the continuing challenge Iran poses to international peace and security.”

Dan De Luce

Dan De Luce is a reporter for the NBC News Investigative Unit. 

Associated Press contributed.

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2019-06-11 08:38:00Z
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Half-brother of North Korea's Kim was a CIA informant: Report - Aljazeera.com

Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, who was killed in Malaysia in 2017, had been an informant for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.

The newspaper cited an unnamed "person knowledgeable about the matter" for the claim and said many details of Kim Jong Nam's relationship with the US spy agency remained unclear.

It quoted the person as saying there was "a nexus" between the CIA and Kim Jong Nam, Reuters reported.

The news agency could not independently confirm the story.

Kim Jong Nam's role as a CIA informant is also mentioned in a new book about Kim Jong Un, The Great Successor, by Washington Post reporter Anna Fifield that is due to be published on Tuesday.

According to Fifield, Kim Jong Nam usually met his handlers in Singapore and Malaysia, citing a source with knowledge of the intelligence.

The book says that security camera footage from Kim's last trip to Malaysia showed him in a hotel lift with an Asian-looking man who was reported to be a US intelligence agent. It said Kim's backpack contained $120,000 in cash, which could have been payment for intelligence-related activities, or earnings from his casino businesses.

Karaoke Chemist | Al Jazeera Investigations

Poisoned

The former officials told the Wall Street Journal that Kim Jong Nam had almost certainly been in contact with security services from other countries, particularly China.

South Korean and US officials have said North Korea ordered the assassination of Kim Jong Nam, who had been critical of his family's dynastic rule and was thought to live mostly in Macau. The North has denied the allegation.

Two women - from Indonesia and Vietnam - were charged with poisoning Kim Jong Nam by smearing his face with liquid VX, a banned chemical weapon, in the budget terminal of Kuala Lumpur's international airport in February 2017.

Both were released this year after murder charges were dropped.

According to the Journal, Kim Jong Nam was in Malaysia to meet his CIA contact, although that may not have been the sole purpose of the trip.

US President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un have met twice, in Hanoi in February and Singapore last June, but have failed to agree on a deal on North Korea abandoning its nuclear and missile programmes.

SOURCE: Reuters news agency

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2019-06-11 07:24:00Z
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Dow futures rise triple digits despite Trump's China tariff threat - CNBC

U.S. stock index futures rallied again early Tuesday morning despite comments from President Donald Trump on trade war with China.

Around 5:50 a.m. ET, Dow futures indicated a positive open of more than 130 points. Futures of S&P and Nasdaq were also seen higher.

President Donald Trump told CNBC on Monday that if Chinese President Xi Jinping does not attend the G-20 meeting later this month, the U.S. would immediately impose additional duties on Chinese goods.

The U.S. president also defended his approach of slapping tariffs on international partners, saying tariffs are putting the U.S. "at a tremendous competitive advantage."

"The China deal is going to work out. You know why? Because of tariffs," Trump told CNBC. "Right now, China is getting absolutely decimated by companies that are leaving China, going to other countries, including our own, because they don't want to pay the tariffs."

On the earnings front, the calendar is quite thin with only H&R Block and Dave & Buster's due to report.

Meanwhile, investors will be looking ahead to the release of the the National Federation of Independent Business survey at 6 a.m. ET as well as of the latest producer price index numbers at 8:30 a.m.

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2019-06-11 06:51:23Z
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Dow futures slightly higher despite Trump's warning on China tariffs - CNBC

U.S. stock index futures were slightly higher Tuesday morning despite comments from President Donald Trump on trade war with China.

At around 01:36 a.m. ET, Dow futures rose 45 points, indicating a positive open of more than 59 points. Futures of S&P and Nasdaq were also seen slightly higher.

President Donald Trump told CNBC on Monday that if Chinese President Xi Jinping does not attend the G-20 meeting later this month, there will be additional duties on Chinese goods. This would take effect immediately.

The U.S. President also defended his approach of imposing tariffs on international partners, saying these are putting the U.S. "at a tremendous competitive advantage."

"The China deal is going to work out. You know why? Because of tariffs," Trump told CNBC. "Right now, China is getting absolutely decimated by companies that are leaving China, going to other countries, including our own, because they don't want to pay the tariffs."

On the earnings front, the calendar is quite thin with only H&R Block and Dave & Buster's due to report.

Meanwhile, investors will be looking ahead to the release of the NFIB survey at 6 a.m. ET as well as of the latest PPI numbers at 8:30 a.m.

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2019-06-11 06:36:29Z
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More China tariffs could push the US into a 'Trump recession,' CEO says - CNBC

The U.S. economy may be pushed into a "Trump recession" if Washington follows through on its threat to impose new tariffs on billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods, the president and CEO of a U.S.-based trade organization said Tuesday.

Speaking to CNBC at the CES Asia technology conference in Shanghai, Gary Shapiro from the Consumer Technology Association called tariffs an "economic fence" and said they are "not a good strategy" to help Washington resolve its trade dispute with Beijing.

"They are taxes, they hurt consumers, they hurt American companies," Shapiro said, noting that positive assessments of U.S. President Donald Trump's hard-line tariff approach are not widely held by economists outside the White House.

As Beijing and Washington remain deadlocked in an increasingly aggressive trade dispute, some economists have said that tariffs on Chinese goods — which Trump has repeatedly said will benefit the U.S. — may eventually backfire and tip the U.S. economy into a recession.

Despite such fears and a worse-than-expected jobs data for May, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC on Sunday that the U.S. economy is still the "bright spot of the world" — and he doesn't see any signs of an economic downturn.

Trump on Monday renewed his tariff threats on China after Myron Brilliant, the head of international affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, told CNBC that Trump's "weaponization of tariffs" hurts the U.S. economy and "creates uncertainty" with trading partners.

Trump confirmed that an additional raft of levies will be slapped on Beijing if Chinese President Xi Jinping does not show up at the G-20 meeting in Japan — an event investors and economists will be watching for signs of a breakthrough in the trade impasse.

Huawei dispute could 'escalate out of control'

The current tensions between the U.S. and China appeared to reach a new height when Washington placed Huawei on a U.S. entity list in May, limiting the Chinese telecom giant's ability to purchase goods from American firms.

While the U.S. Commerce Department has granted a 90-day reprieve to Huawei, China has already been ramping up development of its own semiconductor industry — which could ultimately hurt the profits of U.S. companies.

According to Shapiro, restrictive measures in the tech space could escalate "out of control" and cause both consumers and U.S. chip companies to be "trampled."

The blacklisting of Huawei will not only push China to become more closed off to the rest of the world, but will also hinder the United States' ability to maintain "world leadership" in the technology market, Shapiro said.

"We have these great American chip companies ready to sell to all around the world," he said. "And the fact is, I think the U.S. policy may be really pushing China to do everything by itself, and not only put up walls around China, but we're putting up an economic fence around the United States."

If the U.S. wants to advance "and be innovative, maintain world leadership, we have to be out there in the world marketplace," he added.

President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference with China's President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on November 9, 2017.

Nicholas Asfouri | AFP | Getty Images

Tech bifurcation possible

As tensions between the world's two largest economies rise, experts have said a bifurcation in the global internet space — otherwise known as the "splinternet," with two different systems of technology and regulations — has become increasingly likely.

Shapiro echoed that sentiment, saying that a "standards bifurcation" in tech is a "possibility."

"We see in electricity, different outlets in different regions of the world," he said. "There has been an economic fence put up around China in terms of Internet access,."

However, Shapiro said he believes that countries like the U.S., Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand share a "cultural bond" that will drive them together.

"China has a good strategy for China — 1.4 billion people; they feed them, they do good things," Shapiro said. "But the reality is, it's a very insular strategy. That is not something I want as an American."

—CNBC's Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report.

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2019-06-11 05:33:06Z
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Trump raises specter of imposing 'very profitable' new tariffs on Mexico despite deal breakthrough - Fox News

Even as he again hailed his administration's last-minute, much-heralded deal on Friday with Mexico as a "successful agreement" to address illegal immigration at the southern border, President Trump on Sunday bluntly suggested he might again seek to impose punishing tariffs on Mexico if its cooperation falls short in the future.

The president and other key administration officials also sharply disputed a New York Times report claiming the Friday deal "largely" had been negotiated months ago, and hinted that not all major details of the new arrangement have yet been made public.

In its report, the Times acknowledged that Mexico's pledge to deploy up to 6,000 national guard troops to its southern border with Guatemala "was larger than their previous pledge," and that Mexico's "agreement to accelerate the Migrant Protection Protocols could help reduce what Mr. Trump calls 'catch and release' of migrants in the United States by giving the country a greater ability to make asylum-seekers wait in Mexico."

U.S. officials had been working to expand the migrant program, which already has led to the return of about 10,000 people, and said Friday's agreement was a major push in that direction. Nevertheless, the Times, citing unnamed officials from Mexico and the U.S., reported that the concessions already had been hashed out in a more limited form.

WATCH: ACTING DHS SECRETARY DISPUTES NEW YORK TIMES REPORT, SAYS 'ALL OF' THE DEAL IS 'NEW'

"Another false report in the Failing @nytimes," Trump wrote. "We have been trying to get some of these Border Actions for a long time, as have other administrations, but were not able to get them, or get them in full, until our signed agreement with Mexico. Additionally, and for many years Mexico was not being cooperative on the Border in things we had, or didn’t have, and now I have full confidence, especially after speaking to their President yesterday, that they will be very cooperative and want to get the job properly done."

That might have been a reference to discussions about Mexico becoming a "safe third country," which would make it harder for asylum-seekers who pass through the country to claim refuge in the U.S. The idea, which Mexico has long opposed, was discussed during negotiations, but Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard has said his country did not agree to it, even as Mexican diplomats said negotiations on the topic will continue.

And, acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan, speaking on "Fox News Sunday," insisted "all of it is new," including the agreement to dispatch around 6,000 National Guard troops — a move Mexico has described as an "acceleration."

A Mexican Army soldier near an immigration checkpoint in Tapachula, Chiapas state, Mexico, this past Saturday. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

"This is the first time we've heard anything like this kind of number of law enforcement being deployed in Mexico to address migration, not just at the southern border but also on the transportation routes to the northern border and in coordinated patrols in key areas along our southwest border," he said, adding that "people can disagree with the tactics" but that "Mexico came to the table with real proposals" that he said will be effective, if implemented.

The agreement between the U.S. and Mexico headed off a 5 percent tax on all Mexican goods that Trump had threatened to impose starting Monday. The tariffs were set to rise to 15 percent on August 1, 2019, to 20 percent on September 1, 2019, and to 25 percent on October 1, 2019.

But, Trump suggested Sunday, the threat of tariffs is not completely removed.

"Importantly, some things not mentioned in [yesterday's] press release, one in particular, were agreed upon," Trump continued. "That will be announced at the appropriate time. There is now going to be great cooperation between Mexico & the USA, something that didn’t exist for decades. However, if for some unknown reason there is not, we can always go back to our previous, very profitable, position of Tariffs - But I don’t believe that will be necessary. The Failing @nytimes, & ratings challenged @CNN, will do anything possible to see our Country fail! They are truly The Enemy of the People!"

Democrats seeking to unseat President Trump in 2020, meanwhile, said the Times report was evidence that the administration merely was trying to save face, after Trump suddenly announced his plan for the tariffs less than two weeks ago, on May 30.

Bernie Sanders, for example, derided Trump on Sunday for purportedly picking unnecessary and economically costly fights with a variety of countries.

"I think what the world is tired of and what I am tired of is a president who consistently goes to war, verbal war with our allies, whether it is Mexico, whether it is Canada," Sanders said.

But, in a tense moment on CNN's "State of the Union," Sanders struggled when asked by host Dana Bash why he had called the situation at the southern border a "fake crisis" engineered by the White House.

"Immigration officials have arrested or encountered more than 144,000 migrants at the southern border in May, the highest monthly total in 13 years," Bash began. "Border facilities are dangerously overcrowded; migrants are actually standing on toilets to get space to breathe. How is that not a crisis?"

Sanders responded that the president has been "demonizing" immigrants.

Beto O'Rourke, in a separate interview, conceded only that Trump may have helped accelerate the implementation of a previously existing arrangement.

"I think the president has completely overblown what he purports to have achieved. These are agreements that Mexico had already made and, in some case, months ago," O'Rourke said on ABC News’ "This Week." "They might have accelerated the timetable, but by and large the president achieved nothing except to jeopardize the most important trading relationship that the United States of America has."

Mexican officials, meanwhile, insisted that they would remain engaged in active negotiations with the Trump administration.

"We want to continue to work with the U.S. very closely on the different challenges that we have together, and one urgent one at this moment is immigration," Mexican diplomat Martha Barcena said Sunday.

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She told CBS News' "Face the Nation" that the countries' "joint declaration of principles... gives us the base for the road map that we have to follow in the incoming months on immigration and cooperation on asylum issues and development in Central America."

Barcena added that the U.S. wanted to see the number of migrants crossing the border to return to levels seen in 2018.

Fox News' Bret Baier, Adam Shaw and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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2019-06-10 14:53:31Z
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Indian Court Convicts 6 Hindus in Rape and Murder of Muslim Girl, 8 - The New York Times

NEW DELHI — An Indian court on Monday convicted six men over the kidnap, rape and murder of a Muslim nomadic girl last year, bringing to a close a case that gripped India and reflected bitter religious divisions.

After a closed trial, the men, who included police officials, were handed sentences ranging from five years to life imprisonment for their crimes against the 8-year-old girl, which occurred in the disputed region of Jammu and Kashmir. A seventh person was acquitted for lack of evidence.

The mother of the girl, whose name and identity were protected by court order, said the decision was “a victory for all those sane voices that campaigned for justice.”

The case provoked weeks of protest and breathless front-page coverage in India, with a level of outrage reminiscent of the reaction several years ago when a young woman was raped on a bus and died of her injuries.

Beyond its brutality, the crime was noteworthy for the role religion played in heightening tensions. According to investigators, the man behind the plot, Sanji Ram, a retired government revenue officer, had targeted the 8-year-old girl to strike fear in her Muslim nomadic tribe, the Bakarwal, and drive them from the rugged Himalayan region where they live as shepherds.

In January 2018, the girl was kidnapped from a meadow and locked in a remote Hindu temple in the district of Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir. For days, several men, all of them Hindu, drugged, starved and gang-raped her. She was eventually strangled and hit in the head with a rock. The girl’s body was dumped in a forest, her purple dress stained with blood.

The story initially made few ripples beyond local news outlets. But in April 2018, The Indian Express, one of India’s most widely circulated newspapers, published graphic details from a police report, including the detail that one of the men, himself a police official, had asked that the girl be kept alive so he could rape her one last time.

Image

A bus carrying the assailants to court in the state of Punjab, India, on Monday.CreditMukesh Gupta/Reuters

The crime quickly became a religious flash point in India. Some Hindu nationalists rallied to the side of the men, saying that they had been set up and were innocent.

Protests spread in Kathua. Dozens of Hindu women organized hunger strikes and threatened to set themselves on fire if the case proceeded. At one point, a mob of Hindu lawyers physically blocked police officers from entering a courthouse to file charges against the men.

Several prominent members of the governing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party also pushed to move the case from the state police to the Central Bureau of Investigation, a strategy that was perceived by many as an attempt to win leniency for the accused. (The C.B.I. falls under the purview of the central government.)

Reacting to Monday’s verdict, Sarah Jacob, an anchor on NDTV, an Indian news channel, said that the case’s handling had all the elements of a “bad horror movie.”

“Every single loophole that could have been abused has been abused,” she said. “This is not just a victory for the family of that 8-year-old girl. It’s a victory of the legal system in our country.”

A special court in the state of Punjab handed down the verdict, which was based on testimony from more than 100 witnesses. Before the hearing, the police tightened security by deploying several hundred officers around the building and by bringing in a tank. There were no reports of violence.

Three of the men, including Mr. Ram, were convicted on charges of kidnapping, rape and murder, and sentenced to life imprisonment. The others were found guilty of destroying evidence and given five years in jail. The court acquitted Mr. Ram’s son, Vishal. All of the men were tried under laws that could have brought the death penalty.

Among members of the girl’s community, who are on their way to Kashmir for the summer, many expressed relief and joy when they heard the verdict, though some wondered if the sentences were strong enough. The girl’s father said that his wounds were as fresh today as when the crime occurred.

“I will say justice is done on the day I hear these beasts hanged,” he said by telephone. “In her, I had a new life, a reason to live. That reason to live is gone.”

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2019-06-10 13:00:39Z
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