Iran seizes oil tanker carrying 'smuggled fuel' in Persian Gulf, state media reports - Fox News

Iran's Revolutionary Guard last week seized an oil tanker in the Persian Gulf that was supposedly carrying "smuggled fuel" from Iran, state media reported Sunday.

The ship was carrying 700,000 liters [185,000 gallons] of fuel, according to state TV and the semi-official Fars news agency. Seven crew members were reportedly detained during the vessel's seizure.

IRAN'S FOREIGN MINISTER INVITED TO WHITE HOUSE, TEHRAN DECIDED AGAINST VISIT: REPORT

The ship was seized on Wednesday near Farsi Island, where an Iranian Guard Navy base is located, the news outlet reported. The island sits in the Persian Gulf between Saudi Arabia and Iran, north of the Strait of Hormuz.

"This foreign vessel had received the fuel from other ships and was transferring it to Persian Gulf Arab states," Gen. Ramazan Zirahi, a Guard commander, was quoted as saying.

Further information on the vessel, and the nationality of crew members, was not immediately clear.

The seizure marked the third such incident involving a commercial vessel in recent weeks — and the second accused of smuggling fuel.

The U.S. Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain, told The Associated Press it did not have information to confirm the reports. Maritime tracking experts also said they did not have any immediate information about the incident or the vessel.

On July 18, the paramilitary force seized a United Arab Emirates-based oil tanker, the Panamanian-flagged MT Riah, for allegedly smuggling some 264,000 gallons of fuel from Iranian smugglers to foreign customers.

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The following week, the Guard's naval forces seized a British-flagged vessel in the Gulf in what some Iranian officials suggested was retaliation for the seizure of an Iranian oil tanker in a British Royal Navy operation off Gibraltar. The U.K. says the Iranian oil tanker was suspected of violating European Union sanctions on oil shipments to Syria. Iran denies the ship was bound for Syria but has not disclosed its destination.

The seizure comes amid heightened tensions between the U.S. and Iran amid the breakdown of the nuclear deal that led the regime to exceed the threshold of low-enriched uranium stockpile as agreed upon in the 2015 accord.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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2019-08-04 11:48:19Z
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Iran seizes foreign tanker in the Gulf, detains sailors, state TV says - CNBC

A picture taken on July 21, 2019, shows Iranian Revolutionary Guards patrolling around the British-flagged tanker Stena Impero as it's anchored off the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas.

Hasan Shirvani | AFP | Getty Images

Iran has seized a foreign tanker in the Gulf carrying 700,000 liters of fuel, Iranian state TV said Sunday, citing the country's Revolutionary Guards.

Seven sailors on board have also been detained, according to Revolutionary Guard commander Ramezan Zirahi, who was quoted by Al Mayadeen TV.

"The IRGC's naval forces have seized a foreign oil tanker in the Persian Gulf that was smuggling fuel for some Arab countries," state TV quoted Zirahi as saying.

"It carried 700,000 liters of fuel. Seven sailors onboard of the tanker, who are from different nationalities, were detained." The tanker's origin is unclear. 

In late June, Iranian commandos seized a British-flagged tanker, the Stena Impero, in the Strait of Hormuz on grounds of alleged maritime violations. The U.K. government has called the seizure illegal. The incident followed British forces capturing an Iranian tanker near Gibraltar, which it accused of violating sanctions on Syria.

Last week a second British warship arrived in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway for 30% of the world's seaborne oil, to protect British tankers. U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has urged Iran to "come out of the dark" and release the Stena Impero.

Rising risks and a dying nuclear deal

The latest tanker seizure comes a day after Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif announced Tehran would make a third move to roll back its commitments to the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, signed under the Obama administration to lift economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for controls on its nuclear program.

"The third step in reducing commitments to (the nuclear deal) will be implemented in the current situation," Zarif said Sunday, without elaborating.

Iran in July said it had moved to increase its stockpiles of uranium beyond the deal's internationally-agreed limits and enrich uranium beyond the civilian energy level of 3.67%, taking it further along the technical path toward being able to produce a nuclear bomb.

Tensions between Iran and the U.S. and fears of a new war in the Middle East have been rising since the Trump administration withdrew from the 2015 accord and re-impose sweeping sanctions on Iran in an attempt to push it into a more stringent deal involving broader security concessions.

In May and June, six foreign tankers were hit in alleged sabotage attacks that the U.S. government has blamed on Iranian forces, a charge Tehran denies. Iran on June 20 shot down a U.S. surveillance drone it says was flying over its territory, prompting a planned U.S. military strike on Iranian military targets that President Trump says he called off with ten minutes to spare.   

Most analysts maintain war in the Persian Gulf remains unlikely, but fear that with tensions so high and no diplomatic channel of communication, a mere miscalculation could set off a serious conflict.

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

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2019-08-04 11:02:53Z
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U.S. State Department welcomes news of ceasefire in northwest Syria - Reuters

FILE PHOTO: Turkish soldiers stand on a watch tower at the Atmeh crossing on the Syrian-Turkish border, as seen from the Syrian side, in Idlib governorate, Syria May 31, 2019. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department on Saturday said it welcomed news of a ceasefire in Northwest Syria - the last rebel bastion in the country - and urged for an end to attacks on civilians.

Last week Syrian media reported that the ceasefire would take place as long as rebel fighters implement the terms of a de-escalation agreement brokered last year by Russia and Turkey.

The wave of violence in northwest Syria since late April has killed more than 400 civilians and forced more than 440,000 to flee toward the Turkish border, according to the United Nations.

“The United States believes there can be no military solution to the Syrian conflict, and only a political solution can ensure a stable and secure future for all Syrians,” the State Department said in a statement.

“We further believe the only viable path to a political solution is the U.N.-led political process in Geneva, including constitutional reform and U.N.-supervised elections,” the statement said.

The United States will support the work of U.N. Special Envoy Geir Pedersen and the United Nations to advance a Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political process that would create a permanent, peaceful, and political end to the conflict, the State Department added.

The region - including Idlib province and parts of nearby Hama - was part of the last major stronghold of armed opposition to President Bashar al-Assad, who has vowed to reclaim all of Syria.

The Department also commended efforts by Turkey and Russia to restore the cease fire they agreed in September 2018.

Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington; Editing by Susan Thomas

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2019-08-04 01:39:00Z
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Hundreds Arrested in Moscow as Protests Pile Pressure on Putin - The Wall Street Journal

Police officers detain a protester during an unsanctioned rally in the center of Moscow on Saturday. Photo: Alexander Zemlianichenko/Associated Press

By

Georgi Kantchev

Georgi Kantchev
The Wall Street Journal
• Biography
• @georgikantchev
• georgi.kantchev@wsj.com

Updated Aug. 3, 2019 2:32 pm ET

MOSCOW—Police detained more than 600 people at an unauthorized protest in the Russian capital demanding fair elections, as a recent wave of public discontent in Russia showed few signs of abating.

The rallies, protesting the exclusion of opposition candidates from local elections, came a week after more than 1,300 people were detained and dozens injured in similar demonstrations.

The mass protests, which began in Moscow in mid-July, are some of the most significant displays of public dissatisfaction in Russia since President Vladimir Putin returned to the Kremlin in 2012. The rallies, which follow demonstrations on various issues across the country in the past year, come as Mr. Putin’s approval rating has fallen to multiyear lows.

The Ministry of Interior said around 600 people were detained during Saturday’s protests, which weren’t sanctioned by city authorities. Russian organization OVD-Info, which monitors political arrests, said 685 people were detained.

The ministry put the number of participants at 1,500, though independent media reported higher figures.

More than a thousand people protested at a similar rally in St. Petersburg, which was authorized by city officials.

Among those detained on Saturday was Lyubov Sobol, a female protest leader who has been on a hunger strike for the past three weeks.

By late evening in Moscow, some of those detained were released, similar to the previous protest. Many protest leaders, though, have been in jail since last week, with sentences up to 30 days. Investigators have also opened a criminal probe investigating those organizing mass civil unrest, which carries a penalty of up to 15 years in jail.

Meanwhile on Saturday, Russian authorities opened a criminal investigation into whether jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s anticorruption Foundation has laundered 1 billion rubles (about $15.3 million). Mr. Navalny’s organization has worked to expose official corruption, posting video investigations into top-level graft that have been viewed millions of times on social media.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny attends a protest in Moscow on July 20. Photo: Pavel Golovkin/Associated Press

There was no immediate response from the group to the allegations, but on Friday, Leonid Volkov, a close aide of Mr. Navalny, responded to speculation that such an investigation was imminent saying on Facebook that the allegations were baseless and accusing the authorities of trying to destroy the organization’s network.

An outspoken Kremlin critic, Mr. Navalny is currently serving 30 days behind bars for organizing unauthorized protests. Last weekend he was hospitalized with what he and his team suspect was poisoning, though officials have said his toxicology tests showed no trace of poison.

The protests, the largest of which saw crowds exceeding 20,000 people earlier this month, were sparked by a decision by Moscow’s electoral commission to bar opposition candidates it says failed to collect enough signatures to be placed on the Sept. 8 city council ballot. The candidates say they had the required support.

The 45-member Moscow city council is currently controlled by the pro-Putin United Russia party, and gaining seats there would be a significant victory for the opposition.

The protests could rattle the Kremlin, following a wave of discontent in the past year. Russians have taken to the streets across the country to protest against a rise in the retirement age, the creation of landfill in rural areas and tightening control over internet freedoms.

Mr. Putin’s approval rating fell to 64% in January, according to the independent Levada Center, its lowest level since 2013. The rating inched up to 68% in July, still a far cry from its 2015 highs of nearly 90%.

The Kremlin and senior government officials have remained silent on the protests. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, an ally of Mr. Putin, praised the police response to last weekend’s rallies.

Protesters on Saturday met at various points along the 2.5 mile-long Boulevard Ring that circles central Moscow, a city of more than 12.5 million people.

Many shops in central Moscow were closed in anticipation of the rallies, called “A walk along the boulevards,” and police had cordoned off main thoroughfares.

Write to Georgi Kantchev at georgi.kantchev@wsj.com

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2019-08-03 18:32:00Z
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Russian police detain hundreds at Moscow protest - Aljazeera.com

Russian police have detained hundreds of people attending an unauthorised protest in the country's capital, Moscow, to demand free elections, according to a monitoring group.

Phalanxes of helmeted riot police linked arms and swept people away on Saturday as activists gathered on Pushkin Square to rally against the exclusion of independent and opposition candidates from the Moscow city council election.

The crowds were pushed to Trubnaya Square where police continued the crackdown.

At least 685 people were detained by police, according to OVD-info, an independent monitoring group. At a similar protest last week, police arrested at least 1,400 demonstrators, beating some people with truncheons.

OVD-info said some of the detainees, including a member of the precinct election commission, Aleksandr Sviderskiy, reported being beaten by the police.

MediaZona, a Russian media outlet, shared a video on Twitter that showed police beating a protester who was lying on the ground.

Полиция избивает лежащих на земле людей на Чистых прудах дубинками. Видео: https://t.co/Vvxpo32VBD pic.twitter.com/owkNj9J4vp

— Медиазона (@mediazzzona) August 3, 2019

Police said they had detained 600 and said 1,500 had attended the protest, though footage of demonstrations which flared in different parts of Moscow suggested many more had taken part.

Prominent activist Lyubov Sobol, currently three weeks into a hunger strike after being barred from taking part in the local polls, was dragged from a taxi and detained as she set off for the rally on Saturday.

Grigory Durnovo, a coordinator for the monitoring group OVD-info, told Al Jazeera that police started to detain protesters even before the demonstration began.

Hundreds arrested at Moscow demonstration for free elections (1:54)

"The rally was planned to start at 2pm Moscow time [11:00 GMT]. The first detentions started about two hours before. We can call it preventive detentions, because people were taken to police stations and they were told to sign warrants warning them not to attend the rally and even not to appear in the streets close to the place where the rally was to be held," he said from Moscow. 

'Atmosphere of total control'

Al Jazeera's Imran Khan, reporting from the protest in Moscow, said there were more police officers in the area than demonstrators.

"They are going into the crowd and detaining people. Most of the protesters are going peacefully, letting themselves be arrested. But this is nowhere near the number we have seen in previous protests," he said.

"The massive security operation by the Moscow police appears to have worked."

The dispute over the local election has provoked a large outcry. On July 20, about 20,000 people turned out for a demonstration that was the largest in the city in several years.  

The Moscow city council is now controlled by the pro-Kremlin United Russia party [Tatyana Makeyeva/Reuters]

People in the crowd on Saturday said they just wanted the opposition to have a chance to run. "I want there to be big changes... now there is an atmosphere of total control," Varvara, a 22-year-old artist, told AFP news agency.

"I believe everyone should have a right to take part [in the polls]," 39-year-old Robert said.

About 3,000 people attended a rally in St Petersburg supporting the Moscow protests, the local news site Fontanka.ru reported.

Sensitive elections

The Moscow city council, which has 45 seats, is responsible for a large municipal budget and is now controlled by the pro-Kremlin United Russia party. All of its seats, which have a five-year term, are up for grabs in the September 8 vote.

Once a local, low-key affair, the vote has shaken up Russia's political scene as the Kremlin struggles with how to deal with strongly opposing views in its sprawling capital of 12.6 million.

Phalanxes of helmeted riot police linked arms and swept people away on Saturday [Sefa Karacan/Anadolu]

Also on Saturday, Russian investigators launched a money-laundering probe against detained opposition leader Alexei Navalny's anti-corruption group, which has worked to expose the questionable wealth of top officials. 

This week, the group published a new investigation into Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin's deputy, accusing her of selling prime Moscow property to family members at rock-bottom prices.

Employees of the Foundation for Fighting Corruption (FBK) "received a large sum of money from third parties which they knew was procured illegally", investigators said, alleging the group "laundered" one billion rubles ($15.3m).

"Accomplices" of FBK "gave a legal appearance" to the funds by transferring them to bank accounts and ultimately to the accounts of the FBK, investigators said.

The FBK collects money through donations, and Navalny's ally Leonid Volkov dismissed allegations of money laundering as an attempt to stamp out Navalny's national network of volunteers.

Navalny is currently serving 30 days behind bars for violating rules on public gatherings. Last weekend, he was hospitalised with symptoms his doctor said looked like poisoning.

A state toxicology lab said no traces of poison were found. 

Several of Navalny's associates are also in police custody over protests about next month's elections in Moscow. 

President Vladimir Putin has yet to comment on the situation in Moscow.

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2019-08-03 16:19:00Z
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Hundreds Arrested in Moscow as Protests Pile Pressure on Putin - The Wall Street Journal

Police officers detain a protester during an unsanctioned rally in the center of Moscow on Saturday. Photo: Alexander Zemlianichenko/Associated Press

By

Georgi Kantchev

Georgi Kantchev
The Wall Street Journal
• Biography
• @georgikantchev
• georgi.kantchev@wsj.com

Aug. 3, 2019 11:22 am ET

MOSCOW—Police detained 600 people at an unauthorized protest in the Russian capital demanding fair elections, as a recent wave of public discontent in Russia showed few signs of abating.

The rallies, protesting the exclusion of opposition candidates from local elections, came a week after more than 1,300 people were detained and dozens injured in similar demonstrations.

The mass protests, which began in Moscow in mid-July, are some of the most significant displays of public dissatisfaction in Russia since President Vladimir Putin returned to the Kremlin in 2012. The rallies, which follow demonstrations on various issues across the country in the past year, come as Mr. Putin’s approval rating has fallen to multiyear lows.

The Ministry of Interior said it 600 people were detained during the Saturday protests, which weren’t sanctioned by city authorities. Police put the number of participants at 1,500.

Independent monitoring groups reported similar numbers of detentions.

Among those detained was Lyubov Sobol, a female protest leader who has been on hunger strike for the past three weeks.

Meanwhile on Saturday, Russian authorities opened a criminal investigation into whether jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s anticorruption Foundation has laundered 1 billion rubles, about $15.3 million. Mr. Navalny’s organization has worked to expose official corruption, posting video investigations into top-level graft that have been viewed millions of times on social media.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny attends a protest in Moscow on July 20. Photo: Pavel Golovkin/Associated Press

There was no immediate response from the group to the allegations, but on Friday, Leonid Volkov, a close aide of Mr. Navalny, responded to speculation that such an investigation was imminent saying on Facebook that the allegations were baseless and accusing the authorities of trying to destroy the organization’s network.

An outspoken Kremlin critic, Mr. Navalny is currently serving 30 days behind bars for organizing unauthorized protests. Last weekend he was hospitalized with what he and his team suspect was poisoning, though officials have said his toxicology tests showed no trace of poison.

The protests, the largest of which saw crowds exceeding 20,000 people earlier this month, were sparked by a decision by Moscow’s electoral commission to bar opposition candidates it says failed to collect enough signatures to be placed on the Sept. 8 city council ballot. The candidates say they had the required support.

The 45-member Moscow city council is currently controlled by the pro-Putin United Russia party, and gaining seats there would be a significant victory for the opposition.

The protests could rattle the Kremlin, following a wave of discontent in the past year. Russians have taken to the streets across the country to protest against a rise in the retirement age, the creation of landfill in rural areas, tightening control over internet freedoms and other causes.

Mr. Putin’s approval rating fell to 64% in January, according to the independent Levada Center, its lowest level since 2013. The rating inched up to 68% in July, still a far cry from its 2015 highs of nearly 90%.

The Kremlin and senior government officials have remained silent on the protests. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, an ally of Mr. Putin, praised the police response to last weekend’s rallies.

Protesters on Saturday met at various points along the 2.5 mile-long Boulevard Ring that circles central Moscow, a city of more than 12.5 million people.

Many shops in central Moscow were closed in anticipation of the rallies, called “A walk along the boulevards,” and police had cordoned off main thoroughfares.

Write to Georgi Kantchev at georgi.kantchev@wsj.com

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2019-08-03 15:22:00Z
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Russia protests: Scores arrested during unauthorised demonstration - BBC News

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Russian opposition leader Lyubov Sobol is among more than 300 people detained over an unauthorised protest in Moscow.

Ms Sobol was in a taxi about to set off for the rally when police officers dragged her into a black van, which swiftly sped off.

Protesters are gathering in the Russian capital after authorities disqualified a number of opposition candidates from standing in local elections.

Russian officials said that 30 people had been arrested out of 350 attendees.

But monitoring group OVD-Info said more than that total number had been arrested.

• The woman driving Russia's opposition protests

The group, which runs a hotline for reporting detentions, and said that at least 381 people had been arrested, including some journalists, and there were at least six reports of beatings by police.

Officers in riot gear had earlier moved into the capital and warned people not to protest. Russian news agency TASS reported that one police officer had been injured while making an arrest.

Ms Sobol, a lawyer and video blogger, is one of the candidates excluded from the local elections. She has been on hunger strike for 21 days, and called on others to join the unsanctioned protest on Saturday.

Authorities said she was being held for violating regulations for street demonstrations.

In July, Ms Sobol was dragged out of the electoral commission office on a sofa.

Speaking to independent broadcaster Dozhd before her detention, she said the authorities "are doing everything they can to try to intimidate the opposition".

"That is why it is important to come out today to show that Muscovites are not afraid of provocation and they are ready to continue to stand up for their rights," she added.

Hours after her arrest, she tweeted from a police station, saying she had spent three hours being driven "all over Moscow" by a dozen masked officers.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Georgy Alburov, from the anti-corruption group FBK, which has links to prominent opposition leader Alexei Navalny, tweeted from the back of a police vehicle saying he had been arrested at the protest.

Shortly afterwards, Russian officials announced an investigation into FBK for alleged money laundering of a billion roubles ($15.3m, £16.6m) - though it did not name any individuals.

The nation's investigative committee said that funds has been knowingly obtained through criminal means.

What are the protests about?

Authorities detained more than 1,000 demonstrators last weekend during a demonstration, one of the biggest crackdowns in years.

Election authorities have barred opposition candidates from taking part in Moscow city authority elections planned for 8 September.

Officials said many of the signatures required for their candidacy applications were invalid. But protesters say they were excluded for political reasons.

Another protest held in solidarity in St Petersburg on Saturday had some 1,000 attendees - but it had not been banned by local officials, and there no reports of arrests.

What's been happening in Moscow?

Authorities have launched an investigation into the protests.

On Friday, they detained a number of men - including Alexey Minyaylo, an independent politician and aide to Ms Sobol - in connection with the "mass unrest", a charge which carries a sentence of up to 15 years in jail.

Opposition politician Konstantin Yankauskas, who is one of the banned election candidates, completed a seven-day jail sentence on Saturday - and was immediately re-arrested as he left the detention facility.

Alexei Navalny has also been arrested in connection with the rallies.

He fell ill in jail with a swollen face and rashes over his body, and was briefly hospitalised.

Doctors said he had had an extreme allergic reaction, but Mr Navalny and his personal doctor said he may have been poisoned.

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2019-08-03 14:45:45Z
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