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Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has dismissed media reports that CIA Director John Ratcliffe visited Moscow ear...
The U.S. Treasury has lifted counter-terrorism sanctions on Iraq’s Fly Baghdad Airlines and two of its aircraft, citing significant changes to the airline’s operations and conduct. The move does not signal any shift in Washington’s policy towards Iran.
The U.S. Treasury has removed counter-terrorism sanctions imposed on Iraq’s Fly Baghdad Airlines and two of its aircraft, citing significant changes to the airline’s operations and conduct.
The sanctions were introduced in 2024 over the airline’s alleged links to the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The U.S. Treasury said on Wednesday that Fly Baghdad Airlines Co., Iraq Express and two Boeing 737 aircraft had been removed from its Specially Designated Nationals list.
A Treasury official said the decision was part of the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s established process for reconsidering sanctions when a designated entity changes its behaviour.
“FBA has demonstrated major changes to their operations such that their listing is no longer warranted,” the official said. “They have addressed sanctionable conduct.”
The Treasury did not provide details of the specific operational changes that led to the sanctions being lifted.
The official stressed that the move did not signal any change in U.S. policy towards the Iranian government, the IRGC or any organisation designated as a terrorist group.
The decision was also unrelated to negotiations between the U.S. and Iran over a possible agreement to end hostilities in the Gulf, the official said.
The Treasury added that sanctions could be reimposed at any time if Fly Baghdad resumed activities that could be be subject to U.S. restrictions.
Oil prices fell after the U.S. expanded economic sanctions on Iran, as Tehran vowed to retaliate and warned it had tools to respond, raising concerns over potential disruption to regional oil supplies.
Rescuers in Nepal used helicopters on Thursday to scour for hundreds still missing after a wall of mud and rock collapsed into a river on the Himalayan border with China's Tibet, sending catastrophic floods through towns and valleys, killing 162 people.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told allied foreign ministers Washington will focus on sanctions and other pressure on Iran “for the time being”, Axios reports. Meanwhile, Iran and Oman have resumed talks on a temporary shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz.
Kyiv has recently received a small number of U.S.-made Patriot interceptors capable of downing Russian ballistic missiles, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said. It comes as Britain and France pledged stronger military support for Ukraine.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has called for greater economic cooperation among Muslim countries, saying their combined economic weight remains disproportionately small compared with their population, strategic location and resources.
Ratko Mladić, the former Bosnian Serb military commander convicted of genocide for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, has died, according to a United Nations official.
A glacial collapse that triggered catastrophic flooding along the Nepal-Tibet border on Wednesday has killed at least 270 people, with more than 1,000 still missing. Here are some of the most devastating glacier-related disasters recorded around the world:
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says 3.7 million children across Afghanistan are suffering from acute wasting, a dangerous form of malnutrition, including around one million with severe acute malnutrition, as hospitals and aid services face rising demand and funding shortages.
Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has dismissed media reports that CIA Director John Ratcliffe visited Moscow earlier this week to warn Russia against attacking NATO, dismissing them as "scare stories," which had nothing to do with reality.
Icelanders will vote on Saturday, 29 August, on whether to resume negotiations with the European Union, in a referendum that could reopen the country’s long-debated membership question.
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