Americas

US defence Secretary James Mattis finally announced his long-anticipated resignation to allow President Donald Trump to have a defence chief whose views are more aligned with the US president, he said in his resignation letter Thursday.

An advisor to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says the new round of US sanctions on Iran can’t remain in place for the long run due to their unilateral nature.

An expert on US politics believes Washington is hell-bent on settling its Iran problem once and for all, launching a full-scale war against the country that targets Iran’s economy, among other sectors, to bring the country to its knees and cause a regime change.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif hits out at US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for making another “mockery” of the UN Security Council (UNSC) by taking the podium there to brag about Washington’s violation of a resolution adopted by the same council on the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi has dismissed a US official’s “pointless” talk of renegotiating the Iran nuclear deal, saying that Tehran will not test what has already been tested.

Leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has warned that the Al Saud regime will definitely incur God’s wrath over the crimes it is committing against the innocent people of Yemen.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says the US has failed to negatively impact the Iranian economy by re-imposing its sanctions in November, as life has been made much easier for people since then.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says the US sustained another defeat after the member states of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) reached consensus on new cuts.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says the Islamic Republic, as a victim of terrorism, is at the forefront of fighting it, while the US and other Western countries are providing shelter for those criminals.

A US-sponsored draft resolution seeking to condemn Palestinian resistance group Hamas at the United Nations General Assembly has failed to gain a majority vote.

The Iranian oil minister has lashed out at US special representative for Iran Brian Hook over his “meddlesome” meetings with members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in Vienna, asserting that OPEC is an independent body that does not take orders from the US.

A senior Iranian commentator says US President Donald Trump is pushing America and its secular democracy to the brink of collapse.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has warned the United States that if the Islamic Republic is not allowed to export its crude oil, then no other country will be able to do so from the Persian Gulf.

Iran’s health minister says Iranian medicine companies have failed to have any financial transaction with other countries in the past month, since the US re-imposed its harshest sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani decried the US call for negotiations with Iran as insincere, saying Washington should first make up for the violation of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

A UN official says children are innocent and should be protected against any negative impact of sanctions, the “harshest” of which were recently imposed by the US on the Islamic Republic.

The senior spokesman of the Iranian Armed Forces says the country will continue to test and develop its missiles in line with its deterrence policy despite adversarial positions taken on this issue by US officials.

Iran has lashed out at the US for its “destructive role” in the 4th Review Conference of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), saying that Washington, as the biggest user of weapons of mass destruction, cannot impose its will on other member states.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who is on an official visit to the Swiss city of Geneva, held talks with Peter Mauer, the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Tuesday hailed the “good stances” of the UN’s special rapporteur on unilateral coercive measures in reaction to the US’ cruel sanctions against Iran.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi has lashed out at the US for “mocking” the concept of human rights by adopting double standards in this regard.

Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said US President Donald Trump’s move to call Iranians a terrorist nation reveals the depth of his foolishness.

In another victory for Iran, the Council of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) on Thursday asked the US to refrain from taking any measure that might endanger Iran's maritime security and freedom of navigation.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi has categorically dismissed the US’ “groundless” accusation that Tehran has breached the Chemical Weapons Convention by failing to declare what Washington calls “a toxic arms program” to the global chemical warfare watchdog.

Iran’s foreign minister described US President Donald Trump’s pledge of support for Riyadh despite the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi as “shameful”, deploring Trump’s picking on Iran instead and joking that Tehran might even have been responsible for recent California fires.