India halts Iran oil imports under U.S. pressure

India halted oil imports from Iran for the first time in at least a decade in March as New Delhi responded to U.S. pressure to keep its shipments from Tehran within sanction limits during the last month of negotiations on a preliminary nuclear deal.

India is second-biggest buyer of Iranian oil on an annual basis after China, yet it did not take any crude from Tehran in March, according to tanker arrival data from trade sources and ship tracking services on the Thomson Reuters terminal.

Refinery sources in New Delhi told Reuters  this was the first time in at least a decade that no imports were made over the space of a month - indicating how Washington is trying to maximise economic pressure on Tehran regime amid the talks aimed at stopping it from gaining the capacity to develop a nuclear bomb.

"There is pressure from the U.S. on all Asian buyers to stick to the sanctions regime," said Johannes Benigni, chairman of JBC Energy GmbH in Vienna.

The international sanctions aimed at pressuring the Iranian regime to stop nuclear activities currently restrict Iran's overall exports to 1 million-1.1 million bpd, with Asian buyers required to keep their purchases near end-2013 levels.

Iran nuclear talks hit impasse

The Iranian regime and world powers are beginning a final day of talks to reach an outline agreement on the country’s nuclear program, with Germany’s foreign minister saying that negotiations are at a crucial stage, the Bloomberg reports.

“We’re in a bit of a crisis with the talks; perhaps we have a bit of a new approach, we will see,” Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters today. At the same time, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is returning to the talks, a sign that a deal is still within reach.

Talks are stuck on how to roll back the sanctions that have slashed Iran’s oil output, and how to re-impose them should Iran violate the agreement, a European diplomat who spoke on condition of not being identified said on Monday. Both sides are playing a high-stakes game of chicken and the situation was changing hour-by-hour, the negotiator said.

According to the Reuters: Officials in the Swiss city of Lausanne said talks on a framework accord, which is intended as a prelude to a comprehensive agreement by the end of June, could yet fall apart. They have set a deadline of midnight on Tuesday for a framework agreement, but officials from all sides say it was possible the talks could run past the deadline.

"There still remain some difficult issues," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told CNN. "We are working very hard to work those through. We are working into the night."

As the ministers -- barring Russia's Sergei Lavrov, who was due back in Lausanne in the afternoon -- convened for the first plenary of the day, diplomats cautioned the talks could run deep into the early hours of Wednesday.

The Iranian regime has not backed down in any way, at any stage, from the positions with which it began the talks,MEMRI reports:

1. Tehran rejects the removal of its enriched uranium from Iran.

2. Tehran rejects a gradual lifting of the sanctions.

3. Tehran rejects restriction of the number of its centrifuges.

4. Tehran rejects intrusive inspections and snap inspections.

5. Tehran rejects any halt to its research and development activity.

6. Tehran rejects any change to the nature of its heavy water reactor at Arak.

7. Tehran rejects any closure of its secret enrichment site at Fordow.

8. Tehran rejects all restrictions to its nuclear activity following the agreement's expiration.

9. Tehran rejects the inclusion of its long-range missile program in the negotiations.

10. Tehran rejects reporting on its previous clandestine military nuclear activity.

11. Tehran rejects allowing inspections of military sites suspected of conducting nuclear activity.

Yemen: Air strike kills at least 40 people at camp, say aid workers

US denies drone strike killed two Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Iraq

 Pentagon has denied on Monday a claim by the Iranian state media saying that two Iranian Revolutionary Guardsmen were killed by a US drone in the Iraqi city of Tikrit.

The official IRNA news agency has claimed that the two had been posted to Iraq as advisers in in Iraq before they were killed due to a drone strike in Tikrit.
Pictures of the two men, named as Ali Yazdani and Hadi Jafari, were posted on Iranian news websites after their funerals on home soil.
The Fars news agency called Jafari, 29, from the northern Iranian city of Amol. Yazdani was buried in Tehran, it reported.
However, the US Department of Defense said in a statement that it had not conducted air strikes in the Tikrit area on the date the men were said to have been killed.
'Coalition forces initiated air strikes near Tikrit on March 25, two days after the alleged incident occurred and no air strikes were conducted in or near Tikrit on March 23,' said Major Omar Villarreal, a spokesman for US Central Command.
'We have no information to corroborate claims that coalition air strikes killed two IRGC members,' he added, referring to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Iranian-backed Shiite militia groups have for weeks been heavily involved in fighting in Tikrit, seeking to reclaim the city from IS.
Iranian media have reported the deaths of military personnel, including several generals, killed in Iraq and Syria after Tehran sent them in support of Baghdad’s government and of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Other Iranians have joined Shiite militia groups as volunteers.
Major General Qassem Suleimani, who leads the Quds Force, the Guard’s foreign wing, has been pictured on social media near the frontline in Tikrit and other battlegrounds, where he is said to be coordinating Shiite militia groups.
Other Revolutionary Guard deaths have included General Mohammad Ali Allahdadi, killed along with six fighters of Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah in an air strike in Syria on January 18.
Brigadier General Hamid Taghavi, also a member of the Guard, was killed in the Iraq in December.
Suleimani was pictured at a funeral ceremony for Taghavi.

One Dead in Shootout Outside U.S. National Security Agency

WASHINGTON – At least one person died and two others were injured in a shootout at one of the entrances to the U.S. Army base in Maryland that houses the National Security Agency.

The dead man is one of the two attackers who early Monday morning, for reasons that are not yet clear, tried to get through one of the NSA entrances in an SUV.

Although the investigation into the incident is continuing and the secrecy that shrouds the NSA makes getting details about it difficult, terrorism has been ruled out as a motive.

According to a spokesman at Fort Meade, where 11,000 soldiers and 29,000 civilians live and/or work, police guarding the entrances to the NSA facilities opened fire on the vehicle that was trying to get past the control posts.

One of the people in the vehicle was killed on the spot while another was taken to a hospital in Baltimore. In addition, a police officer suffered an injury to an arm, possibly in a collision with the attackers’ vehicle.

According to NBC 4 television, the attackers were dressed as women and inside the vehicle were found a firearm and cocaine.

Images taken by TV helicopters flying over the area showed two vehicles that has collided, one of them clearly a police unit, as well as a body covered with a sheet lying on the asphalt a few yards from the gate to the NSA installation, which sits alongside the busy Baltimore-Washington Parkway.

The incident began when the two people in the vehicle refused to follow the directions of the guards at the Fort Meade gate to leave the high-security zone, where at that hour many workers with entry passes were being admitted.

The guards immediately responded to the situation by setting up barricades, but the driver of the vehicle did not stop until it had crashed into one of the police vehicles blocking access to the facility.

Police opened fire on the vehicle, killing one of the occupants.

The FBI said that there are no indications of any terrorist intent, but the investigation is continuing to determine, among other things, why the attackers were dressed as women.

Federal Police Rescues 18 Women Being Sexually Exploited in Central Mexico

MEXICO CITY – Federal Police officers rescued 18 women who were being sexually exploited in Ecatepec, a city in Mexico State, and arrested two suspects, the National Security Commission said.

Federal law enforcement agents following up on an anonymous tip confirmed that illegal activities were taking place at the Flamingo taco shop in the Ejidos de San Cristobal district of the city, the commission said in a statement.

Customers were invited into an area in the rear of the shop that had been outfitted as a bar and “where acts of sexual exploitation were presumably carried out,” the commission said.

A special Federal Police unit raided the store, where they found 18 women who appeared to have been victimized, the commission said.

Alberto Silva Vazquez, suspected of running the establishment, was arrested on people trafficking and sexual exploitation charges, the commission said.

Officers also arrested Erick Sebastian Vazquez Nuñez, who was in possession of a 9-mm pistol, ammunition and cash.

The suspects and the property seized were turned over to prosecutors in Mexico State, which surrounds the Federal District and forms part of the Mexico City metropolitan area. 

Iran news in brief, 29 March 2015