Kerry, White House Beat Back New Iran Sanctions…For Now

The Obama administration seems to have blunted - at least for now - a Senate Banking Committee push to impose new sanctions on Iran while the talks continue. That's a major win for the White House, which has repeatedly warned that putting new punitive measures in place now would derail the current negotiations with Tehran and scuttle the interim deal that was signed in Geneva late last month. 

 

Russia reserves the right to use nuclear weapons in response to a conventional strike and sees them as a "great equalizer" reducing the likelihood of aggression, a senior Russian official said Wednesday. 

 

U.S. Senate and House negotiators on Monday announced they had hammered out bipartisan legislation that would require the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency to field a new radar to detect any long-range missiles that North Korea may fire against the United States.

 

The U.N. nuclear watchdog signaled on Wednesday it would press Iran at talks in Tehran next month over concerns the Islamic Republic may have researched how to develop atomic bombs.

 

Tehran will not drop its deal with Moscow on the purchase of the Russian S-300 air defense system, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said, insisting that Russia should comply with the contract terms and deliver the missile shield to Iran.

 

South Korea decided Tuesday to build three more Aegis destroyers to complement the three it already has to bolster defense against North Korea and its Asian neighbors, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.