UK govt. shocked by Royal Mail decision: Iran envoy

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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Britain's Royal Mail has confirmed suspending mail delivery services to recipient addresses in Iran, citing Washington’s sanctions against the country.

The mail service said that services had already been suspended for the last two weeks and that any remaining parcel in Britain would be returned to the original sender.

Following the announcement, Iran’s ambassador to the United Kingdom Hamid Baeidinejad said that the matter had been followed up with related British authorities, adding that a letter of protest had been sent to the UK’s Foreign Office.

He said that British authorities had promised to resolve the issue as soon as possible, requesting that they be given “until Monday” to address the problem.

Baeidinejad also said that UK authorities “were shocked” by the Royal Mail announcement.

The Iranian ambassador further stated that his mission in London itself would envision a channel to deliver parcels to Iran free of charge given that the problem persisted beyond the Monday deadline.

The suspension of mail delivery to Iran was allegedly done on the pretext of US sanctions targeting Iran.

The United States President Donald Trump withdrew Washington from the landmark Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement last May and renewed sanctions lifted under the agreement.

Iran has not left the deal despite Washington's measures, stressing that the remaining signatories to the agreement have to work to offset the negative impacts of the US pullout for Iran if they want Tehran to remain committed.

Consequently, remaining European signatories unveiled a mechanism, known as the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX), earlier this year to guarantee continued trade after spending months of discussion.

The Europeans, however, ultimately presented INSTEX with preconditions which require Iran to join the FATF (the Financial Action Task Force) and start negotiations on its missile program, prompting senior Iranian officials to object to the plan.

Speaking earlier this week, US Representative to the European Union Gordon Sondlant described the Eurpean INSTEX plan as “nothing but a paper tiger.”

"The SPVs are Europe's attempt to appease Iran by showing that they are still trying their very best to facilitate proper transfers of payments to Iran. We believe that those SPVs are really nothing more than, and I've said it before, a paper tiger," he stressed.

European powers have, however, claimed to be committed to keeping the JCPOA alive.

On Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron said that Paris and its European partners were pressing the Trump administration to moderate the sanctions.

The European measures have so far failed to have much effect.

Iranian officials have blamed the US of waging "economic terrorism" after sanctions hampered foreign flood-relief from reaching the country amid unprecedented floods.

[PostmanBitesDog]

The suspension of mail delivery to Iran was allegedly done on the pretext of US sanctions targeting Iran.

The United States President Donald Trump withdrew Washington from the landmark Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement last May and renewed sanctions lifted under the agreement.

The Trump Administration is setting a bad precedent here which could ultimately lead to serious hostilities. The one-year anniversary of the United States withdrawing from the JCPOA is only weeks away, and during the past year the U.S. State Department issued waivers that only allow continuing civil nonproliferation nuclear projects at three sites in Iran (Arak, Bushehr, and Fordow). No waivers for new projects.

But the plan is in place to force the Islamic Republic into submission using the somewhat mixed propagandist rhetoric that Iran is supporting the Houthi rebels in nearby Yemen, whose own aim is to win back their independence from the Yemeni government led by prime minister Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi - a Yemeni government accused of corruption and having been backed by Saudi Arabia and the United States.

What's quite concerning is the strong backing of Israel's reelected prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud Party fully supporting Trump's decision to keep the United States out of the JCPOA, and the U.S. canceling the entire nonproliferation nuclear waivers altogether.

And to add to the mix, there's also Donald Trump's approval of National Security Advisor John Bolton's hawkish plans to strike Iran.