The federal government has awarded more than $107 billion in contract payments, grants and other benefits over the past decade to foreign and multinational American companies while they were doing business in Iran, despite Washington’s efforts to discourage investment there, records show.
That includes nearly $15 billion paid to companies that defied American sanctions law by making large investments that helped Iran develop its vast oil and gas reserves.
For years, the United States has been pressing other nations to join its efforts to squeeze the Iranian economy, in hopes of reining in Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. Now, with the nuclear standoff hardening and Iran rebuffing American diplomatic outreach, the Obama administration is trying to win a tough new round of United Nations sanctions.
A fire at a karaoke bar killed 18 people Tuesday in the Chinese province of Guangdong,...
Twenty people have been killed in an air strike by a Saudi-led military coalition in southwestern...
Bombings at voter registration centres in the Afghan capital, Kabul, and in Baghlan province have killed...
