France drops case against Iran after Macron-Pezeshkian UN talks

A delegation in Washington this week voiced New Delhi’s position in meetings with US officials, stressing that simultaneously cutting Russian, Iranian and Venezuelan flows would risk driving up global prices, the reported cited people familiar with the talks as saying.

India, the world’s third-biggest crude importer, meets nearly 90% of its oil needs from abroad. Its refiners have relied on discounted Russian barrels to ease costs after sanctions curbed Moscow’s wider trade, while Iranian and Venezuelan oil could offer similar discounts.

Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said this week India wanted to increase US oil and gas purchases, but added that “our energy security goals will have a very high element of US involvement.”

India halted Iranian oil imports in 2019 and stopped buying Venezuelan crude this year as US sanctions tightened.

Replacing those supplies with Middle Eastern barrels would be more expensive, officials said.

Customs data show 2.7 million tons of Indonesian crude -- around 630,000 barrels per day -- arrived in August, far exceeding Indonesia’s average output of 580,000 bpd in 2024, most of which was consumed domestically. The flows followed a sharp jump in July.

China, the biggest buyer of Iranian oil, officially reported no imports from Tehran since mid-2022. In the meantime, it buys more oil from Malaysia than the country produces. In the past two months, shipments from Malaysia -- often used for ship-to-ship transfers and rebranded cargoes -- have dropped more than 30%.

Analysts say operators are now shifting tactics.

“This is just part of a continuing evolution of the operators’ tactics, hiding what they’re doing,” said Charlie Brown, a senior adviser at United Against Nuclear Iran. “They’re still doing ship-to-ship transfers in the same area off Malaysia; the basic trade pattern remains the same.”

Vessel-tracking data show tankers including the Aquaris, Yuhan, Pola and Pix signaled calls at Indonesia’s Kabil port near Singapore -- a hub not connected to crude exports but close to established transfer zones off Malaysia. These tankers later discharged cargoes in Chinese ports such as Qingdao, Rizhao and Dalian.

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  Sanctions snapback to boost China’s access to cut-price Iranian oil - Reuters

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  Sanctions and graft decimated Iran oil revenues, ex-Treasury official says

Bloomberg cited the Aquaris as receiving Iranian crude from the sanctioned Sorion tanker before unloading in Qingdao in June. The Yuhan and Pola followed similar patterns, according to data from Vortexa and Kpler.

Queries to Indonesia’s energy ministry, Pertamina, Kabil port, and China’s foreign ministry went unanswered, Bloomberg reported.

China’s reliance on Iranian oil has provided Tehran with a crucial economic lifeline as US sanctions continue to target the trade.

The looming return of UN sanctions on Iran is unlikely to curb its oil exports but could boost China’s refiners, who already take nearly 80% of Tehran’s 1.6 million barrels per day at steep discounts, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

Exports of handmade rugs, which stood at more than $400 million in 2017, fell to just $41.7 million in the year to March 2025, according to customs data -- a drop of over 95% from their peak in the early 1990s, AFPreported.

The collapse followed Washington’s 2018 reimposition of sanctions, cutting off the US market that once bought more than 70% of Iranian carpets.

“During the unkind and cruel US sanctions, we lost our biggest buyer,” said Zahra Kamani, head of Iran’s National Carpet Center.

Germany, the UAE, Japan and China are now Iran’s top destinations, but volumes remain a fraction of past levels.

Rivals including India, China, Nepal, Turkey and Pakistan have captured global market share, with some rugs even imported back into Iran, traders said.

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  Iran's Handwoven Carpet Exports Plummet Amid Sanctions

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  Iran’s carpet exports unravel with 90% plunge

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  Iran's Persian Carpet Exports Drop Drastically

At least two million Iranians, many of them rural women, depend on carpet-weaving but earn only a few dollars a day. “We are losing even part of our domestic market due to imports,” Tehran trader Hamed Nabizadeh told AFP.

With tourism also in decline, fewer foreign visitors buy rugs, and even those who do are deterred by price tags of $30,000 or more for silk carpets.

Officials insist revival is possible. Trade Minister Mohammad Atabak said in June that new trade and currency policies could help resuscitate exports.

Analysts argue adapting designs to modern décor trends, using social media for sales and branding carpets more effectively may be key.

But with Iran’s currency plunging, many families at home are turning to cheaper factory-made rugs, and a centuries-old craft risks fading into a relic of the past.

The debate was sharpened by near-simultaneous interventions from Donald Trump, Ali Khamenei and President Masoud Pezeshkian all within 24 hours.

In his Tehran speech, delivered as Pezeshkian landed in New York, Khamenei ruled out any rapprochement with the United States “for at least another 30 years” and dismissed the idea of building nuclear weapons, declaring them forbidden “for the time being and in the future.”

Khamenei’s words were an apparent blow to more than 70 hardline lawmakers who had called for Tehran to start producing bombs.

Moderates seized on his stance to attack the MPs.

Political activist Ghorban Ali Salavatian posted their photos on X: “They got a swift response to their call for bombs. I hope they understand they were wrong—though it’s unlikely they do.”

Reformist Mohammad Sohafi listed all 71 names, warning: “Let us keep in mind, in case of a new attack by Israel on Iran, that these MPs have invited the attack.”

Critics stressed that hardliners seem oblivious to how talk of leaving the Non-Proliferation Treaty or pursuing nuclear weapons effectively invites military strikes. Many still recall the cleric who, near the end of Hassan Rouhani’s presidency, confused the NPT with “MP3.”

But if moderates thought the hardliners’ embarrassment gave them an opening, they were soon reminded that Khamenei had no intention of granting their wish for US diplomacy.

Pezeshkian’s UNGA address ultimately disappointed both camps, reflecting the passivity and indecision that have come to define his administration. No one expected a breakthrough. The leader had already set the tone.

On social media, many mocked moderates for their naïve optimism about Pezeshkian meeting Trump.

“You cannot just shout to the US president that Pezeshkian is in town and wants to talk,” one user wrote. “Such a meeting takes months of preparation.”

Critics also reminded both Khamenei and Pezeshkian—who slammed Israel and the United States for attacking Iran while negotiations were ongoing—that Iran had offered no concrete proposals then, and still has none today.

Officials often dismiss Western calls for talks as “political,” while outlets like the Khamenei-linked Kayhan insist the West and the IAEA seek only concessions.

What they ignore is that negotiations are about trading concessions to reach compromise—a word treated in the Islamic Republic’s rhetoric as worse than a curse.

Just before Pezeshkian’s trip to New York Moderates, a group of centrist politicians gathered at the home of former Tehran mayor Gholamhossein Karbaschi, discussing the possibility of the president getting leader’s approval to meet his American counterpart.

Nearly all backed the idea, according to media reports, except Ali Akbar Nateq Nouri, a former parliament speaker and once Inspector General of the office of the supreme leader.

“Change is absolutely impossible,” Nateq was reported as saying.

The United Kingdom, France and Germany last month triggered the so-called "snapback" of international sanctions on Tehran which are set to take effect on September 28.

"We need our European allies to step up and agree that these sanctions are critical," Cornyn told Iran International.

"Iran is the number one state sponsor of terrorism. Thank goodness President Trump disrupted their nuclear weapons program. But their attitude and conduct remain unchanged, and these sanctions are entirely justified," the Texas senator said.

Cornyn’s push follows a letter led by Senator Jim Risch and signed by 50 Senate Republicans last week. The letter praised the UK, France, and Germany for re-activating the UN sanctions on Iran and urged sustained pressure until Tehran’s nuclear program is fully dismantled.

The move reflects growing United States concerns over Iran’s nuclear progress and its support for proxy groups across the region.

At the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian accused the US of betraying trust, particularly after its 2018 withdrawal from the JCPOA nuclear deal, and stressed Iran’s willingness to pursue diplomacy to resolve the crisis.

Pezeshkian denied that Iran has ever sought nuclear weapons, despite the US and Israeli assertions in June that Tehran was racing toward a bomb.

"I hereby declare once more that Iran has never sought and will never seek to build a nuclear bomb," Pezeshkian said.

Addressing European powers, Pezeshkian accused Germany, Britain, and France of acting in bad faith by reinstating UN sanctions.

"The three European states, having failed through a decade of bad faith and by supporting military aggression to subdue the proud people of Iran, at the behest of the United States, sought to reinstate terminated UN Security Council resolutions through pressure, coercion, and blatant abuse," the Iranian president said.

French President Emmanuel Macron also met with Pezeshkian on the sidelines of the UN meeting, warning that time was running out. "An agreement remains possible — only hours left; it is up to Iran," Macron posted on X.