Sanctions

"Iran has paid the minimum amount due," U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said on Friday, according to Reuters.

The Biden administration announced Thursday that it was lifting sanctions on three former Iranian officials and two companies it said had been involved in banned petroleum sales, saying the U.S. had "verified a change in status or behavior" on their part.

Britain could face financial sanctions if further delays keep the U.K. and EU from reaching a trade agreement for Northern Ireland.

China's Ministry of Commerce said Thursday that a U.S. move to revoke the Trump administration's executive orders intended to ban apps like TikTok and WeChat was a "positive step."

Russia stands open for "the development of our ties on the basis of mutual respect and with the emphasis on cooperation in areas such as the Arctic issues, relations between regions and business ties where our interests objectively converge," said a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry.

"There is no way we can have a stable political system, a prosperous economy, or a functioning social system without solving the fundamental problems with corruption," Stefan Yanev, Bulgaria's interim prime minister said.

Belavia director Igor Tcherginets said: "It is evident that these governments planned not only to close their countries for landing by our airplanes, but also, with an especially fascist perversity, they are closing air corridors one by one."

"Belarus produces a great deal of potassium, is one of the world's biggest suppliers," Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said. "I think it would hurt Lukashenko a great deal if we accomplished something there."

Lukashenko said the journalist and his associates were working with foreign intelligence agencies to "organize a massacre and a bloody rebellion in Belarus."

The EU imposed sanctions on Belarus following the arrest of activist and journalist Raman Pratasevich, banning Belarusian airlines from using the airspace and airports of the 27-nation bloc.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that Berisha, 76, is accused of misappropriation of public funds and interfering with public processes, among other acts of corruption.

SVR head Sergei Naryshkin suggested to the BBC that the U.K, or the U.S. may have been behind the breach.

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control announced it imposed sanctions on 16 people total, with three of them being adult children of three senior military officials previously designated for U.S. sanctions.

"There's still a fair distance to travel to close the remaining gaps," Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday.

The opposition politician is three weeks into a hunger strike and fears are growing for his life, with his personal doctor having warned he could "die any minute."

John Sullivan has said he would leave Moscow and return to the U.S. as the countries imposed tit-for-tat sanctions.

After the U.S. placed sanctions on Russia as punishment for election interference and the hacking of federal agencies, Russian President Vladimir Putin is weighing his response.

A top Chinese diplomat said the sanctions levied against China for human rights abuses are actually hurting the people of the Xinjiang region.

Russian media reacted strongly to the sanctions imposed by the Biden administration following the 2020 SolarWinds hack.

After the U.S. imposed sanctions on Russia on Thursday, Russian officials warned that President Joe Biden's "aggressive behavior" will trigger retaliation.

Tensions between the two nations have reached their highest levels since 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea and large-scale fighting broke out in eastern Ukraine.

Diplomacy is extremely difficult work. But the absence of diplomacy creates even more problems.

Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia's UN envoy, said that sanctions on Moscow would be met with an "adequate response."

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the U.S. has "broken" its "promises tens of times, and it is the same now."

McCaul said sanctions on military leaders would be "targeted at these military thugs that have taken the country over and are killing their own people."

Sen. Jim Inhofe is leading a call for the Biden administration to "reset" its approach to nuclear negotiations with Tehran.

Beijing has increased its imports of Iranian oil to record levels, despite the American "maximum pressure" campaign.

The U.S. and Canada have already condemned China's actions toward Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim groups, including the government's use of internment camps, as genocide.

The report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence found that Russia wanted to harm Joe Biden's candidacy.

The U.S. imposed sanctions on several Russian officials this week in response to the poisoning and arrest of pro-democracy and anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny.