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Iran issues oil warning as UAE says production can rise

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran issued a new warning over Mideast oil supplies as the United Arab Emirates said on Tuesday it could increase its own production, the latest remarks to follow President Donald Trump’s demand for lower global energy prices.

The comments by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and the unexpected announcement by the UAE’s oil-rich capital Abu Dhabi came as U.S. benchmark crude traded around $75 a barrel.

A recent decision by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to increase the cartel’s own production by 1 million barrels a day has yet to tamp down prices. That’s led to higher prices at gasoline pumps in the United States as it heads toward midterm elections for Congress.

Speaking to Iranian expatriates Monday night in Switzerland, where he was on an official visit, Rouhani took aim at America.

The U.S. pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal in May and initially said it wanted allies to stop buying Iranian crude entirely. The State Department said Monday it would examine waivers on a “case-by-case basis” as it re-imposes sanctions.

“The main goal of the United States by imposing sanctions is to put pressure on people, but they claim that they want to put pressure on the Iranian government,” Rouhani’s website quoted him as saying. “But when they apply sanctions on people’s basic needs like medicine, who will be put under pressure?”

Rouhani added that if Iran’s crude oil exports were threatened, the rest of the Mideast’s would be as well.

“It seems they do not understand what they are saying when they say Iran will not be allowed to export even a single drop of oil,” Rouhani said in remarks aired by Iranian state television. “All right, if you can do such a thing, do it and see the result!”

Rouhani did not elaborate, but Iran long has asserted it could shut down the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow body of water that separates the Persian Gulf from the wider world. A third of all oil traded by sea passes through the strait and the U.S. Navy regularly has direct, tense encounters with Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard there. …

https://www.abqjournal.com/1192312/iran-issues-oil-warning-as-uae-says-production-can-rise.html?amp=1

UK Police Confirm 2nd Critically Ill Couple Poisoned With Novichok Nerve Agent

Update: And here come the 'Russians did it' allegations…

Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said the substance which has left two people critically ill in Amesbury was nerve agent Novichok.

The same agent that was allegedly used to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skripal just a few miles away (who miraculously survived the 'deadly' nerve agent along with his daughter).

So why are "the Russians" now poisoning some random - non-former-Russian spies - British people?

One can only wonder at the timing of this second seemingly random poisoning with a deadly nerve agent coming so close to President Trump's scheduled summit with President Putin.

• • *

UK counterterrorism detectives and local police are investigating after a couple in their 40's fell critically ill from exposure to an unknown substance, just a few miles from where former Russian double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a suspected nerve agent in early March - exactly four months ago.

Authorities have not yet identified the substance, while some have speculated that the couple may have been sickened by residue from the poison which nearly killed the Skripals eight miles away in Salisbury.

Police were initially summoned to the scene Saturday morning about the collapsed woman, and then returned that evening after a man fell ill at the same address. At first, police thought that Dawn Sturgess, 44, and Charlie Rowley, 45, had taken a contaminated batch of crack or heroin.

"However, further testing is now ongoing to establish the substance which led to these patients becoming ill," said Deputy Chief Constable Paul Mills. "At this stage it is not yet clear if a crime has been committed."

Sam Hobson, a friend of the couple, said he was with them on Saturday, when Sturgess fell ill first. He told Sky News she was "having a fit, foam coming out of her mouth." Rowley collapsed later the same day.

"He was sweating loads, dribbling. … He was rocking backwards and forwards," Hobson said. "There was no response from him. He didn't even know I was there." -AP via ABC

Wiltshire police have declared the sickening which happened four days ago a "major incident," after the man and women were found collapsed inside of an Amesbury residential building. That designation will allow UK authorities to utilize more than one emergency agency to respond.

The incident has residents worried that history may be repeating itself.

"With the Russian attack happening not long ago, we just assumed the worst," said student Chloe Edwards, who said police and fire engines descended on a quiet street of newly built homes in Amesbury on Saturday evening.

Edwards said she saw people in green suits — like those worn by forensics officers — and her family was told to stay indoors for several hours. -AP via ABC

London's Metropolitian Police noted that "given the recent events in Salisbry," local police efforts were being aided by counterterrorism officers, while UK media is reporting that the mystery substance has been sent to the Porton Down defense research laboratory for testing - the same lab which has been unable to verify the source of the nerve agent used on the Skripals.

Prime Minister Theresa May said that the Amesbury incident "understandably is being treated with the utmost seriousness."

The emergency services' response echoes that in the case of Sergei Skripal, 67. The former Russian intelligence officer was convicted of spying for Britain before coming to the U.K. as part of a 2010 prisoner swap.

He had been living in Salisbury, a cathedral city 90 miles (145 kilometers) southwest of London, when he was struck down along with his 33-year-old daughter Yulia, who was visiting him.

The Skripals' illness initially baffled doctors after they were found unconscious on a park bench in Salisbury. Scientists at Porton Down concluded they had been poisoned with Novichok, a type of nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. -AP via ABC

Police from 40 departments in England and Wales only just returned home last month from working the Skripal case, while specially trained workers have been decontaminating areas around Salisbury for months.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-07-04/uk-couple-falls-critically-ill-major-incident-miles-away-skripal-poisoning