Iran

The Senate on Wednesday blocked a Republican effort aimed at undercutting last year's landmark international nuclear deal with Iran.

Democrats on Wednesday blocked the Senate's first spending bill of the year in a last-minute fight over a Republican effort to undercut the Iran nuclear deal and scuttle U.S. plans to buy Iranian "heavy water."

The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a judgment allowing families of victims of the 1983 Marine barracks bombing in Beirut and other terrorist attacks to collect nearly $2 billion in frozen Iranian funds.

Secretary of State John Kerry plans to see Iran's foreign minister this week amid Iranian complaints that it's not getting the sanctions relief it deserves under last year's landmark nuclear deal.

A top Iranian official on Friday accused the U.S. and the European Union of failing to honor last year's nuclear deal by keeping Iran locked out of the international financial system.

A senior Obama administration official told lawmakers Tuesday that Iran will not be given access to the U.S. financial system as part of the sanctions relief granted under the landmark nuclear deal.

The Obama administration is considering easing financial restrictions that prohibit U.S. dollars from being used in transactions with Iran, U.S. officials said. Angry lawmakers countered that Tehran would be getting more than it deserves from last year's nuclear accord.

The Obama administration may soon tell foreign governments and banks they can start using the dollar in some instances to facilitate business with Iran, officials told The Associated Press, describing an arcane tweak to U.S. financial rules that could prove significant for Tehran's sanctions-battered economy.

Iran's foreign minister said Tuesday that he had deliberately negotiated the wording of the latest United Nations resolution restraining his country's nuclear program to ensure that the test-firing of nuclear-capable Iranian missiles would be legal.

U.S. companies are welcome to invest in Iran's oil and gas industry, the Iranian oil minister said on Sunday.