Heat wave grips large parts of western, central Europe
Torrid weather gripped large parts of western and central Europe on Wednesday, setting new June temperature records in Germany and the Czech Republic. Some French schools stayed closed as a precaution.
Because such high temperatures are rare in France, most homes and many buildings do not have air conditioning.
Authorities have warned that temperatures could top 104 Fahrenheit in parts of continental Europe in the coming days.
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s supreme leader said Wednesday that Iranians will not budge or change their stand after new U.S. sanctions targeting Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his associates, the latest in sharp verbal responses from Tehran in the wake of the measures.
President Donald Trump enacted the new sanctions against Khamenei and others on Monday, and U.S. officials also said they plan sanctions against Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
The sanctions followed Iran’s downing last week of a U.S. surveillance drone, worth more than $100 million, over the Strait of Hormuz.
The top Iranian cleric’s website quoted Khamenei as calling the Trump administration “the most sinister” U.S. government, adding that Washington’s calls for talks with Iran are deceitful and amount to “obvious cruelty.”
“The most hated figures of such an administration accuse and insult the Iranian nation,” Khamenei said. “The Iranian nation will not budge and will not withdraw because of the insults.”
The crisis gripping the Middle East stems from Trump’s withdrawal of the United States a year ago from the nuclear deal between Iran and other world powers and then imposing new sanctions on Tehran.
Recently, Iran quadrupled its production of low-enriched uranium to be on pace to break one of the deal’s terms by Thursday, while also threatening to raise enrichment closer to weapons-grade levels on July 7 if European countries still abiding by the accord don’t offer a new deal.
Iran warned on Tuesday that the new U.S. sanctions targeting Khamenei and other officials meant “closing the doors of diplomacy” between Tehran and Washington.
After the downing of the U.S. drone last week, Trump pulled back from retaliatory military strikes. The shootdown was the latest in a series of attacks in the region in recent months. The U.S. has blamed Iran for the attacks on two oil tankers, alleging that it used limpet mines to target the tankers.
Also, four oil tankers off the coast of the United Arab Emirates were targeted in acts of sabotage, which U.S. officials have also blamed on Iran. Tehran denied the charges.
And in mid-may, Iranian-allied Yemeni rebels said they were behind a drone attack on a Saudi oil pipeline.
Late Tuesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-mahdi told reporters that American officials contacted the Iraqis recently, alleging the drones used in that Saudi pipeline attack, which occurred May 14, might have taken off from Iraq.
Iraqi military and intelligence have not confirmed such suspicions, Abdul-mahdi said. There was no comment from Washington.