Bloomberg Efforts to secure safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz are ramping up as the UK said a second warship arrived in the area and South Korea may deploy its own unit as part of a multinational force. Tensions have flared in the strait in recent weeks as Iran pushes back against US sanctions that are crippling its oil ...

Bloomberg Iran doesn’t think the US is seeking talks or an agreement with the Islamic republic, Abbas Mousavi, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Tehran, said days after Secretary of State Michael Pompeo expressed willingness to travel to Tehran to address the Iranian people. This is a “defensive move” by American officials in response to Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad ...

Bloomberg Days after being named chief of Venezuela’s feared SEBIN intelligence agency last fall, General Manuel Ricardo Cristopher Figuera was called in by President Nicolas Maduro and asked where the enemy was. “I don’t understand the question, sir,” Figuera says he responded. “I want a report every two hours of what the political opposition is doing,” Maduro replied, listing some ...