Police Take Down ISIS-linked Servers Across Europe, US

A commander from the Iraqi Special Forces 2nd division calls his men back as they come under fire from ISIS militants in Mosul, November 16, 2016. (AFP / Odd Andersen)
A commander from the Iraqi Special Forces 2nd division calls his men back as they come under fire from ISIS militants in Mosul, November 16, 2016. (AFP / Odd Andersen)
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Police Take Down ISIS-linked Servers Across Europe, US

A commander from the Iraqi Special Forces 2nd division calls his men back as they come under fire from ISIS militants in Mosul, November 16, 2016. (AFP / Odd Andersen)
A commander from the Iraqi Special Forces 2nd division calls his men back as they come under fire from ISIS militants in Mosul, November 16, 2016. (AFP / Odd Andersen)

Police across Europe and the United States have in the past week taken down a large number of servers that supported media outlets linked to ISIS, European police and justice organizations Europol and Eurojust said on Friday.

Servers were taken down in the US, Germany, the Netherlands and Iceland, while Spanish police arrested nine "radicalised individuals", the organisations that coordinated the actions said, Reuters reported.

The servers supported websites, radio stations, a news agency and social media content with a global reach, they added.

"They communicated directives and slogans of ISIS in over thirty languages, including Spanish, Arabic, English, French, German, Danish, Turkish, Russian, Indonesian and Pashto. Several terabytes of information were uncovered," Europol and Eurojust said.



Iran Says It Will Respond to Reimposition of UN Sanctions

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei. (Iranian Foreign Ministry)
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei. (Iranian Foreign Ministry)
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Iran Says It Will Respond to Reimposition of UN Sanctions

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei. (Iranian Foreign Ministry)
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei. (Iranian Foreign Ministry)

Iran will react to any reimposition of United Nations sanctions over its nuclear program, the country's foreign ministry spokesperson said on Monday, without elaborating on what actions Tehran might take.

A French diplomatic source told Reuters last week that European powers would have to restore UN sanctions on Iran under the so-called "snapback mechanism" if there were no nuclear deal that guaranteed European security interests.

The "snapback mechanism" is a process that would reimpose UN sanctions on Tehran under a 2015 nuclear deal that lifted the measures in return for restrictions on Iran's nuclear program.

"The threat to use the snapback mechanism lacks legal and political basis and will be met with an appropriate and proportionate response from Iran," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei told a press conference, without giving further details.

The 2015 deal with Britain, Germany, France, the US, Russia and China - known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) - states that if the parties cannot resolve accusations of "significant non-performance" by Iran, the "snapback mechanism" process can be triggered by the 15-member UN Security Council.

"The European parties, who are constantly trying to use this possibility as a tool, have themselves committed gross and fundamental violations of their obligations under the JCPOA," Baghaei said.

"They have failed to fulfill the duties they had undertaken under the JCPOA, so they have no legal or moral standing to resort to this mechanism."

Western countries accuse Iran of plotting to build a nuclear weapon, which Tehran denies.

The United States pulled out of the deal in 2018 under the first administration of President Donald Trump, who called the agreement "weak".

Trump, whose second presidency began in January, has urged Tehran to return to nuclear negotiations on a new deal after a ceasefire was reached last month that ended a 12-day air war between Iran and Israel that destabilized the Middle East.

When asked if Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi would meet with Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, Baghaei said no date or location had been set for resuming the US-Iran nuclear talks.