Category Archives: Iran’s nuclear programme

Israel warns over Iran uranium capability with nuclear talks at halt

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As IAEA board meets, Israel says Iran will be able to produce enough material for three warheads in weeks

Tensions around a breakdown in talks between Iran and the US over Tehran’s nuclear programme escalated on Monday when Israel’s defence minister, Benny Gantz, claimed that Iran would be able to produce enough enriched uranium to make three nuclear warheads within a few weeks.

Gantz also revealed a map detailing 10 facilities in Syria allegedly being used to arm Iran and its proxies, including Hezbollah. He said the facilities represented a threat to Israel’s security.

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Iran nuclear deal: US dismisses latest move from Tehran as ‘not constructive’

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US state department rejects what Iran characterised as a bid to ‘finalise the negotiations’ in latest efforts to agree a deal

Hopes of a rapid conclusion to negotiations on a revived nuclear deal with Iran have receded after the US quickly rejected the latest Iranian proposal as “not constructive”.

Washington’s rapid reaction to the Iranian text, which had been delivered shortly before 3am on Friday Tehran time, directly contradicted Tehran’s claims that its proposals presented “a constructive approach” aimed at “finalising the negotiations”.

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EU team submit ‘final text’ at talks to salvage 2015 Iran nuclear deal

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Revival of agreement awaits ‘political decisions’ in Tehran and Washington after negotiators in Vienna agree text

The European Union has submitted a “final text” at talks to salvage the 2015 deal aimed at reining in Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

The revival of the agreement now awaits “political decisions” in Tehran and Washington after negotiators in Vienna agreed the text thrashed out between Iranian and European representatives over the past five days was the final text and could not be amended further.

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Putin claims progress made in talks over lifting Ukrainian wheat blockade

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Russian president makes comments in Tehran, where he had a meeting with leaders from Turkey and Iran

Vladimir Putin has claimed on a trip to Tehran that progress has been made that may allow Russia to lift the blockade on Ukrainian wheat, an issue that is threatening famine across Africa.

“I want to thank you for your mediation efforts,” the Russian president told Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, his Turkish counterpart, in comments released by the Kremlin.

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Iran accused of making ‘maximalist demands’ in nuclear deal talks

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Talks to save 2015 agreement on brink of collapse as Tehran is also accused of testing missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons

Iran has been accused of making “maximalist demands” in the latest unsuccessful round of talks on reviving the nuclear non-proliferation deal at a grave session of the UN security council in which it was widely acknowledged that the talks – and the whole 2015 deal – were on the brink of collapse.

Iranian and US officials, with the EU acting as mediators, held two days of talks in Doha in a bid to break a months-long impasse, but no progress was made on Iran’s central demand that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps be removed from US sanctions and its list of foreign terrorist organisations.

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Iran and US ready to restart talks on nuclear deal

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EU foreign affairs chief says stalemate broken after meeting with Iranian foreign minister in Tehran

Josep Borrell, the EU foreign affairs chief, has said talks will restart on the Iran nuclear deal, averting a complete collapse in the agreement which could spark a nuclear arms race across the Middle East.

After a meeting with the Iranian foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, in Tehran, Borrell said he had broken the stalemate which had led to talks on the revival of the nuclear deal being stalled since March. Borrell gave no detail about the exact date of the resumption of talks or the precise format, but said the process had the agreement of Iran and the US. He also met Iran’s national security chief Ali Shamkhani.

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West to rebuke Iran over lack of cooperation with nuclear watchdog

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Move at IAEA board meeting may deepen impasse over talks to bring US back into 2015 nuclear deal

Europe and the US will rebuke Iran this week for failing to cooperate with the UN nuclear inspectorate, a move that has angered Iran’s leadership and may deepen the impasse over talks to bring the US back into the 2015 nuclear agreement, and the lifting of sanctions on Tehran.

The rebuke, in the form of a motion to be voted on at a board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, will not lead to Iran’s non-compliance being referred to the UN security council, nor to an extension of sanctions on Iran.

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Iran will never acquire nuclear weapons, US promises Israel

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Antony Blnken seeks to reassure Israel and Gulf allies ahead of possible renewal of nuclear deal

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has sought to reassure Israel and its Gulf allies that Iran will never acquire atomic weapons, ahead of the possible renewal of the nuclear deal with Tehran.

“When it comes to the most important element, we see eye to eye,” Blinken said at a news conference on Sunday with Israel’s foreign minister, Yair Lapid. “We are both committed, both determined, that Iran will never acquire a nuclear weapon.”

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Iran nuclear talks on hold over last-minute Russian demands

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Moscow is insisting that Washington pledge not to sanction trade between it and Tehran over Ukraine

Talks on the revival of the Iran nuclear deal have become a casualty of the war in Ukraine after an indefinite pause was announced over last-minute Russian demands.

An agreement on the nuclear deal to bring the US and Iran back into compliance would have led to a swathe of US sanctions on Iran being lifted, including Iranian crude oil exports and petrochemicals, in return for limits on Tehran’s nuclear activity.

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Iran nuclear talks rocked by Russian demand for sanctions exemption

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Moscow seeks guarantees regarding trade with Iran that would undermine west’s response to Ukraine invasion

Russia has been accused of trying to take the Iran nuclear deal hostage as part of its wider battle with the west over Ukraine, after it threw a last-minute spanner into plans for an agreement to lift a swathe of US economic sanctions on Tehran.

After months of negotiations in Vienna, a revised deal was expected to be reached within days under which US sanctions would be lifted in return for Tehran returning to full compliance with the 2015 nuclear nonproliferation deal.

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Why Israel faces new dangers in shadow war against Iran if nuclear deal is agreed

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Analysis: a new pact will be worse for Israel than the old one and Iran’s influence in the region has grown in recent years

The US decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal was an immense personal achievement for former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In a leaked video, he boasted that he had personally convinced Donald Trump to scrap the 2015 accord between Tehran and world powers.

“I had to stand up against the whole world and come out against this agreement,” Netanyahu told members of his Likud party in the clip from 2018. “And we didn’t give up.”

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Iran nuclear deal talks stall as Tehran urges US to accept terms

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No sign of breakthrough as Iran continues to advance ability to make nuclear weapon

Marathon talks to revive the Iran nuclear deal have hit a new roadblock, with Iran accusing the US of refusing to make the necessary political decisions to entrench the agreement in international law or to broaden the scope of economic sanctions that would be lifted.

The issue has dogged the talks in Vienna between the west, Russia, Iran and China – which have been under way since February – from the outset. There is no sign that the eighth round of negotiations, once intended to be the final round, has reached the breakthrough some had been expecting.

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Iran nuclear talks deadlock risks dangerous vacuum

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Analysis: As clock runs down on Vienna talks, key obstacles remain to be cleared by Tehran and the west

The countdown to the end of the six-month-long talks in Vienna on the future of the Iran nuclear deal has begun. No deadline has been formally set, but if there is no progress in less than two weeks the process will come to an end leaving a dangerous vacuum.

The White House has already been rolling the pitch preparing its political lines for a breakdown by saying the US withdrawal from the agreement by Donald Trump in 2018 has proved to be a disaster. If there is no agreement, the Biden team intend Trump will take the blame.

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Why does Austria stay silent over dual national’s arrest six years ago in Iran?

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Iranian-Austrian Kamran Ghaderi is serving a 10-year sentence for spying and his family are still waiting for answers

Six years ago on New Year’s Day, an Iranian-Austrian IT businessman said goodbye to his wife and three children and boarded a flight from Vienna to Tehran via Istanbul. Kamran Ghaderi was due to return five to six days later, but instead, on 2 January 2016, he was arrested and has now spent six years in Evin prison in Tehran.

In October 2016, he was sentenced to 10 years for spying for a foreign country at a trial in which neither he nor his lawyer were able to say more than two words. His sentencing was based on a confession he gave under what his wife, Harika, says was torture, in the belief she might be in danger. No written judgment has ever been given to his family.

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Iran nuclear deal: eighth round of talks begins in Vienna

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Tehran is keen to verify US sanctions have genuinely been lifted

An eighth round of talks on reviving the Iran nuclear deal has begun in Vienna, with Iran saying participants have been largely working from an acceptable common draft text and that its team was willing to stay as long as it takes to reach an agreement.

The Iranian foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, said he wanted the focus of the coming round of talks to be on how Tehran could verify US sanctions had genuinely been lifted. The landmark 2015 deal, from which Donald Trump withdrew the US, had lifted sanctions on Iran in return for controls on its civilian nuclear programme.

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Efforts to save Iran nuclear deal ‘reaching the end of the road’

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European negotiators issue warning as talks adjourned to allow Iranian envoy to return for consultation

Attempts to salvage the 2015 Iran nuclear deal are “rapidly reaching the end of the road”, European negotiators have warned, as talks in Vienna adjourned to allow the Iranian negotiator to return home for consultation – a pause described by the Europeans as disappointing.

“We hope that Iran is in a position to resume the talks quickly, and to engage constructively so that talks can move at a faster pace,” France, Germany and the UK said. “As we have said, there are weeks not months before the deal’s core non-proliferation benefits are lost. We are rapidly reaching the end of the road for this negotiation.

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Israel warns diplomacy proving fruitless in Iran nuclear talks

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Officials hopeful that US and European nations will agree Tehran is in breach of its obligations

Tehran’s approach to talks on its nuclear programme in Vienna has become so uncompromising according to Israel’s lead diplomat on Iran, Joshua Zarka, that they “have reached the last stretch of diplomacy”.

Israeli officials said they were hopeful that the US and European nations would agree to put an emergency motion to the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) stating that Iran was in breach of its obligations under the non-proliferation treaty (NPT) and the 2015 nuclear deal.

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Iran nuclear deal pulled back from brink of collapse as talks resume in Vienna

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Cautious optimism as Tehran revises its position after pressure from Russia and China

Efforts to revive the Iran nuclear deal have been hauled back from the brink of collapse as Tehran revised its stance after pressure from Russia and China and clear warnings that the EU and the US were preparing to walk away.

The cautiously optimistic assessment came at the start of the seventh round of talks on the future of the nuclear deal in Vienna. It follows what was seen as a disastrous set of talks last week in which the US and the EU claimed Iran had walked back on compromises reached in previous rounds.

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US seeks Russian and Chinese support to salvage Iran nuclear deal

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Iran’s natural allies are said to have been surprised by how much it had gone back on its own compromises

The US is hoping pressure from Russia, China and some Arab Gulf states may yet persuade Iran to moderate its negotiating stance in regards to the steps the Biden administration must take before both sides return to the 2015 nuclear deal.

Talks in Vienna faltered badly last week, when the new hardline Iranian administration increased its levels of uranium enrichment and tabled proposals that US officials said at the weekend were “not serious”since they had gone back on all the progress made in the previous round of talks.

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Iran walks back all prior concessions in nuclear talks, US official says

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  • Session was first with delegates from new Tehran government
  • Iran says aerial explosion over Natanz was air defence test

Iran walked back all compromises made in previous talks on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, pocketed compromises made by others and asked for more in its latest proposals, a senior US state department official told reporters on Saturday.

Iran continues to accelerate its nuclear program in pretty provocative ways and China and Russia were taken aback at how far Iran had walked back its proposals in talks in Vienna, the official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

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