Category Archives: Iran’s nuclear programme

Nothing can stop Iran’s World Cup heroes. Except war, of course…

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The ‘Persian Leopards’ are going great guns on the football field, but at nuclear talks in Vienna a far more dangerous game is being played

There is a strikingly topsy-turvy, Saturnalian feel to recent qualifying matches for the 2022 football World Cup. Saudi Arabia (population 35 million) beat China (population 1.4 billion). Canada lead the US in their group. Four-time winners Italy failed to defeat lowly Northern Ireland.

Pursuing an unbeaten run full of political symbolism, unfancied Iran are also over the moon after subjugating the neighbourhood, as is their habit. Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and the UAE all succumbed to the soar‑away “Persian Leopards”.

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Iran sets date to resume talks on nuclear deal after five-month gap

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Western countries and especially US are keen for sessions beginning on 29 November to reach quick result

Iran has agreed to resume talks with world powers on reviving a nuclear deal on 29 November after a five-month gap, with the US urging a quick resolution.

The announcement of indirect negotiations in Vienna comes as pressure mounts on Iran, with western nations warning that Tehran’s nuclear work is advancing to dangerous levels and Israel threatening to attack.

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US would only quit Iran nuclear deal if Tehran were to renege, Biden pledges

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President makes commitment alongside Germany, France and UK not to repeat Donald Trump’s walkout on agreement

Joe Biden has given a pledge that if the US returns to the Iran nuclear agreement, it will only subsequently leave if Tehran clearly breaks the terms of the deal.

The US president made the commitment, which addresses one of Iran’s key negotiating demands, in a joint statement issued with Germany, France and the UK. The statement followed a meeting on the margins of the G20 in Rome attended by Biden, Germany’s Angela Merkel, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Britain’s Boris Johnson.

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Hawks on all sides ready to swoop if Iran drags feet on nuclear talks

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The regime in Tehran says discussions will resume ‘soon’, but Israel has already ‘greatly accelerated’ plans for military action

Coordinated warnings last week from the US, Israel and the EU that “time is short” to revive an agreement curbing Iran’s nuclear activities raise a disturbing question: what will opposing governments do if, as seems likely, Tehran’s hardline regime continues to drag its feet while accumulating the wherewithal to build a nuclear weapon?

Israel’s leaders, as usual, are not mincing words. “Every day that passes, every delay in the negotiations, brings Iran closer to a nuclear bomb. If a terror regime is going to acquire a nuclear weapon, we must act. We must make clear that the civilised world won’t allow it,” said foreign minister Yair Lapid.

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Iran says more than 120kg of uranium enriched to 20%

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Announcement comes amid signs Tehran may be open to resuming stalled talks on 2015 nuclear deal

Iran has amassed more than 120kg of 20% enriched uranium, well above the level agreed to in the 2015 deal with world powers, the head of the country’s atomic energy agency has told state television.

“We have passed 120 kilograms,” said Mohammad Eslami, head of Iran’s atomic energy organisation. “We have more than that figure. Our people know well that [western powers] were meant to give us the enriched fuel at 20% to use in the Tehran reactor, but they haven’t done so.

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Iran’s president denounces US sanctions as ‘crimes against humanity’

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Ultra-conservative Ebrahim Raisi uses debut on international stage to deliver sustained attack on Washington

Iran’s new ultra-conservative president has used his debut on the international stage to deliver a sustained assault on US, denouncing sanctions as “crimes against humanity” and hailing what he called the end of Washington’s hegemony.

“Sanctions are the US new way of war with the nations of the world,” President Ebrahim Raisi told the UN general assembly in a pre-recorded address from Tehran.

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Iran agrees deal with UN on monitoring of nuclear programme

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Talks aim to revitalise stalled inspections process and could ease path towards lifting of US sanctions

Iran has agreed to allow UN nuclear inspectors to install new memory cards into its cameras monitoring the country’s controversial nuclear programme in a move that could keep the inspection process on life support, and even ease a path towards a lifting of US sanctions.

Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear watchdog, struck the deal in Tehran on Sunday after two hours of talks and will report to the IAEA’s board meeting on Monday.

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Iran nuclear talks to resume as IAEA head returns to Tehran

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Rafael Grossi will meet with Iranian officials, in his first visit to the country since president Ebrahim Raisi took office

Iran says that the head of the International Atomic Energy Organisation (IAEA) is due to arrive in the country for talks with Iranian officials.

Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s envoy to the IAEA, said in a tweet that Rafael Grossi is arriving on Saturday, and will travel to Tehran. He is scheduled to meet Iran’s vice-president and the head of the country’s atomic organization, Mohammad Eslami, on Sunday.

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UK condemns 10-year sentence for dual national in Iran as tensions rise

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British-Iranian labour rights activist’s sentencing coincides with deteriorating relations between western allies and Iran

The UK government has hit out at reports that a British-Iranian labour rights activist has been given a sentence of 10 years in Tehran for participating in an outlawed group.

A Foreign Office spokesperson said in a statement on Friday that London “strongly” condemned the sentence handed out to Mehran Raoof, a former teacher from north London.

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US must guarantee it will not leave nuclear deal again, says Iran

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Tehran’s insistence signals that issue is still a serious obstacle after three months of talks in Vienna

A US guarantee that it will never unilaterally leave the Iran nuclear deal again is vital to a successful conclusion of talks in Vienna on the terms of Washington’s return to the agreement, the Iranian ambassador to the UN, Majid Takht-Ravanchi, has said.

His comments are the clearest official signal yet that disagreements between the US and Iran on how such a guarantee might be constructed remain a serious obstacle. Donald Trump took the US out of the nuclear deal in 2018, only three years afterhis predecessor, Barack Obama, had signed it.

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US and France warn Iran time is running out to return to nuclear deal

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On a visit to Paris, US secretary of state Antony Blinken says deal is at risk if Tehran fails to make concessions

The United States and France have warned Iran that time is running out to return to a nuclear deal, voicing fear that Tehran’s sensitive development program could advance if talks drag on.

On the first high-level visit to Paris by president Joe Biden’s administration, secretary of state Antony Blinken and his French hosts saluted a new spirit of cooperation after four years of turbulence under Donald Trump.

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Raisi’s election victory raises difficulties as Iran nuclear deal talks resume

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The hardliner president-elect has caused alarm in some countries, though Iran and the US say agreement can still be found

World powers attempting to revive the Iran nuclear deal have warned of complications on the path to an agreement as they met for the first time since the election as Iranian president of Ebrahim Raisi, a hardline conservative cleric deeply antagonistic towards the west.

Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, said the arrow was pointing in the right direction, but he refused to say if sanctions imposed on Raisi by the Trump administration would be lifted. The German government’s human rights commissioner, Bärbel Kofler, said it was concerning that Raisi had not distanced himself clearly from human rights abuses. A European diplomat meanwhile warned the talks could not be open-ended, hinting strongly they needed a deal before Raisi took power in early August.

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Hardliner Ebrahim Raisi hailed as Iran’s new president

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Three main rivals congratulate candidate whose election is likely to unlock talks on reviving nuclear deal

Ebrahim Raisi, the hardline head of Iran’s judiciary, has been hailed the country’s new president after his three main rivals congratulated him on his victory and preliminary results showed he had secured 17.8m votes, a huge 14.5m more than his nearest rival.

With 90% of the votes counted, Iranian officials said 28.6 million people had cast their ballots. More than 41 million did so in 2017.

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The Observer view on Iran’s rigged presidential election | Observer editorial

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It is not only Iranians who will suffer if a hardliner wins, it could have profound consequences for world peace

Iran’s beleaguered voters do not have much of a choice in this Friday’s presidential election. The regime, dominated by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a fiercely anti-western conservative, has cynically manipulated the contest to ensure that a like-minded hardliner, most probably Ebrahim Raisi, head of the judiciary, wins.

While the result is hardly a cliff-hanger, its impact may nonetheless be far-reaching – in Iran and internationally. The possibly negative consequences for talks on curbing Iran’s nuclear programme, for peaceful relations with Israel, Saudi Arabia and the west, for the wars in Syria and Yemen, for the geopolitical balance and for Iran’s own citizens are alarming.

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Ex-Mossad chief signals Israel culpability for Iran attacks

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Yossi Cohen reveals details of Iran nuclear programme attacks in interview timed to support Netanyahu

The outgoing head of Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, the Mossad, has signalled the country’s clear responsibility for a series of attacks targeting Iran’s nuclear programme in an interview that appeared to have as much to do with Israel’s febrile politics as with Iran.

In a public intervention that appeared timed to help Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, before a Knesset vote on Sunday that could end his 12 consecutive years in office, the agency’s former head Yossi Cohenrevealed details of operations long attributed to Israel.

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Iran election candidate threatens to try rival for treason during TV debate

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Former leader of Revolutionary Guards rounds on ex-central banker in bruising first debate

Iran’s presidential election candidates have engaged in a fiery and bruising first television debate, during which one promised to put another, the former governor of the central bank, on trial for treason and ban him and other members of the government from leaving the country.

The threat to put Abdolnaser Hemmati on trial was made on Saturday by the former leader of the Revolutionary Guards Mohsen Rezaei, currently secretary of the Expediency Council. He claimed the Iranian currency had been devalued so much by Hemmati that “the train of the revolution has turned into a scooter”.

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Iran nuclear program: UN watchdog unable to access data since February

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International Atomic Energy Agency says it can provide only an estimate of Iran’s stockpile

The United Nations’ atomic watchdog hasn’t been able to access data important to monitoring Iran’s nuclear program since late February when the Islamic Republic started restricting international inspections of its facilities, the agency has said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported on Monday in a confidential document distributed to member countries and seen by the Associated Press that it has “not had access to the data from its online enrichment monitors and electronic seals, or had access to the measurement recordings registered by its installed measurement devices” since 23 February.

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Blast at Iranian complex housing drone factory injures nine

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Iran has provided no information about cause of explosion in Isfahan that injured at least nine workers

A complex that houses a factory that makes Iranian drones has suffered a major explosion days after Israel had claimed that Iran was providing drones to Hamas in Gaza.

The blast at the weekend injured at least nine workers at the petrochemical factory in Isfahan. The Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company (Hesa), which produces a variety of aircraft and drones for Iranian and pro-Iranian forces, is located in the complex owned by Sepahan Nargostar Chemical Industries.

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Iran says it will end UN watchdog’s access to nuclear sites

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A deal allowing the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect images of nuclear facilities won’t be renewed

Iran’s parliament speaker has said that a three-month monitoring deal between Tehran and the UN nuclear watchdog has expired, escalating tensions amid diplomatic efforts in Vienna to save Tehran’s atomic accord with world powers.

Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf’s comments, aired by state TV, further underscored the narrowing window for the US and others to reach terms with Iran.

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Iran sets trial dates for dual nationals before nuclear deal talks in Vienna

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Trials coincide with Iran announcing desire for ‘all for all’ simultaneous prisoner exchanges with west

Iran has set trial dates for two dual nationals, one British-Iranian and the other German-Iranian, in cases that may increase the pressure before the next stage of talks on the future of the Iran nuclear deal in Vienna.

The news of the trials set for next Wednesday comes as the lead Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, Saeed Khatibzadeh, said at a Clubhouse event on Tuesday that Iran wants a big “all for all” prisoner exchange.

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