Abdul Qadeer Khan, a physicist acknowledged as the “father” of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program and an international trafficker of the technology, has died from COVID-19 at the age of 85. Prime Minister Imran Khan said Pakistan had lost a “national icon.” [node:read-more:link]
The German foreign ministry says it would reject any Iranian demands for the U.S. to release frozen assets as a condition for resuming nuclear talks. A ministry spokesman was responding to Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian's demand that $10 billion in assets be released as a goodwill gesture. [node:read-more:link]
The International Atomic Energy Agency said Sept. 26 that Iran has failed to fully honour the terms of a two-week-old deal to allow the UN agency to service equipment monitoring the country’s nuclear program. [node:read-more:link]
A hoped-for meeting at UN headquarters between Iran and British, European, Chinese and Russian officials did not take place. EU policy chief Josep Borrell, who has coordinated the 2015 nuclear deal from with the U.S. withdrew in 2019, said the tentative meeting to resurrect the deal was “not in the agenda” for the overall UN session. “The important thing is not this ministerial meeting, but the will of all parties to resume negotiations,” he said Sept. 20 in anticipation of a meeting with an Iranian official today. [node:read-more:link]
Iran amenable to more nuclear oversight? The International Atomic Energy Agency has struck a “constructive” deal to service equipment designed to monitor Iran’s nuclear program. The announcement effectively negated pressure from several western countries which could have killed the prospect of broader talks that could bring the U.S. back into the effort to keep Iran from extending its allegedly peaceful energy program into weapons development. [node:read-more:link]
As COVID-19 fourth-wave infections surge in B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan, physicians are blaming lax and late public health measures which are already putting pressure on provincial facilities. Infection rates in the three provinces are above the national average. [node:read-more:link]
Confirmation that Iran has begun producing enriched uranium, insisting it ys for reactor fuel research, is worrying the U.S. and some European countries because of the potential for nuclear weapons development. Iran resumed its nuclear metallurgy program after the former U.S. administration arbitrarily withdrew from an international accord which the European partners want to revive. [node:read-more:link]
The International Atomic Energy Agency says Iran has begun producing enriched uranium which could lead to weapons development. [node:read-more:link]
When Donald Trump arbitrarily withdrew the U.S. from a multinational nuclear accord with Iran in 2018 and imposed crushing economic sanctions, there were suggestions that it would backfire, entrenching conservative hard-liners in Tehran for years to come. Their concerns evidently were justified. [node:read-more:link]
U.S. and Russian officials agreed June 16 to open the lines of communication about their nuclear weapons stockpiles in the hope of reducing the risk of an accident. U.S. President Joe says the dialogue on the sidelines of the recent NATO Summit is “diplomatic-speak for getting our military experts and our diplomats together to work on a mechanism that can lead to the control of new and dangerous and sophisticated weapons that are coming on the scene now that reduce the times of response, that raise the prospects of accidental war.” [node:read-more:link]
The International Atomic Energy Agency said May 31 that Iran has failed to explain traces of uranium found at several undeclared sites. The UN agency’s report potentially sets up for a new diplomatic clash which could derail negotiations to get an international accord back on track. [node:read-more:link]
The International Atomic Energy Agency says Iran plans to begin enriching uranium to 20 per cent purity in contravention of a multinational agreement. That level is well short of the 90 per cent enrichment required for nuclear weapons but the 2015 deal required Iran to keep it below four per cent. Iran began accelerating its program after the U.S. pulled out of the agreement and reimposed sanctions. [node:read-more:link]
Satellite imagery analyzed by 38 North, a website maintained by the Washington-based Stimson Centre think-tank, suggests recent flooding in North Korea may have compromised cooling systems at the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Centre. Located north of the country’s capital, Yongbyon houses reactors as well as fuel re-processing and uranium enrichment facilities considered central to the regime’s nuclear weapons program. [node:read-more:link]
Rafael Grossi, the Argentinian diplomat who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency, is expected to visit Tehran this week to press for access to sites where the country is thought to have stored or used undeclared nuclear material. He says he hopes “to establish . . . direct dialogue with the Iranian government which will be valuable now and in the future.” A 2015 multinational deal with Iran has been shaky since the U.S. withdrew and began imposing economic sanctions in 2018. [node:read-more:link]
Rafael Grossi, the Argentinian diplomat who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency, is expected to visit Tehran this week to press for access to sites where the country is thought to have stored or used undeclared nuclear material. He says he hopes “to establish . . . direct dialogue with the Iranian government which will be valuable now and in the future.” A 2015 multinational deal with Iran has been shaky since the U.S. withdrew and began imposing economic sanctions in 2018. [node:read-more:link]
