Iran has admitted a further breach of the 2015 nuclear deal by firing up advanced uranium-enriching centrifuges installed at its underground plant at Natanz.
The finding was made by the UN nuclear weapons inspectorate, the International Atomic Energy Association, and confirmed by the Iranian ambassador to the IAEA.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed a cache of documents he says proves Iran lied to the world about its nuclear program for years, even after the 2015 nuclear deal with the world. “Iran did not come clean about its nuclear program,” Netanyahu said in a prime time address in English. Iran, for its part, blased the speech as “propaganda.”
(Bloomberg) — International atomic monitors in Iran have detected uranium enriched to levels just below nuclear weapons-grade, risking an escalation over Tehran’s expanding program.
The International Atomic Energy Agency is trying to clarify how Iran accumulated uranium enriched to 84% purity — the highest level found by inspectors in the country to date, and a concentration just 6% below what’s needed for a weapon.
Iran says its decades-long atomic program is for peaceful purposes but Western powers and Israel have accused it of working toward a nuclear bomb. Building a bomb would require further technical steps which have so far not been detected by the IAEA and a political decision to go ahead.
The development was reported by Bloomberg on Sunday, citing two senior diplomats. Iran had previously told the IAEA that its centrifuges were configured to enrich uranium to a 60% level of purity.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he had seen the report and is in close contact with the IAEA and European countries about the matter, adding he’ll have more to say when he has more information, according to comments made to reporters in the Turkish capital, Ankara, on Monday.
The development comes as Iran is increasingly isolated from the West, nuclear talks with world powers are suspended and regional tensions have sharpened. Israel has blamed Iran for a Feb. 10 attack on an oil tanker in the Arabian Sea, that Iran has denied. It came about a fortnight after a drone strike on a weapons depot near Iran’s city of Isfahan that Tehran blamed on Israel, the latest incident in a string of suspected tit-for-tat attacks.
Iran has also faced widespread condemnation for its deadly crackdown on major protests and the US and European Union have tightened sanctions on Iran over its military support for Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Inspectors need to determine whether Iran intentionally produced the material, or whether the concentration was an unintended accumulation within the network of pipes connecting the hundreds of fast-spinning centrifuges used to separate the isotopes. It’s the second time this month that monitors have detected suspicious enrichment-related activities…..
Jack Reynolds says
I have an alternate theory, and it is different from the Russian Agents posting here.
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This is not about Biden or Zelinskyy, it is about the 43 million Ukrainians who have as much right to Freedom as anyone in the West. In 1990 Ukraine was the Wealthiest of the former East Block countries. You can assess Russia’s intent from the average GDP (PPP) per capita figures for 2020. Compare Canada’s $48,000 per capita in 2020 (US dollars) to get a sense of what the Russians are up to.
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Russia .… … $24,000
Ukraine .. .. $12,000
Romania … $24,000
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In 1993 the US and the UK persuaded Ukraine to give up its Nukes in return for a promise that Russia would never invade. In 1993 that seemed like a safe assumption, but it only postponed a problem. The US and the UK incurred an obligation, and when Putin invaded in February 2021, he made a huge miscalculation.
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The West’s resource advantage over Russia is measured at somewhere between 25-to-1 and 40-to-1. It is true that Russia has the larger population than Ukraine, but at 140 million it is only equivalent to the UK and France combined. Here is a list of the other nations standing against Russia:
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Canada, the UK, Australia. France, Italy, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Czech Republic, Romania, and the US.
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The situation will change IMMEDIATELY if Ukraine explodes Dirty Bombs, that are fairly easy to make, in retaliation for the massacres, rapes, and torture in Bucha. The US has been proceeding slowly, but I think we close to the point where Ukraine, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan will all be provided with a few self defence nuclear weapons. If the West does nothing, we will have a repeat of Chechnya in 1991.
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https://theweek.com/russo-ukrainian-war/1010764/putins-brutal-record-in-chechnya-and-syria-is-ominous-for-ukraine
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Jumping up and down yelling “NUKES … NUKES … NUKES !!!” has not worked for Vlad.
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PUTIN F*CKED UP BIG TIME.
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Linde B. says
Thank you for this article. I will show it to people who have expressed disdain and dislike for our former president, Donald Trump. He was a good man and had to
“fight” several bad leaders of various
countries, Iran being one. 😈
PMK says
I would expect the people to whom you show this article will simply say this is all Trump’s fault. They’ll blame him for pulling us out of the nuclear deal. That Iran has consistently violated the terms of the agreement won’t matter. They’ll say Trump made them do it.
Linde B. says
To PMK- HAHA! I think you are right, but I will still open my mouth and defend Trump. Some people just hate the truth. And many in that group hate the people who present the evidence of truth.
Walter Sieruk says
Joe Biden is still so despicably evil that he will continue to support that “mullah regime’s” goal to further construct nuclear weapons.
Likewise Biden still favors that anti- America, anti-Israel. hoax of a “deal’ which gives that vicious and hostile Islamic regime Iran everything it needs to construct and obtain nuclear missiles , all the while that Islamic tyranny murders many of the Iranian people who are engaging in protests in Iran because that dictatorship denies the basic human rights and reasonable freedoms that they should , by nature have.
Furthermore that treasonous weak and feeble minded Biden has lifted more sanctions and likewise given more concessions to demands of that arrogant aggressive hostile tyrannical Islamic tyranny of Iran that despites America so much that one of the titles that it gave the United States is “The Great Satan” and one of its main theme is “Death to America.”
Indeed that “mullah tyranny” would be glad the destructions of the US to the degree that Iran’s regime is a “spirit” of a jihad, “holy war ” against America.
Therefore Biden by lifting sanctions on Iran and even making more concession to it horrible old Joe is “giving aid and comfort to the enemy in a time of war.”
So Biden is clearly treasonous villain against the United States of America, even much worse than Benedict Arnold
Walter Sieruk says
The aggressive and hostile tyrannical Islamic regime of Iran will not stop in its jihad – orientated to obtain nuclear weapons.
Furthermore, that fiendish President of Iran ,Raisi in power in that tyrannical Islamic regime of Iran it’s now a rather appropriate time to bring out the fact that if the founder of the current Islamic tyranny ,Ayatollah Khomeini would still be alive today ,he would spit on those Westerners who say that “Islam is a non-violent religion.
For as Ayatollah Khomeini had clearly announced that “Those who know nothing about Islam pretend that Islam counsels against war….There are hundreds psalms and hadiths urging of Muslims to value war and to fight. …I spit upon those foolish souls who make such a claim.” [1] So if he was alive today who would spit on those Westerners who say that “Islam is a non-violent religion.”
There are also many places in the Qu ‘ran that instruct in violence and killing for the cause of Islam.
As found in ,for example Surah 2:191. 4:89.. 5:33. 9:5, 111,112 ,123. 47:4.
[1] THE ISLAM IN ISLAMIC TERRORISM by Ibn Warraq page 339.
James Lincoln says
So, how many years has Iran been just “a year or two” from developing a nuclear weapon?
Or, do they are already have a few?
Jack Reynolds says
In my opinion this not longer matters.
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The US will have little reason not to provide Ukraine, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan with a few nuclear weapons to meet their self-defence needs.
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The situation with Iran likely makes that decision easier to reach.
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Say “Thank You, Vlad”.
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Aum says
World is poised to see wider conflict.
Master Turkeychoker says
idiots
OLD GUY says
First off you can never believe the leaders of Iran or Russia when it comes to arms deals. Second who sold Iran the equipment and materials to build the enrichment machinery? Those countries and Corporations should be tried for war crimes and shut down.
Jack Reynolds says
I can reply to part of this question.
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The Pakistani recognized as the developer of Pakistan’s first nuclear bomb accomplished that by using data stolen from the Canadian (Calgary) firm where he was employed.
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