'Fate of Yemen is same as that of Tehran': Israel threatens to retaliate for Houthi missiles
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Business Standard
an hour ago
- Business Standard
Iran's President orders halt to cooperation with UN nuclear watchdog IAEA
Iran's president on Wednesday ordered the country to suspend its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency after American and Israeli airstrikes hit its most-important nuclear facilities, likely further limiting inspectors' ability to track Tehran's programme that had been enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels. The order by President Masoud Pezeshkian included no timetables or details about what that suspension would entail. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi signalled in a CBS News interview that Tehran still would be willing to continue negotiations with the United States. I don't think negotiations will restart as quickly as that, Araghchi said, referring to Trump's comments that talks could start as early as this week. However, he added: The doors of diplomacy will never slam shut. Pressure tactic Iran has limited IAEA inspections in the past as a pressure tactic in negotiating with the West though as of right now Tehran has denied that there's any immediate plans to resume talks with the United States that had been upended by the 12-day Iran-Israel war. Iranian state television announced Pezeshkian's order, which followed a law passed by Iran's parliament to suspend that cooperation. The bill already received the approval of Iran's constitutional watchdog, the Guardian Council, on Thursday, and likely the support of the country's Supreme National Security Council, which Pezeshkian chairs. The government is mandated to immediately suspend all cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency under the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons and its related Safeguards Agreement, state television quoted the bill as saying. "This suspension will remain in effect until certain conditions are met, including the guaranteed security of nuclear facilities and scientists. It wasn't immediately clear what that would mean for the Vienna-based IAEA, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog. The agency long has monitored Iran's nuclear programme and said that it was waiting for an official communication from Iran on what the suspension meant. A diplomat with knowledge of IAEA operations, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the situation in Iran, said that IAEA inspectors were still there after the announcement and hadn't been told by the government to leave. Israel condemns the move Iran's decision drew an immediate condemnation from Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar. Iran has just issued a scandalous announcement about suspending its cooperation with the IAEA, he said in an X post. This is a complete renunciation of all its international nuclear obligations and commitments. Saar urged European nations that were part of Iran's 2015 nuclear deal to implement its so-called snapback clause. That would reimpose all UN sanctions on it originally lifted by Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers, if one of its Western parties declares the Islamic Republic is out of compliance with it. Israel is widely believed to be the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East, and the IAEA doesn't have access to its weapons-related facilities. Iran's decision stops short of experts' worst fears Iran's move so far stops short of what experts feared the most. They had been concerned that Tehran, in response to the war, could decide to fully end its cooperation with the IAEA, abandon the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and rush toward a bomb. That treaty has countries agree not to build or obtain nuclear weapons and allows the IAEA to conduct inspections to verify that countries correctly declared their programmes. Iran's 2015 nuclear deal allowed Iran to enrich uranium to 3.67 per cent enough to fuel a nuclear power plant, but far below the threshold of 90 per cent needed for weapons-grade uranium. It also drastically reduced Iran's stockpile of uranium, limited its use of centrifuges and relied on the IAEA to oversee Tehran's compliance through additional oversight. The IAEA served as the main assessor of Iran's commitment to the deal. But US President Donald Trump, in his first term in 2018, unilaterally withdrew Washington from the accord, insisting it wasn't tough enough and didn't address Iran's missile programme or its support for militant groups in the wider Middle East. That set in motion years of tensions, including attacks at sea and on land. Iran had been enriching up to 60 per cent, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels. It also has enough of a stockpile to build multiple nuclear bombs, should it choose to do so. Iran has long insisted its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes, but the IAEA, Western intelligence agencies and others say Tehran had an organized weapons programme up until 2003. Suspension comes after Israel, US airstrikes Israeli airstrikes, which began June 13, decimated the upper ranks of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard and targeted its arsenal of ballistic missiles. The strikes also hit Iran's nuclear sites, which Israel claimed put Tehran within reach of a nuclear weapon. Iran has said the Israeli attacks killed 935 Iranian citizens, including 38 children and 102 women. However, Iran has a long history of offering lower death counts around unrest over political considerations. The Washington-based Human Rights Activists group, which has provided detailed casualty figures from multiple rounds of unrest in Iran, has put the death toll at 1,190 people killed, including 436 civilians and 435 security force members. The attacks wounded another 4,475 people, the group said. Meanwhile, it appears that Iranian officials now are assessing the damage done by the American strikes conducted on the three nuclear sites on June 22, including those at Fordo, a site built under a mountain about 100 kilometres southwest of Tehran. Satellite images from Planet Labs PBC analysed by The Associated Press show Iranian officials at Fordo on Monday likely examining the damage caused by American bunker busters. Trucks could be seen in the images, as well as at least one crane and an excavator at tunnels on the site. That corresponded to images shot Sunday by Maxar Technologies similarly showing the ongoing work. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
India Today
an hour ago
- India Today
Expert view: Israel-Iran war toughest of tightrope walks for India
(NOTE: This article was originally published in the India Today issue dated July 7, 2025)A ceasefire between Israel and Iran was announced by Donald Trump in characteristic hyperbolic fashion early morning on June 24. Within hours, the tenuous agreement, worked out with the help of Qatar, had been violated by both sides, much to Trump's expletive-spiced frustration. At the time of writing, the situation remains uncertain, but the whys and the wherefores are becoming the heart of this war of choice lies Benjamin Netanyahu's search for a new legacy. He wants to be remembered not as the watchman on duty on October 7 but rather as the leader who changed 'the face of the Middle East'. For decades, he has raised fears of a nuclear-armed Iran posing an existential threat to Israel and has tried to lure US presidents into war with Iran; it is his way of ensuring Israeli-US hegemony and a free hand across the region. The timing has never been so propitious: Iran's proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah, have been debilitated, Syria's Assad overthrown, Iran's economy in disarray, its regime unpopular. And Trump, who earlier abandoned the nuclear agreement with Iran, is back in the White House. Netanyahu attacked Iran in spectacular fashion, gambled on Trump being cajoled, given his weakness for owning a win, into doing the heavy lifting with his bunker busters. And he Donald Trump could not resist the adrenaline rush of playing the Commander-in-chief. After a deliberately vague statement—'I may do it, I may not do it'—and a dissembling round of golf, he unleashed America's menacing military might on the nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. With that, he joined the US presidents who, in his own words delivered in Saudi Arabia last month, 'have been afflicted with the notion that it is our job to look into the souls of foreign leaders and use US policy to dispense justice for their sins'. Trump has earlier railed against 'endless wars' and projected himself as the peacemaker. But frustrated by failures to resolve Gaza or Ukraine quickly, he needed a victory. He brushed aside MAGA nay-sayers, ignored the Congress and negated the intelligence submitted to the Congress by his own director of National Intelligence that Iran had made no moves towards nuclear weaponisation. The truth is that Trump got nicely played by Netanyahu and the Israeli does this dance of destruction leave the region? There is no clarity regarding the damage to Iran's nuclear facilities. Trump claimed they have been 'completely and totally obliterated'; the IAEA proclaims 'significant damage' and yet there has been no rise in off-site radiation. Some of Iran's 400 kg of 60 per cent enriched Uranium is thought to have been moved to unknown sites. Only time will tell whether this was a better way than negotiations for making Iran compliant with its NPT obligations or whether it will push Iran out of the NPT or further towards a clandestine Iran's top line of nuclear scientists and military commanders have been assassinated and its air defences decimated. Netanyahu has had a free run of Iranian skies, bombing at will not just military targets but Revolutionary Guard and police establishments, indicating his intent to engineer regime change. He has now announced that the dual imminent existential threat to Israel, both nuclear and ballistic, has been missile defences have also been shown to be vulnerable. Tel Aviv and other cities and iconic institutions have been hit by Iranian missiles. Israelis, though broadly supportive of Netanyahu's attack on Iran, will be thankful that this has not turned into a war of best, this is an uncertain end to the present conflict; military actions are not the solution to complex underlying problems. The lessons of such conflict need to be factored into India's West Asia policy. Around 40 per cent of our oil imports (Iraq, Saudi and UAE) and LNG supplies from Qatar come through the Strait of Hormuz which Iran can close as a desperate measure. Raised shipping and insurance costs for our exports to West Asia and through the Red Sea will impact trade and transportation. The nine million-strong Indian diaspora in the region and their remittances will be at risk. Without political stability, our investment in Iran's Chabahar port is vulnerable, and visions like the I2U2 and the India-Middle East-Europe corridor (IMEC) should be approached with caution. Given our strategic links with the US, Iran and Israel, we will have to walk more than one tightrope in a demonstration of strategic autonomy. But our substantial interests demand that we encourage them all to take the path of dialogue and diplomacy.—The author is a former Indian ambassador to the USSubscribe to India Today Magazine- EndsTune InMust Watch
First Post
2 hours ago
- First Post
Trump Offers $30 Billion Deal for Iran Nuclear Freeze: Reports Firstpost America
Trump Offers $30 Billion Deal for Iran Nuclear Freeze: Reports | Firstpost America | N18G Trump Offers $30 Billion Deal for Iran Nuclear Freeze: Reports | Firstpost America | N18G The Trump administration is quietly pushing a bold $30 billion nuclear proposal to Iran, aiming to revive diplomacy after weeks of regional conflict. According to reports, secret talks have taken place despite recent US and Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. The plan includes easing sanctions and offering a civilian nuclear energy program—on one strict condition: Iran must end all uranium enrichment. US envoy Steve Witkoff led behind-the-scenes efforts, with Gulf allies expected to fund the initiative. Qatar, instrumental in brokering the recent ceasefire, continues to mediate. While Trump has publicly downplayed the need for a deal, internal talks are intensifying. See More
