Iran top diplomat to meet UN nuclear chief in Cairo
CAIRO: Iran's top diplomat and chief nuclear negotiator will meet the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Cairo on Monday, Egypt's foreign ministry said.
The tripartite meeting would be between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, his Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty and IAEA chief Rafael Grossi, the ministry said in a statement.
It comes a day after a report by the UN agency showed Iran has stepped up production of uranium enriched up to 60 percent – close to the roughly 90 percent level needed for atomic weapons.
The UN report was leaked as Iran holds talks with the United States on its nuclear programme, after Washington unilaterally abandoned a landmark agreement between Tehran and world powers in 2018 during President Donald Trump's first term.
Iran considers nuclear weapons 'unacceptable', FM says
The 2015 deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, aimed to stop Iran from developing a nuclear bomb – a goal Western countries accused it of pursuing, though Tehran denies it.
During his visit to Cairo, Araghchi was also scheduled to meet Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Iran's Tasnim news agency reported.
The Iranian minister said on Saturday that he had received 'elements' of a US proposal for a potential nuclear deal following five rounds of talks mediated by Oman.
Araghchi said he spoke to Grossi in a phone call on Sunday, warning against possible European sanctions.
Iran might accept US IAEA inspectors if nuclear deal reached
He urged the IAEA chief to stop 'parties from exploiting' the nuclear watchdog report 'to advance their political objectives'.
The UN agency's board of governors is set to review Iran's nuclear activities in its upcoming quarterly meeting in Vienna starting June 9.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Recorder
an hour ago
- Business Recorder
200,000 Afghans left Pakistan since deportations renewed
ISLAMABAD: More than 200,000 Afghans have left Pakistan since the government renewed a deportation drive in April, Islamabad's interior ministry told AFP. Pakistan has launched a strict campaign to evict more than 800,000 Afghans who have had their residence permits cancelled, including some who were born in Pakistan or lived there for decades. According to the ministry, more than 135,000 Afghans left Pakistan in April, while the number dropped to 67,000 in May and more than 3,000 were sent back in the first two days of June. Millions of Afghans have poured into Pakistan over the past several decades, fleeing successive wars, as well hundreds of thousands who arrived after the return of the Taliban government in 2021. A campaign to evict them began in 2023, prompting hundreds of thousands to cross the border in the span of a few days, fearing harassment or arrest. In total, more than one million Afghans have left Pakistan. The UN's International Organization for Migration on Tuesday voiced concern over a surge in Afghan families being deported from Iran, recording 15,675 crossing in May, a more than two-fold increase from the previous month. The influx across both borders threatens to strain Afghanistan's already 'fragile reception and reintegration systems', IOM said in a statement. Islamabad has labelled Afghans 'terrorists and criminals', but analysts say the expulsions are designed to pressure neighbouring Afghanistan's Taliban authorities to control militancy in the border regions. Last year Pakistan recorded the highest number of deaths from attacks in a decade. Pakistan's security forces are under enormous pressure along the border with Afghanistan, battling a growing insurgency by ethnic nationalists in Balochistan in the southwest, and the Pakistani Taliban and its affiliates in the northwest. Undocumented Afghan DPs: deportation deadline extended The government frequently accuses Afghan nationals of taking part in attacks and blames Kabul for allowing militants to take refuge on its soil, a charge Taliban leaders deny. Some Pakistanis have grown weary of hosting a large Afghan population as security and economic woes deepen, and the deportation campaign has widespread support. Pakistan is now threatening to lift the protection granted to the 1.3 million Afghans holding refugee cards issued by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees at the end of June.
Business Recorder
2 hours ago
- Business Recorder
Refugee camp schools at risk in Bangladesh in aid crisis
DHAKA: Global aid cuts have forced the UN children's agency to sack more than 1,000 teachers in Bangladesh camps for Rohingya refugees, with more jobs at risk without funding. Around a million members of the persecuted and mostly Muslim Rohingya live in squalid relief camps in Bangladesh, most of them after fleeing a 2017 military crackdown in neighbouring Myanmar. The teacher firings come in the wake of dramatic US funding cuts. 'Due to the global aid funding crisis, UNICEF has had to make difficult decisions impacting early education services for Rohingya refugee children,' the agency said in a statement late Tuesday. UNICEF said that the contracts of 1,179 people – working on kindergarten and primary schools – were terminated. Before the cuts, there were an estimated 4,000 teachers in the camps, according to Bangladeshi senior government aid official, Md Shamsud Douza. Schools have closed for the Muslim holiday of Eid, but if fresh funding is not secured by the time term resumes at the end of June, more teachers could lose their jobs. 'The return of the rest of the workers…depends on new funding being secured,' UNICEF added. 'We remain committed and hopeful that increased support will restore what every child deserves: a future.' UN halts plan to halve refugee rations for Rohingya in Bangladesh Humanitarian organisations worldwide have been reeling since US President Donald Trump returned to office in January, freezing most foreign aid funding. The United States has traditionally been by far the top donor to a number of agencies, which have been left scrambling to fill sudden budget gaps. 'We are deeply aware of the urgent needs faced by Rohingya refugee children, many of whom have already endured significant trauma and disruptions to their education, health, nutrition and protection,' UNICEF added. 'Our goal is to ensure they have essential skills, that they have basic qualifications that give them confidence to contribute to their communities when the time is safe for them to return.'
Business Recorder
2 hours ago
- Business Recorder
‘Nothing is stopping': Peace talks feel far away for Ukraine's soldiers
DRUZHKIVKA: Sipping a coffee under the blazing sun around 20 kilometres from the front line, Ukrainian platoon commander Andriy is ready for peace. But as Russia and Ukraine hold direct talks in search of an end to the three-year war, he sees no let up to the fighting in east Ukraine, ravaged by Russia's full-scale invasion. 'Nothing is stopping. Everything is as it was,' the 27-year-old told AFP, in the town of Druzhkivka while on a break from the combat. Hours after negotiations in Istanbul ended on Monday, the sound of Russian glide bombs flying over – and down onto – the town resumed. The next morning, those civilians who refuse to leave set about their daily business, meandering through streets dotted with destroyed buildings. Andriy was clinging to hope the war will end this year, and said talks should continue, despite little sign of progress. But asked about Moscow's hardline demands for Ukraine's army to completely pull out of the four regions Russia says it has annexed – Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia – he is sceptical. 'That's too much, I would say. But if the border remained as it is now, then maybe.' 'No real impact' Nearby, another young soldier who goes by Leleka, in his early thirties, was trying to relax. He is just back from near Toretsk, one of the hottest spots on the eastern front where Russian and Ukrainian soldiers have been killing each other for months in a battle for the city, claimed by Russia earlier this year. 'To be honest, I haven't watched the news for a long time because it doesn't really affect the reality we face here. So it's a bit like a parallel reality,' he told AFP. After two rounds of talks that yielded only prisoner exchanges, the ginger-bearded soldier sees no point in trying to deal with the Russians. 'It does not work. Negotiations with them? How? How do negotiations work? We talk about peace, and at the same time, they are shooting at us,' he said. Moscow has repeatedly rejected calls by Ukraine, the United States and European countries for a full and immediate ceasefire. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of dragging out the talks and not seriously wanting to halt its invasion. The Kremlin said Tuesday negotiations were 'extremely complex' and that it was 'wrong' to expect a speedy breakthrough. Leleka said there is 'no way' Ukrainian troops would pull back from territory they still control. 'The local commanders will not allow it.' One killed, several injured in Russian attacks on Ukraine, officials say For 59-year-old deputy commander Did – a call sign which means 'grandfather' in Ukrainian – an unconditional ceasefire is the only 'logical' way to end the fighting. But he understands why Russia is refusing. 'They have more weapons, their factories are working, they have more men, and North Korea and China are supplying them. Why would they stop?' 'Give us weapons' Instead of a full and unconditional 30-day ceasefire, Moscow has proposed a partial pause to the fighting – two-to-three days and only in certain areas of the frontline. 'They really need this. They need to regroup their troops. They need to restore their logistics,' Leleka said of the Russian call for a temporary truce. Both Did and Leleka instead issued their own request for the West to step up its military support to Ukraine – saying that could help give them a leg-up on the battlefield, and at the negotiating table. 'Give us more weapons. We know how to use them … Give us good weapons and we will stop them. We will stop them, we know how to do it,' Did said. Standing away from the other two, Andriy, his head bowed, was thinking of home. 'I want to be with my wife, to rest,' he whispered. He has been fighting for three years and got married amid the war. 'Whatever it takes, I want to go home.'
