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Rudaw Net
08-07-2025
- Politics
- Rudaw Net
Pezeshkian accuses Israel of assasination attempt, ‘destroying' US-Iran diplomacy
Also in Iran Trump says scheduled new nuclear talks with Iran Iran arrests 900 since start of Israel war: watchdog Surge in Iran's deportation of Afghans sparks 'scapegoating' fears after Israel conflict Iranian president announces order to end cooperation with IAEA A+ A- ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has accused Israel of attempting to assassinate him and derailing peace talks with the United States. In an interview posted Monday by conservative commentator Tucker Carlson on X, Pezeshkian was asked directly whether Israel had tried to kill him. 'They did try, yes, and they acted accordingly, but they failed,' he alleged. Tensions between Israel and Iran escalated sharply on June 13, when Israeli airstrikes inside Iran killed senior military commanders and nuclear scientists. In response, Iran launched a barrage of missiles and drones targeting Israel. Tensions between Iran and Israel escalated on June 13, when Israeli airstrikes inside Iran killed senior military commanders and nuclear scientists. In response, Iran launched missile and drone strikes on Israel. The crisis deepened when the US struck Iran's nuclear facilities at Fordow, Isfahan, and Natanz on June 22. Iran responded the next day with a ballistic missile attack on Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar. A US-brokered ceasefire took effect on June 24 and has held so far. In his interview with Carlson, Pezeshkian ruled out any US involvement in the alleged assassination attempt, stating firmly, 'It was Israel.' Israel's mid-June military action notably came just two days before a scheduled sixth round of indirect nuclear talks between Iran and the US in Muscat, Oman. The negotiations - ongoing since April - have since been suspended. Pezeshkian claimed the Israeli strikes derailed diplomatic progress. 'We were going to have the next round of the talks [on June 15], but suddenly, Israel torpedoed the negotiating table,' he said, accusing Israel of 'destroying diplomacy.' The Iranian president also raised concerns over the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), claiming that Israeli intelligence may have obtained sensitive information from its inspections. 'We realized that Israel got information from the inspections,' he said. On Wednesday, Pezeshkian signed a law suspending cooperation with the IAEA. The bill, previously approved by Iran's parliament and Guardian Council, blocks inspectors from entering the country unless Iran receives guarantees protecting its nuclear infrastructure. In his interview with Carlson, the Iranian president blamed the IAEA's failure to explicitly condemn the Israeli attacks on Iranian nuclear sites for 'a widespread lack of trust among Iranians, legislators, and public opinion.' He also dismissed accusations that Iran seeks nuclear weapons, calling such claims 'a false mentality promoted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since 1984. 'The truth is that we have never been after developing a nuclear bomb. Not in the past, not presently, or in the future,' Pezeshkian insisted.
Memri
07-07-2025
- Politics
- Memri
Tehran Friday Sermon By Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami: According To Shari'a Law, Trump And Netanyahu Must Be Executed; They Are Guilty Of Murder, Oppression, And Sowing Corruption
Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a member of the Iranian regime's Guardian Council, said in a Friday, July 4, 2025 sermon in Tehran that according to Islamic law, U.S. President Donal Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be executed. He said that they are guilty of murdering tens of thousands in Gaza and of murdering IRGC Qods Force Commander Qasem Soleimani, that they are guilty of oppression, and that they are guilty of sowing corruption in the land and fighting God and His messenger. The audience chanted: 'Allah Akbar! Khamenei is the leader! Death to those who oppose the Rule of the Jurisprudent! Death to America! Death to England! Death to the hypocrites and the infidels! Death to Israel!' Khatami's address was aired on Channel 1 (Iran). Ahmad Khatami: "The ruling regarding Trump and Netanyahu, according to the shari'a, is that the pair of them should be executed." Crowd: "Allah Akbar! Allah Akbar! Allah Akbar! Khamenei is the leader! Death to those who oppose the Rule of the Jurisprudent! Death to America! Death to England! Death to the hypocrites and the infidels! Death to Israel!" Khatami: "They deserve the death penalty according to three articles of the shari'a: First, they have murdered. 55,000 people have been killed in Gaza, and you killed our martyr hajj Qasem Soleimani. [...] "You are murderers, and you need to be punished. Second, you are oppressors. [...] "And third, you are sowing corruption upon the land, and you are fighting God and His Messenger."
CBC
02-07-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Iran suspends co-operation with UN nuclear watchdog
Social Sharing Iran's president on Wednesday ordered the country to suspend its co-operation with the International Atomic Energy Agency after U.S. and Israeli airstrikes hit its most-important nuclear facilities, likely further limiting the ability of inspectors to track Tehran's program 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 state television announced President Masoud Pezeshkian's order, which followed a law passed by Iran's parliament to suspend that co-operation. 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. There were no timetables or details given about what the suspension would entail. "The government is mandated to immediately suspend all co-operation 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 UN nuclear watchdog. The agency has long monitored Iran's nuclear program and said that it was waiting for an official communication from Iran on what the suspension meant. WATCH l What may come next after shaky ceasefire: What might make or break the Israel-Iran ceasefire | About That 6 days ago Duration 15:32 Iran's decision drew an immediate condemnation from Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar. "Iran has just issued a scandalous announcement about suspending its co-operation 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 the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal with Iran 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. Inspections scaled back after 2018 Under the 2015 deal, Iran agreed to allow the IAEA even greater access to its nuclear program. That included permanently installing cameras and sensors at nuclear sites. Those cameras, inside of metal housings sprayed with a special blue paint that shows any attempt to tamper with it, took still images of sensitive sites. Other devices, known as online enrichment monitors, measured the uranium enrichment level at Iran's Natanz nuclear facility. The IAEA also regularly sent inspectors into Iranian sites to conduct surveys, sometimes collecting environmental samples with cotton clothes and swabs that would be tested at IAEA labs back in Austria. Others monitor Iranian sites via satellite images. U.S. 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 program or its support for militant groups in the wider Middle East. In the years since that decision, Iran has limited IAEA inspections and stopped the agency from accessing camera footage. It has also removed cameras. At one point, Iran accused an IAEA inspector of testing positive for explosive nitrates, something the agency disputed. Damage assessment at sites continues The IAEA has engaged in years of negotiations with Iran to restore full access for its inspectors. While Tehran hasn't granted that, it also hasn't entirely thrown inspectors out. Analysts view this as part of Iran's wider strategy to use its nuclear program as a bargaining chip with the West. 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. In May, reports from the IAEA indicated that Iran had been enriching up to 60 per cent. It also has enough of a stockpile to build multiple nuclear bombs, should it choose to do so. Iran has long insisted its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. Israel began a sustained campaign of airstrikes on Iranian targets on June 13, which included its nuclear sites, as well as targeting several of the country's physicists and scientists who were alleged to have worked on the nuclear program. Days later, the U.S. participated in the military campaign with strikes on the Fordow, Natanza and Isfahan nuclear sites, with American B-2 bombers using bunker-buster bombs at Fordow, a site built under a mountain about 100 kilometres southwest of Tehran. Satellite images from Planet Labs PBC analyzed by The Associated Press show Iranian officials at Fordow on Monday likely examining the damage. Trucks could be seen in the images, as well as at least one crane and an excavator at tunnels on the site. Iran open to talks at some point Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told CBS News in an interview published Tuesday that its facilities had been "heavily and seriously damaged," but that "no one exactly knows that transpired at Fordow." The strikes followed several rounds of talks between Washington and Tehran officials over a period of months toward a new nuclear deal. Araghchi told CBS "the doors of diplomacy will never slam shut," with the U.S. As Iran was bombarded for nearly two weeks, it fired more than 550 ballistic missiles at Israel in retaliation, killing 28 people. 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.
France 24
02-07-2025
- Politics
- France 24
Iran suspends cooperation with UN nuclear watchdog
The war between Iran and Israel, which broke out on June 13 and lasted for 12 days, has intensified tensions between Tehran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). On June 25, a day after a ceasefire took hold, Iranian lawmakers overwhelmingly voted in favour of the bill to suspend cooperation with the agency. State media said on Wednesday that the legislation had cleared the final hurdle and was in effect. The text, published by Iranian media, states that the legislation aims to "ensure full support for the inherent rights of the Islamic Republic of Iran" under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, and "especially uranium enrichment". The issue of enrichment was at the core of disagreements between Washington and Tehran in nuclear negotiations that had been derailed by the war. Israel and some Western countries had for long accused Iran of seeking to quire nuclear weapons -- an ambition Tehran has consistently denied. The text of the law did not specify concrete moves linked to the suspension of cooperation with the IAEA, whose inspectors have had access to declared nuclear facilities. Following the parliament vote, the bill was approved by the Guardian Council, a body tasked with vetting legislation, before a final ratification from the presidency. Iranian President "Masoud Pezeshkian promulgated the law suspending cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency", state TV said on Wednesday. Iranian officials have sharply criticised the IAEA for what they described as the agency's "silence" in the face of the Israeli and US attacks on Iranian nuclear sites. 'Deceptive and fraudulent' Tehran has also lambasted the UN agency for a resolution adopted on June 12 that accuses Iran of non-compliance with its nuclear obligations. Iranian officials said the resolution was among the "excuses" for the Israeli attacks. On Wednesday, senior judiciary official Ali Mozaffari said that IAEA director Rafael Grossi should "be held accountable" for what he called "preparing the groundwork for the crime" against Iran, referring to Israel's air raids. Mozaffari accused Grossi of "deceptive actions and fraudulent reporting", according to Iranian news agency Tasnim. Iran has rejected a request from Grossi to visit nuclear facilities bombed during the war, and earlier this week Pezeshkian decried his "destructive" conduct. Iran has said Grossi's request to visit the bombarded sites signalled "malign intent" but insisted there were no threats against him or against inspectors from his agency. France, Germany and Britain have condemned unspecified "threats" against the IAEA chief. Iran's ultra-conservative Kayhan newspaper has recently claimed that documents showed Grossi was an Israeli spy and should be executed. Damage On Monday, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said the parliament vote to halt cooperation with the IAEA reflected the "concern and anger of the Iranian public opinion". The 12-day war began when Israel launched a major bombing campaign on Iran and killed top military commanders and nuclear scientists, with Tehran responding with waves of missiles and drones launched at Israel. On June 22, Israel's ally the United States launched unprecedented strikes of its own on Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz. More than 900 people were killed in Iran, according to the judiciary. Iran's retaliatory attacks killed 28 people in Israel, according to authorities. US President Donald Trump said the US attacks had "obliterated" Iran's nuclear programme, though the extent of the damage was not clear. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has admitted "serious" damage to nuclear sites. © 2025 AFP
Saudi Gazette
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Saudi Gazette
Iran's president halts cooperation with UN nuclear watchdog, reports say
TEHRAN — Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday ordered the country to halt its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) after Israeli and US airstrikes hit its top nuclear facilities, state media reported. Pezeshkian follows a law passed by Iran's parliament last week to suspend that cooperation, as politicians unanimously supported the move against the IAEA, according to Iranian state media. The bill was also backed by Iran's Guardian Council. Following the law's passage, Iran's Supreme National Security Council was tasked with overseeing the bill and its implementation. While the council itself hasn't said anything publicly, Pezeshkian, as its head, reportedly issued an order, signalling that the bill will be implemented, but it is yet unclear how and to what extent. Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, negotiated under then-US President Barack Obama, allowed Iran to enrich uranium to 3.67% — enough to fuel a nuclear power plant, but far below the threshold of 90% 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. 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 program or its support for militant groups in the broader Middle East. That set in motion years of tensions, including attacks at sea and on land. Iran had been enriching up to 60%, 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 program is for peaceful purposes, but the IAEA, Western intelligence agencies and others say Tehran had an organised weapons program up until 2003. Meanwhile, Director General of IAEA Rafael Grossi said Iran may be able to restart its uranium enrichment in a "matter of months". "The capacities they have are there. They can have,... in a matter of months, I would say, a few cascades of centrifuges spinning and producing enriched uranium," Grossi said in an interview with CBS News on Saturday. "But as I said, frankly speaking, one cannot claim that everything has disappeared and there is nothing there." Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that sanctions on Iran could be lifted if they agree to move forward in a peaceful manner. "We have the sanctions. But if they do what they have to, if they can be peaceful and if they show us that they won't do any more damage, I would revoke them, and it would make a big difference," Trump told Fox News. Trump explained that he turned down Iran's uranium enrichment request during negotiations, stating, "I wouldn't have let that happen", and then justified the bombing of Iran's nuclear plant by saying "Iran cannot have the nuclear weapon, and they were weeks away from having it". On 22 June, the US launched multiple joint attacks with Israel against three of Iran's nuclear facilities: Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. Trump had said the facilities were "totally obliterated" and the attacks had set Iran's nuclear programme back "by decades". — Euronews
