Latest news with #NuclearProgram
Daily Mail
12-07-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Russia's Sergei Lavrov hugs Kim Jong Un as he thanks North Korea for sending troops to Ukraine war - and tells Russians to visit the rogue state on holiday
Russia 's foreign minister was seen hugging Kim Jong Un today as he thanked North Korea for sending troops to the Ukraine war. Speaking in Wonsan, a glitzy new beach resort in North Korea, Sergey Lavrov also encouraged his fellow Russians to visit the rogue state on holiday. Relations between North Korea and Russia have flourished in recent years with Kim suppling troops and ammunition to Ukraine's frontlines in return for economic and military help. This has raised concerns in the West that Russia might also send sensitive technologies to North Korea that could increase the danger of its nuclear program. As well as a meeting with Kim, foreign minister Lavrov also held talks today with his North Korean counterpart Choe Son Hui. During their meeting, Choe reiterated that North Korea 'unconditionally' supports Russia's fight against Ukraine. Lavrov, meanwhile, repeated Russia's gratitude for the contribution that North Korean troops made in efforts to repel a Ukrainian incursion into Russia's Kursk region. Wonsan city, the meeting venue, is where North Korea recently opened a mammoth beach resort that it says can accommodate nearly 20,000 people. In his comments at the start of his meeting with Choe, Lavrov said that 'I am sure that Russian tourists will be increasingly eager to come here. 'We will do everything we can to facilitate this, creating conditions for this, including air travel,' according to the Russian Foreign Ministry. The Wonsan-Kalma tourist zone is at the center of Kim's push to boost tourism as a way to improve his country's troubled economy. However, prospects for the tourist complex aren't clear, as North Korea appears unlikely to fully reopen its borders and embrace Western tourists anytime soon. Speaking with reporters after the meeting, Lavrov went on to accuse the US, South Korea and Japan of 'military buildups' around the strictly-controlled state. 'We warn against exploiting these ties to build alliances directed against anyone, including North Korea and, of course, Russia,' he said, according to Russia's state Tass news agency. The US, South Korea and Japan have been expanding or restoring their trilateral military exercises in response to North Korea's advancing nuclear program. On Friday, the three countries held a joint air drill involving US nuclear-capable bombers near the Korean Peninsula. It came as their top military officers met in Seoul and urged North Korea to stop all illegal activities that threaten regional security. North Korea views major US-led military drills as invasion rehearsals. It has long argued that it's forced to develop nuclear weapons to defend itself from U.S. military threats. Lavrov said Russia understands North Korea's decision to seek nuclear weapons. 'The technologies used by North Korea are the result of the work of its own scientists,' Lavrov said, according to Tass.
Russia Today
05-07-2025
- Politics
- Russia Today
Iran moved its enriched uranium before US strikes
Last month's US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities failed to hit the country's stockpile of highly enriched uranium, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh has claimed, citing US officials. The attack, which involved seven US B-2 'Spirit' bombers carrying 30,000-pound bunker busters, was not even expected to 'obliterate' the Iranian nuclear program, one of the journalist's sources admitted. 'The centrifuges may have survived and 400 pounds of 60% enriched uranium are missing,' one of the officials said, adding that the US bombs 'could not be assured to penetrate the centrifuge chamber . . . too deep.' The lack of radioactivity at the targeted Iranian nuclear sites – specifically Fordow and Isfahan – following the attack suggest that the enriched uranium stockpile had been moved ahead of time, one US official familiar with the matter said. Fordow, an underground complex built deep inside a mountain that many believed housed the stockpiles, was a particular focus of the attack. The US officials cited by Hersh nevertheless believe that the location of the stockpile and its fate are 'irrelevant' because of the serious damage the strike allegedly dealt to another Iranian nuclear site near the city of Isfahan. The goal of the operation was to 'prevent the Iranians from building a nuclear weapon in the near term – a year or so – with the hope they would not try again,' a US official told Hersh. This could translate into 'a couple of years of respite and uncertain future,' the official added. Following the strikes, US President Donald Trump claimed that the attack 'completely and totally obliterated' Iran's nuclear program. CIA Director John Ratcliffe also told lawmakers that several key sites had been completely destroyed and would take years to rebuild. However, intercepted communications suggested that Tehran had expected a worse impact from the strikes and that the real damage was limited, the Washington Post reported. The strikes were part of a coordinated American-Israeli military campaign launched in mid-June. The Israel Defense Force bombed Iranian targets, claiming that Tehran was close to being able to build a nuclear weapon. Hersh believes that Israel was the 'immediate beneficiary' of the US strike. West Jerusalem does not officially acknowledge possessing nuclear weapons. The Jewish State may still have up to 90 nuclear warheads at its disposal, according to a recent report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
Al Jazeera
05-07-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Iran has not agreed to inspections or given up enrichment, says Trump
United States President Donald Trump has said Iran has not agreed to inspections of its nuclear programme or to giving up enriching uranium. He told reporters on board Air Force One on Friday that he believed Tehran's nuclear programme had been 'set back permanently', although he conceded Iran could restart it at a different location. Trump said he would discuss Iran with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he visits the White House on Monday, where a potential Gaza ceasefire is expected to top the agenda. Trump said, as he travelled to New Jersey after an Independence Day celebration at the White House, 'I would think they'd have to start at a different location. And if they did start, it would be a problem.' Trump said he would not allow Tehran to resume its nuclear programme, adding that Iranian officials wanted to meet with him. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Friday it had pulled out its inspectors from Iran as a standoff deepens over their return to the country's nuclear facilities that were bombed by the US and Israel. The US and Israel say Iran was enriching uranium to build nuclear weapons. Tehran denies wanting to produce a nuclear bomb, reiterating for years that its nuclear programme has been for civilian use only. Neither US intelligence nor the UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said they had found any proof that Tehran was building a nuclear weapon. Israel launched its first military strikes on Iran's nuclear sites in a 12-day war with the Islamic Republic three weeks ago, with the US intervening on the side of its staunch ally by launching massive strikes on the sites on June 22. The IAEA's inspectors have been unable to inspect Iran's facilities since the beginning of the conflict, even though Grossi has said that it is his top priority. Grossi stressed 'the crucial importance' of holding talks with Iran to resume its monitoring and verification work as soon as possible. Distrust of IAEA In the aftermath of the US and Israeli attacks, Iran, which has said it is still committed to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), made painfully clear its burgeoning distrust of the IAEA. Since the start of the conflict, Iranian officials have sharply criticised the IAEA, not only for failing to condemn the Israeli and US strikes, but also for passing a resolution on June 12 accusing Tehran of non-compliance with its nuclear obligations, the day before Israel attacked. On Wednesday, Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian ordered the country to cut ties with the nuclear watchdog. A bill to suspend cooperation had already been passed in the Iranian parliament and approved by the country's Guardian Council. Guardian Council spokesperson Hadi Tahan Nazif said the decision had been taken for the 'full respect for the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Islamic Republic of Iran'. The bill itself says the suspension 'will remain in effect until certain conditions are met, including the guaranteed security of nuclear facilities and scientists', according to Iranian state television. While the IAEA says Iran has not yet formally informed it of any suspension, it is unclear when the agency's inspectors will be able to return to Iran. On Monday, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi summarily dismissed Grossi's request to visit nuclear facilities bombed by Israel and the US. 'Grossi's insistence on visiting the bombed sites under the pretext of safeguards is meaningless and possibly even malign in intent,' Araghchi said. The US claims military strikes either destroyed or badly damaged Iran's three uranium enrichment sites. But it was less clear what had happened to much of Iran's nine tonnes of enriched uranium, especially the more than 400kg (880 pounds) enriched to up to 60 percent purity, a closer step but not in the realm of weapons grade at 90 percent or more.
Yahoo
03-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
US airstrikes set back Iran's nuclear programme by 'one or two years', Pentagon says
US strikes on key nuclear facilities in Iran 10 days ago have pushed back Iran's nuclear programme by up to two years, the Pentagon's chief spokesperson, Sean Parnell, said on Wednesday. "We have degraded their programme by one to two years, at least intel assessments inside the department assess that," Parnell told reporters at a news briefing. "All of the intelligence that we've seen led us to believe that Iran's (facilities) have been completely obliterated," Parnell said. On 22 June, the US launched multiple joint attacks with Israel against three of Iran's nuclear facilities: Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, using more than 30 13,500-kilogram bunker buster missiles and Tomahawk rockets. Parnell's statement on Wednesday offered a more cautious assessment than previous statements from Washington, while at the same time contradicting information released by UN's nuclear watchdog. In the aftermath of the strikes, US President Donald Trump had said the facilities were "totally obliterated" and the attacks had set Iran's nuclear programme back "by decades". Meanwhile, over the weekend, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi, said that Tehran might go back to producing enriched uranium within a few 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," he added. Other experts have also said that Iran likely moved the already-produced stock of highly enriched uranium — believed to be near-weapons grade — prior to the strikes on Fordow and other facilities to protect it from the strikes. US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth and other Washington officials said that existing intelligence showed no signs of such a move or claims that the stockpile has been hidden away at an unknown location, further contradicting other statements. Related Iran's president halts cooperation with UN nuclear watchdog, reports say Iran could be capable of uranium enrichment in a 'matter of months', UN nuclear watchdog says Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi previously said the strikes on the Fordow nuclear site caused severe damage. "No one exactly knows what has transpired in Fordow. That being said, what we know so far is that the facilities have been seriously and heavily damaged," Araghchi told CBS on Tuesday. Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday ordered the country to halt its cooperation with the IAEA, according to state media. Pezeshkian follows a law passed by Iran's parliament last week to suspend that cooperation, as politicians unanimously supported the move against the IAEA. The bill was also backed by Iran's Guardian Council.
Yahoo
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Pentagon spokesman says Iran's nuclear program knocked back 'closer to 2 years'
The Pentagon on Wednesday sharpened its assessment of Iran's nuclear program, declaring that Iran's ability to build a nuclear weapon following the U.S. strike on its nuclear facilities is "closer to two years" away. The assessment by Sean Parnell, the Pentagon's chief spokesperson, appeared to be significantly more optimistic than by U.N. inspectors at the International Atomic Energy Agency. IAEA's director general Rafael Grossi said this past weekend that he believed Iran could begin enriching uranium in a matter of months. Military officials and experts have said that there is no doubt the U.S. bombing of three key nuclear sites in Iran -- Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan -- caused signficant damage when they were hit by 14 bunker-buster bombs and two dozen Tomahawk missiles. But they caution that a firm intelligence assessment will take time to do. And nuclear experts question whether some of the enriched uranium could have been moved in advance or stored elsewhere -- a possibility the Trump administration dismisses as probable. MORE: Early US intel assessment finds Trump-ordered strikes set back Iran's nuclear program only by months When asked what the latest intelligence might show, Parnell told reporters at a Pentagon briefing that the administration's stance is unchanged that Iran's nuclear sites were "completely obliterated." The term "obliterated" was first used by President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in the hours after the bombing. "It's not just ... enriched uranium or centrifuges or things like that. We destroyed the components that they would need to build a bomb," he said. "And so when you take that constellation of things into consideration, yeah, we believe that Iran's nuclear capability has been severely degraded. It's even their ambition to build a bomb," he added. Republicans said they were satisfied with the administration's assessment, whereas several Democrats said they remained skeptical after being briefed on the strike on Capitol Hill.
