Latest news with #nuclear weapons


The Independent
an hour ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Uranium enrichment ‘a question of national pride', says Iran's foreign minister
Iran 's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says that Tehran cannot abandon its uranium enrichment programme, which was seriously damaged in June's conflict with Israel. The declaration follows five rounds of nuclear talks between Tehran and Washington, mediated by Oman, which failed to agree on the extent of Iran's enrichment. While Israel and Washington claim Iran was close to levels for rapid nuclear weapon production, Tehran insists its programme is for civilian purposes. 'It is stopped because, yes, damages are serious and severe,' Mr Araghchi said on the Fox News show Special Report with Bret Baier on Monday. 'But obviously we cannot give up (on) enrichment because it is an achievement of our own scientists. And now, more than that, it is a question of national pride.' The foreign minister said the damage to the Iranian nuclear facilities after US and Israeli strikes is being evaluated further. Israel targeted some of Iran's key nuclear facilities – Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow – and killed several Iranian nuclear scientists in the strikes. The facilities are heavily fortified and largely underground. Natanz and Fordow are Iran's uranium enrichment sites, and Isfahan provides the raw materials. Mr Araghchi also said that Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is in "good health" and that Tehran is open to talks with Washington but that those will not be direct "for the time being". Israel attacked Iran on 13 June and the Middle Eastern rivals then engaged in an air war for 12 days, in which Washington also bombed Iran's nuclear facilities. A ceasefire was reached in late June. Iran is a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, while Israel is not. The UN nuclear watchdog says it has "no credible indication" of an active, coordinated weapons program in Iran. Tehran maintains its nuclear programme is solely meant for civilian purposes. Israel is the only Middle Eastern country believed to have nuclear weapons and said its war against Iran aimed to prevent Tehran from developing its own nuclear weapons.


New York Times
4 days ago
- Health
- New York Times
Robert Alvarez, 76, Dies; Called Attention to Nuclear-Waste Safety
Robert Alvarez, a self-taught expert on nuclear power, nuclear weapons and the waste that both produce who worked for decades as an activist outside the government and, during the 1990s, as a high-ranking official within it, died on July 1 in Virginia Beach, Va. He was 76. His daughter Amber Alvarez Torgerson said he died in an assisted living facility from complications of Parkinson's disease. Mr. Alvarez did not set out to become a key voice in the campaign to clean up America's vast and deadly network of nuclear-waste sites. As a young legislative aide for Senator James Abourezk, a Democrat from South Dakota, in the mid-1970s, he focused mainly on American Indian affairs. But after meeting with a group of Navajos whose decades of labor in uranium mines had left them with a raft of illnesses, he drafted a bill to extend federal medical coverage for black lung disease — a chronic problem for coal miners — and to include nuclear workers. To his surprise and frustration, his bill never even got a hearing. He was told that it would cast a negative light on the nuclear energy and weapons industries, powerful forces with extensive pull on Capitol Hill. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.


Japan Times
5 days ago
- Politics
- Japan Times
Nuclear deterrence 'cannot save humanity,' Nihon Hidankyo member says
Nuclear deterrence "cannot save humanity," a senior member of a group of hibakusha atomic bomb survivors said in a video speech at a meeting of scientists in Chicago on Wednesday. In the speech delivered in English, Masako Wada, assistant secretary-general of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, or Nihon Hidankyo, urged policymakers around the world to "take the leadership ... toward human society free of nuclear weapons." Wada stressed that members of Nihon Hidankyo, which won the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize, will work to stimulate public opinion by talking to young people and sharing their own experiences. She criticized the emerging idea of nuclear sharing, in which U.S. nuclear weapons would be deployed in Japan, saying that it may make Japan, the only country to have been attacked with atomic bombs, "become an aggressor." Professor David Gross of the University of California, Santa Barbara, who was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics, said that Wada's speech was very moving and made him realize that what he and other scientists are discussing is a matter of human life. The meeting was attended by prominent scientists. Many of them voiced concern about the increasing risk of nuclear proliferation, in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the Iran-Israel conflict.

Al Arabiya
6 days ago
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
China says supports Iran in resisting ‘bullying,' respects peaceful use of nuclear energy
China will continue to support Iran in safeguarding its national sovereignty and dignity, and in 'resisting power politics and bullying,' Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Iranian counterpart on Wednesday. 'China attaches importance to Iran's commitment not to develop nuclear weapons and respects Iran's right to peacefully use nuclear energy,' Wang said, according to a readout released by his ministry. Beijing is willing to continue to play a constructive role in promoting the settlement of the Iranian nuclear issue and maintaining stability in the Middle East, Wang said, adding that China appreciates Tehran's efforts to achieve peace through diplomacy.