Latest news with #nuclearWeapons
LBCI
12 hours ago
- General
- LBCI
Iran considers nuclear weapons 'unacceptable,' FM says
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Saturday that Iran considers nuclear weapons "unacceptable," reiterating the country's longstanding position amid delicate negotiations with the United States. "If the issue is nuclear weapons, yes, we too consider this type of weapon unacceptable," Araghchi, Iran's lead negotiator in the talks, said in a televised speech. "We agree with them on this issue." AFP
Al Arabiya
14 hours ago
- General
- Al Arabiya
Iran considers nuclear weapons ‘unacceptable': FM
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Saturday that Iran considers nuclear weapons 'unacceptable,' reiterating the country's longstanding position amid delicate negotiations with the United States. 'If the issue is nuclear weapons, yes, we too consider this type of weapon unacceptable,' Araghchi, Iran's lead negotiator in the talks, said in a televised speech. 'We agree with them on this issue.'
Fox News
3 days ago
- General
- Fox News
Explosive new intelligence report reveals Iran's nuclear weapons program still active
FIRST ON FOX — A new intelligence report claims Iran is continuing with its active nuclear weapons program, which it says can be used to launch missiles over long distances. The startling intelligence gathering of Austrian officials contradicts the assessment of the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told a Senate Intelligence Committee in March that the American intelligence community "continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003." Austria's version of the FBI — the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution — wrote Monday in an intelligence report, "In order to assert and enforce its regional political power ambitions, the Islamic Republic of Iran is striving for comprehensive rearmament, with nuclear weapons to make the regime immune to attack and to expand and consolidate its dominance in the Middle East and beyond." The Austrian domestic intelligence agency report added, "The Iranian nuclear weapons development program is well advanced, and Iran possesses a growing arsenal of ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear warheads over long distances." According to an intelligence document obtained and reviewed by Fox News Digital, "Iran has developed sophisticated sanctions-evasion networks, which has benefited Russia." The Austrian intelligence findings could be an unwanted wrench in President Trump's negotiation process to resolve the atomic crisis with Iran's rulers because the data outlined in the report suggests the regime will not abandon its drive to secure a nuclear weapon. In response to the Austrian intelligence, a White House official told Fox News Digital, "President Trump is committed to Iran never obtaining a nuclear weapon or the capacity to build one." The danger of the Islamic Republic of Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism (and its illegal atomic weapons program) was cited 99 times in the 211-page report that covers pressing threats to Austria's democracy. "Vienna is home to one of the largest embassies of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Europe, which disguises intelligence officers with diplomatic," the Austrian intelligence report noted. "Iranian intelligence services are familiar with developing and implementing circumvention strategies for the procurement of military equipment, proliferation-sensitive technologies, and materials for weapons of mass destruction," the Austrian intelligence agency said. In 2021, a Belgium court convicted Asadollah Asadi, a former Iranian diplomat based in Vienna, for planning to blow up a 2018 opposition meeting of tens of thousands of Iranian dissidents held outside Paris. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who served as President Trump's personal lawyer at the time, attended the event in France. When asked about the differences in conclusions between the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Austrian intelligence report, David Albright, a physicist and founder and president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, D.C., told Fox News Digital, "The ODNI report is stuck in the past, a remnant of the fallacious unclassified 2007 NIE [National Intelligence Estimate]. "The Austrian report in general is similar to German and British assessments. Both governments, by the way, made clear to (the) U.S. IC [intelligence community] in 2007 that they thought the U.S. assessment was wrong that the Iranian nuclear weapons program ended in 2003. "The German assessment is from BND [Germany's Federal Intelligence Service] station chief in D.C. at that time. The British info is from a senior British non-proliferation official I was having dinner with the day the 2007 NIE was made public. The German said the U.S. was misinterpreting data they all possessed." The Austrian intelligence findings that Tehran is working on an active atomic weapons program "seems clear enough," said Albright. In 2023, Fox News Digital revealed a fresh batch of European intelligence reports showed that Iran sought to bypass U.S. and EU sanctions to secure technology for its nuclear weapons program with a view toward testing an atomic bomb. European intelligence agencies have documented prior to 2015 and after the Iran nuclear deal( JCPOA) was agreed upon that Tehran continued efforts to illegally secure technology for its atomic, biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction programs. The Austrian intelligence report noted that Iran provides weapons to the U.S.-designated terrorist movements Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as to Syrian militias. A spokesperson for ODNI declined to comment. The U.S. State Department and U.S. National Security Council did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital press queries.
South China Morning Post
5 days ago
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
North Korea says US ‘Golden Dome' risks nuclear war in outer space
North Korea has slammed US President Donald Trump 's 'Golden Dome' missile shield plan as a 'very dangerous' threat that aims to weaponise space, state media reported on Tuesday. Pyongyang's foreign ministry has issued a memorandum calling the system 'a very dangerous 'threatening initiative' aimed at threatening the strategic security of the nuclear weapons states,' the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. Trump announced new details and initial funding for the missile shield system last week, calling it 'very important for the success and even survival of our country'. The initiative faces significant technical and political challenges, according to analysts, and could come at a hefty price tag. Projectiles launched by Israel's Iron Dome system intercept rockets fired from Gaza in October 2023. Trump's 'Golden Dome' plan gets its name from Israel's air-defence system. Photo: AP The memorandum by nuclear-armed North Korea accused the United States of being 'hell-bent on the moves to militarise outer space', KCNA said. 'The US plan for building a new missile defence system is the root cause of sparking off global nuclear and space arms race by stimulating the security concerns of nuclear weapons states and turning the outer space into a potential nuclear war field,' it added.
NHK
21-05-2025
- Politics
- NHK
UN members trade accusations at meeting on human rights situation in N.Korea
Members of the UN General Assembly have traded barbs at a meeting on the human rights situation in North Korea. Some nations contend that the North's human rights violations are closely tied to the country's development of nuclear weapons and its missile programs. At the UN headquarters in New York on Tuesday, a plenary meeting was held to address human rights abuses and violations in North Korea. Two female defectors from the country were called as witnesses. They took to the podium at the beginning of the meeting and shared their experiences. One woman said that it is better to be shot crossing the Tumen River than to starve in the North. The other defector said that young people have been executed in the country for secretly watching South Korean dramas. The two women suggested that silence is complicity, and they urged the member states to take action. The United States was among the members that criticized the North. It said that unlawful nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs in North Korea are "inextricably linked to the regime's human rights abuses." It added that the North's actions threaten global peace and security. Japanese UN Ambassador Yamazaki Kazuyuki said, "Japan strongly urges Pyongyang to immediately return all abductees and asks for the international community to unite in a concerted effort to secure their return." North Korea's UN Ambassador Kim Song described the two defectors as "the scum of the earth." He claimed that they do not care about their parents and their families. Kim also said it was "deplorable" that they had been invited to serve as witnesses. A representative from Russia expressed opposition to the UN Security Council's sanctions. The representative described the measures as obstacles to the development of North Korea and the protection of human rights. Russia has been deepening its ties to North Korea.
