Iran has suspended uranium enrichment and all related activities, state-run radio reported yesterday, honoring an agreement with Europe designed to head off possible UN sanctions.
"To build confidence and in line with implementing the Paris Agreement, Iran suspended uranium enrichment [and related activities] as of today," said the brief radio announcement.
In Vienna, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency, said the suspension was confirmed.
"I think pretty much everything has come to a halt," Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told reporters.
ElBaradei said he expected to have a definitive ruling by Thursday on whether Iran has honored its pledge made earlier this month and frozen the activities, which can be used to make nuclear weapons.
After negotiations with Britain, France and Germany, Iran agreed to suspend uranium enrichment and related activities to dispel suspicions it is trying to build nuclear arms. In turn, EU nations have agreed not to have Iran hauled before the UN Security Council for allegedly contravening the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Iran portrays the agreement as European support for what it sees as its right to pursue a peaceful nuclear program.
The US accuses Iran of secretly pursuing nuclear weapons and has pushed the international community to take a hard line. US Secretary of State Colin Powell said last week that Washington has intelligence indicating Iran is trying to fit missiles to carry nuclear weapons.
Britain, France and Germany have spearheaded efforts to find a diplomatic solution. They plan fresh negotiations with Iran early next month to reach a long term agreement.
ElBaradei confirmed Iran had produced several tonnes of uranium hexafluoride (UF6), the form of uranium used in the enrichment process. Enrichment is a process of purifying uranium for use as fuel in atomic power plants or weapons.
He said Iran had produced around two tonnes of UF6 which would not have been enough for a weapon. Iran had previously denied the reports that it had produced UF6.
IAEA inspectors currently in Iran are expected to verify that Iran has halted all such activities and to seal the facilities where they are carried out.
Iran agreed to suspend uranium enrichment as part of a deal similar to one it made with Britain, Germany and France in October last year.
But that deal subsequently unraveled and Iran resumed building and assembly key nuclear parts.
That behavior, coupled with the fact that the IAEA still has several outstanding questions about an atomic program which Iran kept secret for nearly two decades, means many diplomats fear Iran will find a reason to resume uranium enrichment again in the future.
"We don't know yet whether they have taken a decision to stop pursuing nuclear weapons but their past behaviour is not very encouraging," said a Western diplomat in Tehran.
In an interview with the BBC on Monday ElBaradei said Iran's promise to suspend enrichment was a positive step.
"They need to build confidence and the suspension of uranium enrichment is a good step in the right direction."
A global survey showed that 60 percent of Taiwanese had attained higher education, second only to Canada, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan easily surpassed the global average of 43 percent and ranked ahead of major economies, including Japan, South Korea and the US, data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for 2024 showed. Taiwan has a high literacy rate, data released by the ministry showed. As of the end of last year, Taiwan had 20.617 million people aged 15 or older, accounting for 88.5 percent of the total population, with a literacy rate of 99.4 percent, the data
NEW LOW: The council in 2024 based predictions on a pessimistic estimate for the nation’s total fertility rate of 0.84, but last year that rate was 0.69, 17 percent lower An expected National Development Council (NDC) report expects the nation’s population to drop below 12 million by 2065, with the old-age dependency ratio to top 100 percent sooner than 2070, sources said yesterday. The council is slated to release its latest population projections in August, using an ultra-low fertility model, the sources said. The previous report projected that Taiwan’s population would fall to 14.37 million by 2070, but based on a new estimate of the total fertility rate (TFR) — the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime — the population is expected to reach 12 million by
INTENSIFYING THREATS: Beijing’s tactics include massive attacks on the government service network, aircraft and naval vessel incursions and damaging undersea cables China is prepared to interfere in November’s nine-in-one local elections by launching massive attacks on the Taiwanese government’s service network (GSN), a report published by the National Security Bureau showed. The report was submitted to the Legislative Yuan ahead of the bureau’s scheduled briefing at the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The national security team has identified about 13,000 suspicious Internet accounts and 860,000 disputed messages, the bureau said of China’s cognitive warfare against Taiwan. The disputed messages focus on major foreign affairs, national defense and economic issues, which were produced using generative artificial intelligence (AI) and distributed through Chinese
COUNTERING HOSTILITY: The draft bill would require the US to increase diplomatic pressure on China and would impose sanctions on those who sabotage undersea cable networks US lawmakers on Thursday introduced a bipartisan bill to bolster the resilience of Taiwan’s submarine cables to counter China’s hostile activities. The proposal, titled the critical undersea infrastructure resilience initiative act, was cosponsored by Republican representatives Mike Lawler and Greg Stanton, and Democratic Representative Dave Min. US Senators John Curtis and Jacky Rosen also introduced a companion bill in the US Senate, which has passed markup at the chamber’s Committee on Foreign Relations. The House’s version of the bill would prioritize the deployment of sensors to detect disruptions or potential sabotage in real-time and enhance early warning capabilities through global intelligence sharing frameworks,
RSS