Iran’s top nuclear negotiator offered an opening on Tuesday for possible compromise with the West, saying the Islamic regime is ready to hold talks with world powers over its nuclear program.
But Iranian lawmakers also sent a message of defiance to the world community — displaying strong support for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s nominee for defense minister, even though he is wanted by Argentina for the bombing of a Jewish community center in 1994 that killed 85 people.
Some parliament members cried “Death to Israel” as the prospective defense minister, General Ahmad Vahidi, addressed the chamber on the eve of a vote for all of Ahmadinejad’s selections for his 21-seat Cabinet.
The embattled president faces another key test in yesterday’s expected vote. Many lawmakers — including some former conservative allies — have questioned the caliber of his picks for the government posts, which include the first women named for possible Cabinet seats since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The rejection of several prominent nominees by the parliament would be another setback for Ahmadinejad, who has faced increasing political isolation for his unwavering support of the hardline crackdown on protesters after his disputed June 12 election.
Many lawmakers have contended that some of Ahmadinejad’s selections for Cabinet posts lack experience or are political cronies.
Beyond the struggle over his government, Ahmadinejad faces a month full of pivotal moments — that his annual trip to the UN General Assembly later this month and the deadline set by US President Barack Obama for Iran to begin talks this month on its nuclear ambitions.
Iran’s main nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, told reporters his country would present a new “package of proposals” and would open talks “in order to ease common concerns in the international arena.”
His comments came a day before a meeting outside Frankfurt, Germany, of the six countries trying to address concerns about Iran’s nuclear program — the US, France, the UK, Russia, China and Germany.
The six countries have also been discussing the possibility of holding a high-level meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, said UN diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because the talks are private.
Meanwhile, Mohamed ElBaradei, the outgoing head of the UN atomic watchdog, called the threat from Iran “hyped” and said there was no evidence that the Islamic republic would soon have nuclear weapons.
In an interview released on Tuesday, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) hit back at critics who accuse the Egyptian of covering up Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
“In many ways, I think the threat has been hyped,” ElBaradei told the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a Chicago-based magazine critical of nuclear weapons.
“Yes, there’s concern about Iran’s future intentions and Iran needs to be more transparent with the IAEA and international community,” he said.
“But the idea that we’ll wake up tomorrow and Iran will have a nuclear weapon is an idea that isn’t supported by the facts as we have seen them so far,” he said.
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
FIRST TRIAL: Ko’s lawyers sought reduced bail and other concessions, as did other defendants, but the bail judge denied their requests, citing the severity of the sentences Former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was yesterday sentenced to 17 years in prison and had his civil rights suspended for six years over corruption, embezzlement and other charges. Taipei prosecutors in December last year asked the Taipei District Court for a combined 28-year, six-month sentence for the four cases against Ko, who founded the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The cases were linked to the Core Pacific City (京華城購物中心) redevelopment project and the mismanagement of political donations. Other defendants convicted on separate charges included Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇), who was handed a 15-year, six-month sentence; Core Pacific
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