Iran reiterated yesterday that any new sanctions against Tehran by world powers would not halt the Islamic republic’s nuclear program.
“Sanctions won’t have any impact on our activities,” said foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast at his weekly press conference when asked about the possibility of new sanctions on Tehran.
“We do not find them a deterrent. The more the sanctions, the more determined we will be to pursue our rights,” he said in Farsi, translated by the state-owned English language Press Television channel.
Iran has steadfastly maintained that it has the right to pursue nuclear technology as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Washington is ratcheting up pressure to impose new sanctions against Tehran for aggressively pursuing nuclear technology, which they suspect is aimed at making nuclear weapons.
Iran denies these allegations, saying its program is aimed at generating electricity.
In an interview with the New York Times, US President Barack Obama said he plans to place new restrictions on the use of atomic weapons as part of a major US nuclear policy overhaul but that he would make exceptions for “outliers like Iran and North Korea.”
“All countries, whether they’re nuclear weapons states, non-nuclear weapons states or aspiring nuclear weapons states, I think should be very clear about what our approach and our strategy is,” Obama said.
“And I do think that when you’re looking at outliers like Iran or North Korea, they should see that over the course of the last year and a half we have been executing a policy that will increasingly isolate them so long as they are operating outside of accepted international norms,” he said.
Obama was to unveil his new nuclear strategy yesterday, two days before signing a treaty with Russia to slash stockpiles of long-range nuclear warheads by a third, and less than a week before hosting world leaders at a key nuclear summit in Washington.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
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