A new International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report on Iran’s nuclear activities is “proof” that Tehran’s program is peaceful, Iran’s envoy to the UN nuclear watchdog said.
Iranian Ambassador to the IAEA Ali Asghar Soltanieh made the comment late on Friday to Iranian state TV despite the report, circulated earlier in the day, revealing that uranium traces of a higher grade than any found before had been detected.
Soltanieh gave no direct reaction to that discovery.
“The report once again proves to the international community that all Iranian nuclear activities are successfully underway and are uninterrupted, and that there is no diversion in Iran’s nuclear material towards military objectives,” he was quoted as saying.
The report, he said, “is more proof of the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear activities and of our country’s success in the field of nuclear technology, in particular enrichment, and its full cooperation with the agency.”
The agency report said that the traces found at the Fordo site, inside a mountain bunker near Qom, were of uranium enriched to purities of 27 percent. Previously, the highest level recorded by the agency in Iran was 20 percent.
The West fears that Iran could be covertly aiming to enrich uranium toward the 90 percent needed to develop atomic bombs.
However, analysts said that the 27 percent find could just be a processing glitch and not necessarily a sign of a deliberate effort to enrich above 20 percent.
In the report, Iran also said that enrichment above 20 percent “may happen for technical reasons beyond the operator’s control.”
The report said the IAEA was “assessing Iran’s explanation and has requested further details.”
Early this month, it took the samples from the site that were being analyzed.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
RSS