Iran has enriched more than 120kg of 20-percent enriched uranium, the head of the country’s atomic energy agency said on state television on Saturday.
“We have passed 120kg,” Iranian Atomic Energy Organization head Mohammad Eslami said. “We have more than that figure.”
“Our people know well that they [Western powers] were meant to give us the enriched fuel at 20 percent to use in the Tehran reactor, but they haven’t done so,” he said. “If our colleagues do not do it, we would naturally have problems with the lack of fuel for the Tehran reactor.”
Last month, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that Iran had increased its stock of uranium enriched above the percentage allowed in the 2015 deal with world powers.
It estimated that Iran had 84.3kg of uranium enriched to 20 percent — up from 62.8kg when the IAEA last reported in May.
Under the deal, Iran was not meant to enrich uranium above 3.67 percent, well below the 90 percent threshold needed for use in a nuclear weapon.
Since Washington out of the deal in 2018, Tehran has progressively abandoned its commitments under the agreement, and the US has imposed fresh sanctions.
On Friday, Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said he was optimistic that talks on reviving the 2015 deal would make progress, provided that Washington fully resumed its commitments.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in