UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appealed to the U.S. administration to “lift or waive” all sanctions on Iran as agreed under the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.
Israel and the United States share the same basic values even if they may disagree on how to achieve their goals, Israeli Foreign Minister told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at a meeting in Rome on Sunday, the Jerusalem Post reports. America is Israel’s most important and loyal ally, Lapid reiterated, adding that the two countries’ new governments come from a very long and strong tradition of close friendship and cooperation.
US President Joe Biden sought to assure Israel that he would not tolerate a nuclear Iran as he met with outgoing Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on Monday amid growing angst over the US administration’s effort to reenter the Iran nuclear deal.
The U.S. confirmed Monday that it launched airstrikes against facilities used by Iran-backed militia groups in Iraq and Syria.
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi said during a visit to the Pentagon that a U.S. return to the Iran nuclear deal would be “dangerous” and that all options should be exhausted to prevent the Islamic Republic from acquiring nuclear military capabilities, the Israeli military said in a statement Monday.
The United States has said it will continue indirect talks with Iran on rejoining the 2015 nuclear deal, despite asserting that the June 18 election of ultraconservative cleric Ebrahim Raisi as Iran’s new president had not been a free and fair process, the Times of Israel reports. Raisi is viewed as an ally of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran said Tuesday that it has produced 6.5 kilograms (14.3 pounds) of uranium enriched to 60 percent purity and 108 kilograms of uranium enriched to 20% purity in five months, far ahead of the schedule set by a law passed earlier this year by Tehran.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid have made clear that Israel will continue the Netanyahu government’s opposition to the Iran nuclear agreement, as international efforts continued to revive the pact abandoned by former U.S. president Donald Trump.
Republican members of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs have sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken demanding a congressional review of any nuclear agreements reached with Iran.
Russia is preparing to provide Iran with an advanced satellite that would enable it to track potential military targets across the Middle East, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.
Negotiations aimed at returning the United States and Iran to compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal will resume this weekend, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said on June 9.
Iran holds a quantity of low enriched uranium nearly 16 times higher than the limit authorized in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, according to a report Monday by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
A day after the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency warned that Iran’s uranium enrichment program was “very concerning,” a former inspector from the international nuclear watchdog agency cautioned that there might be “unforeseeable developments.”
The UN nuclear watchdog and Iran have agreed to extend an understanding to monitor Tehran’s activities by one month, the agency said Monday, with talks ongoing in Vienna try to save the 2015 nuclear deal.
Iran’s parliament speaker said Sunday that international inspectors may no longer access surveillance images of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear sites, escalating tensions amid diplomatic efforts in Vienna to save Tehran’s atomic accord with world powers.
“Fluctuations” at Iran’s Natanz plant pushed the purity to which it enriched uranium to 63%, higher than the announced 60% that complicated talks to revive its nuclear deal with world powers, a report by the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Tuesday.
Negotiations in Vienna between world powers and Iran are moving into a crucial stage and the next few weeks will be critical to saving their 2015 nuclear deal, the European Union’s top diplomat said on Monday.
The Biden administration is weighing unfreezing $1 billion in Iranian funds that the country could use for humanitarian relief, CNN reported on Thursday.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has met with Yossi Cohen, the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, for talks that centered on Iran, the Associated Press reports.
US president Joe Biden reportedly told Mossad chief Yossi Cohen that the US is not close to returning to the nuclear deal with Iran, according to a news report Sunday.