[🇮🇷] Iran's Nuclear Program

[Lulldapull]

bhot hain, search maaro

Good ghaad bhai. This crajy no?

Trump ka ulla don’t like no coluddz!

 

[Sharma Ji]

Good ghaad bhai. This crajy no?

Trump ka ulla don’t like no coluddz!

Usko bas deals mangta, of which there are plenty to be made with us gangouse lot.

 

[VCheng]

@VCheng ji .. what do you make of him ?

Just like all those occupying the post before him, he must deliver on the economy above all else, and will be judged by those who elected him by that primary standard. Everything else that may be important to others around the world is simply secondary, in my view.

 

[Saif]

Iran, European powers hold ‘constructive’ nuclear talks

Iran and European powers said they held ‘frank and constructive’ talks on Monday about Tehran’s nuclear programme, just a week before US president-elect Donald Trump takes office.

www.newagebd.net

Iran, European powers hold ‘constructive’ nuclear talks
Agence France-Presse . Geneva 14 January, 2025, 23:06

Iran and European powers said they held ‘frank and constructive’ talks on Monday about Tehran’s nuclear programme, just a week before US president-elect Donald Trump takes office.

It was the second round of such talks in less than two months, following a discreet meeting in Geneva last November between Tehran and the three European powers, Britain, France and Germany, known as the E3.

Few details were revealed about the topics discussed Monday or even the venue of the talks, but both sides said they were ‘constructive’ and that the parties agreed to carry them on.

Iran’s ISNA news agency reported that Iranian deputy foreign minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi met ‘his counterparts from the E3’.

‘They discussed issues of mutual interest, including negotiations for lifting sanctions, the nuclear issue and the worrying situation in the region,’ it added without elaborating.

Later, Iran’s deputy foreign minister for International Affairs Kazem Gharibabadi described the talks as ‘serious, frank, and constructive’.

‘We discussed ideas involving certain details in the sanctions-lifting and nuclear fields that are needed for a deal,’ he said in a post on X.

‘Sides concurred that negotiations should be resumed and to reach a deal, all parties should create and maintain the appropriate atmosphere. We agreed to continue our dialogue,’ he added.

British, French and German foreign affairs representatives afterwards called the talks ‘serious, frank and constructive’.

‘Against a challenging context, we discussed concerns and reiterated our commitment to a diplomatic solution. We agreed to continue our dialogue,’ they said in a statement posted on their X accounts.

Before the meeting, the German foreign ministry said that the talks were ‘not negotiations’ while Iran said they were merely ‘consultations’.

The talks, scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, will cover a ‘wide range of topics,’ Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said during a weekly press briefing.

‘The primary objective of these talks is to remove the sanctions’ on Iran, he noted, adding that Iran was also ‘listening to the topics that the opposite parties want to raise’.

ISNA reported that Takht-Ravanchi will meet on Tuesday separately with the European Union diplomat Enrique Mora in Geneva.

On Thursday, France’s foreign ministry said the meeting was a sign that the E3 countries were ‘continuing to work towards a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear programme, the progress of which is extremely problematic’.

The talks come with Iran’s nuclear programme under renewed focus in light of Trump’s return to the White House on January 20.

During his first term, Trump pursued a policy of ‘maximum pressure’, withdrawing the United States from a landmark nuclear deal which imposed curbs on Iran’s nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief.

Tehran adhered to the deal until Washington’s withdrawal, but then began rolling back its commitments.

Efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear pact have since faltered and European officials have repeatedly expressed frustrations over Tehran’s non-compliance.

Last week, French president Emmanuel Macron said the acceleration of Iran’s nuclear programme was ‘bringing us very close to the breaking point’. Iran called the comments ‘baseless’ and ‘deceitful’.

In December, Britain, Germany and France accused Tehran of growing its stockpile of highly enriched uranium to ‘unprecedented levels’ without ‘any credible civilian justification’.

‘We reiterate our determination to use all diplomatic tools to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, including using snapback if necessary,’ they added.

The snapback mechanism — part of the 2015 deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — allows signatories to reimpose United Nations sanctions on Iran in cases of the ‘significant non-performance’ of commitments.

The option to trigger the mechanism expires in October this year, adding urgency to the on-going diplomatic efforts.

The International Atomic Energy Agency nuclear watchdog says Iran has increased its manufacturing of enriched uranium such that it is the only non-nuclear weapons state to possess uranium enriched to 60 per cent.

That level is well on the way to the 90 per cent required for an atomic bomb.

Iran maintains that its nuclear programme is solely for peaceful purposes and denies any intention to develop atomic weapons.

It has also repeatedly expressed willingness to revive the deal.

President Masoud Pezeshkian, who took office in July, has favoured reviving that agreement and called for ending his country’s isolation.

In a recent interview with China’s CCTV, foreign minister Abbas Araghchi also expressed willingness ‘to engage in constructive negotiations’.

‘The formula that we believe in is the same as the previous JCPOA formula, namely, building trust on Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for lifting sanctions,’ he added.​

 

[Saif]

Trump hopes to avoid strikes on Iran nuclear sites

US president Donald Trump said on Thursday he hoped to avoid military strikes on Iran’s nuclear programme, an option long mulled by Israel.

www.newagebd.net

Trump hopes to avoid strikes on Iran nuclear sites
Agence France-Presse . Washington 24 January, 2025, 21:25

US president Donald Trump. | File photo

US president Donald Trump said on Thursday he hoped to avoid military strikes on Iran’s nuclear programme, an option long mulled by Israel.

Asked if he would support military action against Iranian nuclear facilities, Trump told reporters he was going to speak to unspecified ‘very high-level people’ about the issue.

‘That could be worked out without having to worry about it,’ Trump said of the Iranian nuclear issue.

‘It would be really nice if that could be worked out without having to go that further step,’ he said of military action.

On diplomatic prospects with Iran, Trump said, ‘Iran hopefully will make a deal — and if they don’t make a deal, I guess that’s OK, too.’

Trump during his first term withdrew from a nuclear deal negotiated under former president Barack Obama and imposed sweeping sanctions, winning praise from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu who calls Tehran’s cleric-run government an existential threat.

Trump, who vowed ‘maximum pressure’ on Iran, also ordered a 2020 strike that killed senior Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad.

But Trump backed off on calls for wider military action and, since winning another term, has distanced himself from advisors who chose a hawkish course on Iran.

According to The New York Times, Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur and Trump confidante, met a senior Iranian official after the election to seek to defuse tensions.

Meanwhile, Trump will reach out to Kim Jong Un again, he said in an interview aired on Thursday, calling the North Korean leader with whom he previously met three times a ‘smart guy.’

The Republican had a rare diplomatic relationship with the reclusive Kim during his previous administration from 2017 to 2021, not only meeting with him but saying the two ‘fell in love.’

But his own secretary of state, Marco Rubio, acknowledged at his confirmation hearing that the effort did not produce any lasting agreement to end North Korea’s nuclear programme.

When asked during a Fox News interview if he would ‘reach out’ to Kim again, Trump replied: ‘I will, yeah. He liked me.’

North Korea says it is seeking nuclear weapons to counter threats from the United States and its allies, including South Korea.

The two Koreas remain technically at war since the 1950 to 1953 conflict ended in an armistice not a peace treaty.

The isolated and impoverished North, which has conducted multiple nuclear tests and periodically test fires missiles from its ballistic arsenal, also likes to tout its nuclear program as a sign of its prestige.

Washington and others warn that the programme is destabilising, however, and the UN has passed multiple resolutions banning North Korea’s efforts.

Rubio branded Kim a ‘dictator’ during his Senate confirmation hearing earlier this month.

‘I think there has to be an appetite for a very serious look at broader North Korean policies,’ Rubio said.

Rubio called for efforts to prevent a war by North Korea with South Korea and Japan and to see ‘what can we do to prevent a crisis without encouraging other nation-states to pursue their own nuclear weapons programs.’

During the Fox interview, Trump recalled his attempt to reach an arms deal with North Korea’s allies Russia and China at the end of his first term.

The 2019 effort would have set new limits for unregulated Russian nuclear weapons and to persuade China to join an arms control pact, according to reports from the time.

‘I was very close to having a deal. I would have made a deal with (Russian leader Vladimir) Putin on that, denuclearisation. But we had a bad election that interrupted us,’ he said, referring to his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

Trump’s nominee to lead the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, recently labelled North Korea as a ‘nuclear power’ in a statement submitted to a Senate panel, according to reports.

Seoul’s defence ministry said in response that Pyongyang’s status as a nuclear power ‘cannot be recognised’ and that it will work with Washington to denuclearise.

Pyongyang fired several short-range ballistic missiles in the days leading up to Trump’s inauguration on January 20, prompting analysts to speculate on whether Kim was seeking to send a message to Trump.​