BUSHEHR, Iran: Iran began pouring concrete Sunday for a second nuclear reactor at its Bushehr power plant, a facility Tehran points to as its reason to break the enrichment limit set by its unraveling 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
While celebrating the start of construction, the politics of the moment weren’t lost on Iranian officials as a US pressure campaign of sanctions blocks Tehran from selling its crude oil abroad. Those sanctions took effect after President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the accord in May 2018, lighting the fuse for the current tensions now gripping the wider Mideast.
“It was not us who started breaking commitments, it was them who did not keep to their commitments and cannot accept the nuclear deal as a one-way roadmap,” said Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.
Bushehr is fueled by uranium produced in Russia, not Iran, and is monitored by the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency. However, Iran began 4.5 percent enrichment in part to supply Bushehr despite the deal limiting it to 3.67 percent.
While that’s still nowhere near weapons-grade levels of 90 percent, nonproliferation experts warn Iran’s growing stockpile and increasing enrichment will begin to shave off time from the estimated year Tehran would need to gather enough material for an atomic bomb.
Iran long has maintained its program is for peaceful purposes, though the deal was designed to limit its enrichment program in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions. Those limits blocked its path to being able to have enough material for a bomb.
On Sunday, trucks with spinning concrete mixers poured their slurry into the prepared base of the second reactor as journalists watched in Bushehr, some 700 kilometers south from Iran’s capital, Tehran. Bushehr’s working reactor stood behind it.
Officials say the new reactor, and a third planned to be built, will each add over 1,000 megawatts to Iran’s power grid. It is being built with the help of Russia, which helped finally put Bushehr’s first reactor online in 2011 after decades of delays.
Salehi, speaking to reporters, praised the plant’s operations.
Gulf Arab states opposed to Tehran have raised concerns to the IAEA that Bushehr was a risk to the wider region over earthquakes that routinely hit Iran.
Meanwhile Sunday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman rejected claims by the US and Israel over allegations of nuclear material being discovered at an undeclared site outside of Tehran. An IAEA meeting last week appeared to include discussions over what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described in a United Nations speech in 2018 as a “secret atomic warehouse.”
The IAEA has said Iran “carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device” in a “structured program” through the end of 2003. Israeli officials allege material recovered from the warehouse came from that program.
Iran begins pouring concrete for second nuclear power reactor
Iran begins pouring concrete for second nuclear power reactor
- Iran began 4.5 percent enrichment in part to supply Bushehr despite the deal limiting it to 3.67 percent
- Bushehr is fueled by uranium produced in Russia, not Iran, and is monitored by the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency
New UK sanctions target Iranian drone industry
- The measures, taken in co-ordination with the US and Canada, target four businesses and two directors at a network of drone companies
LONDON: Britain on Thursday announced new sanctions targeting Iran’s military drone industry, in response to Iran’s drone and missile attack on Israel earlier this month.
The measures, taken in co-ordination with the US and Canada, target four businesses and two directors at a network of drone companies with the aim of limiting Iran’s ability to launch drones.
“The Iranian regime’s dangerous attack on Israel risked thousands of civilian casualties and wider escalation in the region,” British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said in a statement.
“Today the UK and our partners have sent a clear message – we will hold those responsible for Iran’s destabilising behavior to account.”
Britain also said it would introduce new bans on the export of drone and missile components to Iran, seeking to limit its military capabilities.
Last week, Britain imposed sanctions on Iranian military figures and organizations, in another coordinated move with the United States, following Iran’s action against Israel.
Iran launched drones and fired missiles at Israel on April 13 as a retaliatory strike for the attack on its embassy compound in Damascus two weeks prior, raising the risk of further escalation in conflict in the Middle East.
Egypt, Dutch leaders discuss Gaza ceasefire efforts
- Rafah assault ‘will have catastrophic consequences on regional peace and security,’ El-Sisi warns
- Egypt’s president and the Dutch prime minister agreed on the urgency of working toward reaching a ceasefire
CAIRO: Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has discussed efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza with Mark Rutte, prime minister of the Netherlands.
During a phone call from Rutte on Thursday, the Egyptian leader warned that any Israeli assault on Rafah will have “catastrophic consequences” for the humanitarian situation in the enclave.
The leaders discussed bilateral relations, and ways to enhance cooperation across various political and economic levels consistent with the current momentum in Egyptian-European relations.
Ahmed Fahmy, presidential spokesman, said the call also focused on the situation in Gaza, and Egypt’s efforts to restore regional stability by reaching a ceasefire and providing access to humanitarian aid.
El-Sisi reiterated the crucial importance of ending the war, warning against any military operations in the Palestinian city of Rafah, which will have catastrophic consequences on the humanitarian situation in the strip and on regional peace and security.
The Egyptian leader underscored the need for the international community to assume its responsibilities to implement the relevant UN resolutions.
Egypt’s president and the Dutch prime minister agreed on the urgency of working toward reaching a ceasefire, and ensuring the flow of adequate humanitarian aid to all areas of the Gaza Strip in order to protect it from a humanitarian catastrophe.
They also emphasized the need to move toward implementing the two-state solution, which would restore regional stability, and establish security and peace in the region.
In March, El-Sisi received Rutte to discuss bilateral relations, regional developments, and Egypt’s efforts to reach a ceasefire and offer humanitarian assistance in Gaza.
Lebanon postpones local elections again as violence rocks south
- Lebanon is supposed to hold municipal elections every six years
- Parliament approved “extending the existing municipal and elective councils’ mandate until a date no later than May 31, 2025,” despite objections from lawmakers opposed to Hezbollah
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s parliament on Thursday delayed municipal elections for a third time in two years, state media reported, as militants in the country’s south exchanged near-daily fire with Israel for over six months.
The powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah group has been trading fire with Israeli forces across the border since the day after its Palestinian ally Hamas carried out a deadly attack on Israel on October 7, triggering the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.
Lebanon is supposed to hold municipal elections every six years, but cash-strapped authorities last held a local ballot in 2016.
Parliament approved “extending the existing municipal and elective councils’ mandate until a date no later than May 31, 2025,” despite objections from lawmakers opposed to Hezbollah, said the official National News Agency.
The bill cited “complex security, military and political circumstances following the Israeli aggression on Lebanon” and especially its south, near the border, as reasons for the delay.
Lawmakers did not set a new date for the elections, initially scheduled for 2022.
Local councils help provide basic services to residents, but their role has declined as state coffers ran dry after Lebanon’s economy collapsed in late 2019.
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri had previously said southern Lebanon could not be excluded from any upcoming ballot, after the Christian Lebanese Forces, the main party opposing Hezbollah, insisted on holding the polls on time.
More than 92,000 people have been displaced from their homes in Lebanon due to the violence, as have tens of thousands of residents of Israeli communities across the border.
Since violence began along the Israeli border on October 8, at least 380 people have been killed in Lebanon, including 72 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
Israel says 11 soldiers and eight civilians have been killed on its side of the border.
In April 2023, the Lebanese parliament had already postponed municipal elections as the deputy speaker warned holding them was “almost impossible” for the cash-strapped country after years of economic meltdown.
Lebanon has faced the prolonged financial crisis and months of border clashes essentially leaderless, without a president and headed by a caretaker government with limited powers amid deadlock between entrenched political barons.
Palestinian officials say Israeli forces kill teen in West Bank
- Israeli police said “hits were identified” when forces responded to stone-throwing with gunfire
- The Palestinian health ministry said Khaled Raed Arouq was shot in the chest and “martyred by the occupation’s live bullets“
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: Palestinian officials said Israeli forces killed a 16-year-old boy during a raid in the West Bank city of Ramallah early on Thursday.
Israeli police said “hits were identified” when forces responded to stone-throwing with gunfire but did not directly address the allegation.
The Palestinian health ministry said Khaled Raed Arouq was shot in the chest and “martyred by the occupation’s live bullets.”
Palestinian official news agency Wafa said Arouq died after being “shot by Israeli gunfire” early on Thursday morning.
Israeli forces carry out regular raids on towns and cities in the occupied West Bank and violence has soared in the Palestinian territory since the war in Gaza broke out on October 7.
Wafa said Israeli military vehicles stormed the city and “confrontations broke out between citizens and the occupation forces, who fired live bullets and stun grenades.”
It said Israeli forces were stationed in several neighborhoods and raided a house in Al-Bireh to the northeast.
Israeli police said: “Terrorists threw stones at the forces operating in the area, the forces responded with gunfire, and hits were identified.”
The police said they made several arrests and that Israeli forces did not suffer any casualties.
The army did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.
Later on, Thursday, mourners carried Arouq’s body wrapped in the flag of Fatah, the political party of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, in his hometown of Jenin where he was buried.
“He was hit by a bullet in his back, which exited through his chest...They assassinated him in cold blood,” Majed Arqawi, cousin of Arouq, told AFP.
Wafa said Arouq’s father was an officer in the Palestinian military intelligence service.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and at least 488 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops or settlers there since October 7, according to Palestinian officials.
At least 19 Israelis have been killed in attacks by Palestinians in the same period, according to official Israeli figures.
Hezbollah denies Israel claim it killed half of commanders in south
- The number of slain Hezbollah members who “hold a certain level of responsibility does not exceed the number of fingers on one hand“
- Gallant’s claim was “untrue and baseless”
BEIRUT: Hezbollah denied on Thursday an Israeli claim that it had killed half of the Iran-backed Lebanese group’s commanders in the south of the country, saying only a handful were slain.
The Lebanese group has been exchanging near-daily fire with the Israeli army since the day after its Palestinian ally Hamas carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7.
Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Wednesday that “half of Hezbollah’s commanders in southern Lebanon have been eliminated” in the months of cross-border violence sparked by the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
“The other half are in hiding and abandoning the field to IDF (Israeli army) operations,” he added, without specifying how many.
A Hezbollah source who spoke on condition of anonymity rejected the claim.
The source told AFP that the number of slain Hezbollah members who “hold a certain level of responsibility does not exceed the number of fingers on one hand.”
The source said Gallant’s claim was “untrue and baseless” and designed to “raise the morale of the collapsed (Israeli) army.”
Israel has frequently claimed to have killed local Hezbollah commanders in targeted strikes, but the group has only confirmed a few were high-level members, referring to the rest as fighters in their statements.
Since October 8, the day after the Hamas attack on southern Israel, at least 380 people have been killed in Lebanon, including 252 Hezbollah fighters and dozens of civilians, according to an AFP tally.
Israel says 11 soldiers and eight civilians have been killed on its side of the border.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced on both sides.
Both sides have stepped up attacks this week, with Hezbollah increasing rocket fire on military bases, while Gallant said in his latest remarks the army had carried out “offensive action” across southern Lebanon.
The Israeli military also said on Wednesday that it had struck 40 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon’s south.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has said his group had some 100,000 “trained” and “armed” fighters, but analysts say this number is likely inflated.
