VIENNA: The UN nuclear watchdog Monday voiced concern that Iran had not clarified queries over possible undeclared nuclear activity, adding that its enriched uranium stockpile was 16 times over the limit.
The two reports issued by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Monday are the first substantive reports since Iran suspended some inspections in February.
Last week the IAEA said it had extended a temporary agreement with Iran until June 24 which has allowed many inspections to continue.
The report said IAEA director general Rafael Grossi was “concerned that the technical discussions between the agency and Iran have not yielded the expected results,” referring to exchanges on the sites where undeclared nuclear activity may have occurred.
The conclusion comes despite a “proactive and focused effort” launched by the IAEA in April “to break the impasse” over the sites.
The IAEA says that the results of its inspection work have established “a clear indication that nuclear material and/or equipment contaminated by nuclear material has been present” at three undeclared locations, with most of the activity in question dating back to the early 2000s.
The agency also said Iran has failed to answer questions regarding a fourth site where natural uranium may have been present between 2002 and 2003 in the form of a metal disc.
Iran and world powers are engaged in talks in Vienna to rescue the 2015 nuclear deal after former US president Donald Trump walked away from it in 2018 and reimposed crippling sanctions on Tehran.
Trump’s successor Joe Biden has signalled his willingness to revive the plan.
For this to happen, the US would need to return to the accord and lift the sanctions reinstated by Trump while Tehran would have to re-commit to full compliance with nuclear obligations it progressively withdrew from since 2019.
In a separate report, the IAEA said Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium is around 16 times the limit laid down in the 2015 deal with world powers.
It gave an estimate of a stockpile of 3,241 kilogrammes (7,145 pounds) but said that it was not able to verify the total.
The limit laid down in the 2015 deal was 300 kilogrammes of uranium in a particular compound form, the equivalent of 202.8 kilogrammes of uranium.
A senior diplomat with knowledge of the issue said that while the suspension of some inspections meant that the IAEA could not give precise figures for the stockpile, its level of access to declared sites has not been greatly reduced and its stockpile estimate would still be accurate to within a few percentage points.
The rate of production of enriched uranium has slowed since the last quarterly report from the IAEA in February.
In April Iran said a “small explosion” had hit its Natanz nuclear facility, an act that Tehran branded “sabotage” by its arch-foe Israel.
In Monday’s report the IAEA estimated 62.8 kilogrammes of the uranium stockpile had been enriched up to 20 percent and 2.4 kilogrammes up to 60 percent.
Under the 2015 deal, the enrichment level was meant to be capped at 3.67 percent, well below the 90 percent purity needed for a nuclear weapon.
The latest report will be presented to the IAEA’s board of governors next week.
Talks to restore the 2015 deal are taking place in Vienna as Iran prepares for presidential elections on June 18.
The press had widely predicted a showdown between ultraconservative judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi and moderate conservative Ali Larijani, a key domestic backer of the 2015 deal.
However, last week Larijani was barred from standing.
UN nuclear watchdog chief ‘concerned’ over undeclared Iran sites
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UN nuclear watchdog chief ‘concerned’ over undeclared Iran sites
- Iran has not provided the necessary explanation for the presence of the nuclear material particles at any of the three locations
- The IAEA report could possibly set up a fresh diplomatic clash between Tehran and the West that could derail wider nuclear talks
UN experts urge all countries to recognize Palestinian statehood
The call came less than a week after Spain, Ireland and Norway officially recognized a Palestinian state, prompting anger from Israel, which has found itself increasingly isolated after nearly eight months of war in Gaza.
The experts, including the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories, said recognition of a Palestinian state was an important acknowledgement of the rights of the Palestinian people and their struggle toward freedom and independence.
“This is a pre-condition for lasting peace in Palestine and the entire Middle East – beginning with the immediate declaration of a ceasefire in Gaza and no further military incursions into Rafah,” they said.
“A two-state solution remains the only internationally agreed path to peace and security for both Palestine and Israel and a way out of generational cycles of violence and resentment.”
Israel’s Foreign Ministry did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
With their recognition of a Palestinian state, Spain, Ireland and Norway said they sought to accelerate efforts to secure a ceasefire in Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.
The three countries say they hope their decision will spur other European Union states to follow suit. Denmark’s parliament later rejected a proposal to recognize a Palestinian state.
Israel has repeatedly condemned moves to recognize a Palestinian state, saying they bolster Hamas, the militant Islamist group that led the deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel which sparked the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip.
The conflict has killed more than 36,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Israel says the Oct. 7 attack, the worst in its 75-year history, killed 1,200 people, with more than 250 hostages taken.
Iran’s supreme leader says Israel headed for ‘destruction’
- Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iran, the main Shiite Muslim power, has emerged as the bitter enemy of Israel and that country’s Western allies the United States and Britain.
TEHRAN: Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday praised Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack against Israel and predicted the “destruction” of their common enemy.
Khamenei, 85, was speaking at an event to mark 35 years since the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic which replaced a US-backed monarchy.
He said the October 7 attack by Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas “was a decisive blow to the Zionist regime” and put Israel “on the path that will only end in its destruction.”
Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iran, the main Shiite Muslim power, has emerged as the bitter enemy of Israel and that country’s Western allies the United States and Britain.
Iran is under international sanctions over its contested nuclear program which it insists is for civilian purposes.
While Israel and Iran have long fought a shadow war of killings and sabotage, Iran’s armed allies across the Middle East have formed a so-called “Axis of Resistance” alliance.
As the Gaza war has raged, Iran and Israel came to the brink of war in mid-April when Tehran launched a barrage of rockets and missiles at Israel, most of which were intercepted.
Iran has said it had no advance knowledged of Hamas’s October 7 attack but has praised it since.
Khamenei said the attack “happened at the right time” and “destroyed a major international conspiracy for the Middle East,” a possible reference to US-led moves to broker diplomatic ties between Israel and Arab powers.
The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,190 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Militants also took about 250 hostages, 120 of whom remain in Gaza, including 37 the army says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory bombardments and ground offensive have killed at least 36,439 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry said on Sunday.
Khamenei, who spoke to thousands gathered in the Khomeini mausoleum near Tehran, also said that “the Zionist regime is gradually melting before the eyes of the people of the world.”
“Sooner or later, America will have to withdraw its support,” he added.
Doubts grow over Gaza truce plan as Israel-Hamas battles rage
- Israeli military says that over the past day its forces had struck ‘over 50 targets in the Gaza Strip’
- Bombardments and combat show no sign of easing in the Gaza war soon entering its ninth month
RAFAH, Palestinian Territories: Doubts were growing on Monday about a plan for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal outlined by US President Joe Biden as heavy fighting raged for a third day since his White House address.
Biden on Friday presented what he labelled an Israeli three-phase plan that would end the bloody conflict, free all hostages and lead to the reconstruction of the devastated Palestinian territory without Hamas in power.
However, Netanyahu’s office stressed Saturday that Israel would push on with the war sparked by the October 7 attack by Palestinian militants on southern Israel until all of its “goals are achieved” including the destruction of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities.
Israeli media have questioned to what extent Biden’s speech and some crucial details were coordinated with Netanyahu’s team, including how long any truce would hold and how many captives would be freed when.
Mediators the United States, Qatar and Egypt later said they called “on both Hamas and Israel to finalize the agreement embodying the principles outlined by President Joe Biden.”
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Sunday that “we have every expectation that if Hamas agrees to the proposal... that Israel would say yes.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken “commended” Israel on the plan in a phone call with war cabinet member Benny Gantz and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, the State Department said.
But for now, the bombardments and combat showed no sign of easing in the Gaza war soon entering its ninth month that has devastated the Palestinian coastal territory of 2.4 million people.
On Monday the Israeli military said that over the past day its forces had struck “over 50 targets in the Gaza Strip.”
Gaza hospitals on Monday reported at least 19 people killed in overnight strikes.
The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,190 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Militants also took about 250 hostages, 120 of whom remain in Gaza, including 37 the army says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory bombardments and ground offensive have killed at least 36,439 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry said on Sunday.
Heavy fighting has raged especially in Gaza’s far-southern Rafah area near the Egyptian border, where most civilians have now been displaced once more, according to UN agencies.
Air strikes and artillery shelling were reported in Rafah, mainly in the Tal Al-Sultan neighborhood, as well as in Gaza City, witnesses said.
“Troops are continuing intelligence-based targeted operations in the Rafah area,” the army said.
“Over the past day, the troops conducted scans and located terror infrastructure and large quantities of weapons.”
Gaza’s European hospital said 10 people were killed and several wounded in an Israeli air strike on a house near the main southern city of Khan Yunis.
And six people were reported killed in a strike on a family home in the central Bureij refugee camp, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital.
Netanyahu — a hawkish veteran leading a fragile coalition government often described as the most right-wing in Israel’s history — is under intense domestic pressure from two sides.
Relatives and supporters of hostages have staged mass protests demanding that he strike a truce deal — but the premier’s far-right coalition allies are threatening to bring down the government if he does.
According to Biden, Israel’s three-stage offer would begin with a six-week phase that would see Israeli forces withdraw from all populated areas of Gaza and an initial hostage-prisoner exchange.
Both sides would then negotiate for a lasting ceasefire, with the truce to continue as long as talks are ongoing, Biden said, adding it was “time for this war to end.”
Netanyahu took issue with Biden’s presentation, insisting that according to the “exact outline proposed by Israel” the transition from one stage to the next was “conditional” and crafted to allow it to maintain its war aims.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, leaders of extreme-right parties, warned they would leave the government if it endorsed the truce proposal.
But opposition leader Yair Lapid, a centrist former premier, said the government “cannot ignore Biden’s important speech” and vowed to back Netanyahu if his far-right coalition partners quit.
Gallant, who has criticized Netanyahu over the lack of a post-war plan for Gaza, said Sunday that Israel was “assessing a governing alternative” to Hamas to rule the territory after the war ends.
UN and other aid agencies have warned for months of the looming risk of famine in the besieged territory.
At a hospital in Deir Al-Balah, 33-year-old Amira Al-Taweel said that her frail son, suffering from malnutrition, “needs treatment and milk, but there’s none available in Gaza.”
Israel’s seizure last month of the Rafah crossing has further slowed sporadic aid deliveries for Gaza’s people and effectively closed its main exit point on the Egyptian border.
Cairo refuses to coordinate with Israel humanitarian deliveries through Rafah, but has agreed to send some aid via Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing.
Israel’s Gallant to US: Hamas rule must end, Palestinian alternatives eyed
- Israel committed to dismantling Hamas as a governing and military authority
JERUSALEM: Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant restated his government’s commitment to dismantling Hamas as a governing and military authority in the framework of any deal to wind down the Gaza war, his office quoted him as telling the top US diplomat.
In the call with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Gallant also “discussed the issue of identifying and enabling the emergence of a local, governing alternative” to the Islamist militant group, the defense ministry statement on Monday said.
Egypt rejects Israeli presence at Rafah crossing with Gaza, Shoukry says
CAIRO: Egypt is clear on rejecting an Israeli presence at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said on Monday.
"It is difficult for the Rafah crossing to continue operating without a Palestinian administration," he said in a press conference with his Spanish counterpart in Madrid.
