#Nasser Karimi

[novumtimes]

Iran acting president addresses new parliament after helicopter crash

Breadcrumb Trail Links World Author of the article: Associated Press Nasser Karimi Published May 27, 2024  •  3 minute read You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account. Iran’s interim President Mohammad Mokhber addresses lawmakers during the inauguration session for the new Parliament in Tehran on May 27, 2024. AFP via Getty Images Article…

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Mehran Karimi Nasseri, le SDF qui a inspiré Spielberg pour « Le Terminal », est mort à Roissy

Mehran Karimi Nasseri, le SDF qui a inspiré Spielberg pour « Le Terminal », est mort à Roissy

🪁Mehran Karimi Nasseri, le SDF qui a inspiré Spielberg pour « Le Terminal », est mort à Roissy ✈️ #banque #france | #Mehran #Karimi #Nasseri #SDF #qui #inspiré #Spielberg #pour #Terminal #est #mort #Roissy | Mehran Karimi Nasseri, le SDF qui a inspiré Spielberg pour « Le Terminal », est mort à Roissy MANOOCHER DEGHATI / AFP Karim Nasser Miran, dit M. Alfred, 54 ans, Iranien apatride malgré lui,…

[indizombie]

In Tehran, a sprawling city of 10 million people where the virus has left few untouched, there are signs that fear is setting in. Shocked by the soaring death rate, a growing number of Tehran residents have come to support tighter pandemic restrictions and obey the new mask mandate imposed this month. “We lose scores of lives every day,” said Saeed Mianji, a 27-year-old car dealer at a Tehran cafe. Masks “save more lives and enable people to feel relief.” Authorities, trying to take tougher action, closed down a range of public places in Tehran early this month. Weeks after President Hassan Rouhani called in-person instruction at schools “our first priority,” the government shut the newly resumed schools and universities in the capital. Beauty salons, mosques, museums and libraries have been shuttered, too. On Wednesday, the Health Ministry imposed a travel ban to and from five major cities, including Tehran and the holy city of Mashhad, ahead of a religious holiday.

Nasser Karimi and Isabel Debre, 'Months into pandemic, Iran sees worst wave of virus deaths', Associated Press

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support the Moroccan Amazigh “Rif” social justice movement! 

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The Demise and Afterlives of Artifacts, Pamela Karimi, Nasser Rabbat

Sasha Grey and Isabella Lovestory are the future of post-digital desire, Biz Sherbert

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Rineke Dijkstra’s Portraits: The Aesthetics and Ethics of Digital Time, Elizabeth Keto

Our Uncanny Digital Existence, Amanda Ba

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https://apnews.com/e36db7c72c1adba1a6cae75091bc273d

AP says a US official told it the new airstrike north of Baghdad was "not an American military attack." No idea of this is true, but would it then be a US coalition attack? Israel? (But this would seem unlike the usual Israel attack.)

Iraq official says airstrike targets Iran-backed militia

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA and ZEINA Karam | Published January 3, 2020 7:50 PM ET | AP | Posted January 3, 2020 |

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iran promised to seek revenge for a U.S. airstrike near Baghdad’s airport that killed the mastermind of its interventions across the Middle East, and the U.S. said Friday it was sending thousands more troops to the region as tensions soared in the wake of the targeted killing.

The death of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, marks a major escalation in the standoff between Washington and Iran, which has careened from one crisis to another since President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal and imposed crippling sanctions.

In more violence, another airstrike almost exactly 24 hours after the one that targeted Soleimani killed five members of an Iran-backed militia north of Baghdad, an Iraqi security official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters. The Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces confirmed the strike, saying it hit one of its medical convoys near the stadium in Taji, north of Baghdad. The group said none of its top leaders were killed. A U.S. official said the attack was not an American military attack. The official spoke on condition of anonymity.

The targeted strike against Soleimani and any retaliation by Iran could ignite a conflict that engulfs the whole region, endangering U.S. troops in Iraq, Syria and beyond. Over the last two decades, Soleimani had assembled a network of heavily armed allies stretching all the way to southern Lebanon, on Israel’s doorstep.

“We take comfort in knowing that his reign of terror is over,” Trump said of Soleimani.

Still, the United States said it was sending nearly 3,000 more Army troops to the Middle East, reflecting concern about potential Iranian retaliation for the killing. The U.S. also urged American citizens to leave Iraq “immediately” following the early morning airstrike at Baghdad’s international airport that Iran’s state TV said killed Soleimani and nine others. The State Department said the embassy in Baghdad, which was attacked by Iran-backed militiamen and their supporters earlier this week, is closed and all consular services have been suspended.

Around 5,200 American troops are based in Iraq to train Iraqi forces and help in the fight against Islamic State group militants. Defense officials who discussed the new troop movements spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a decision not yet announced by the Pentagon. A Pentagon official who was not authorized to be identified said the U.S. also had placed an Army brigade on alert to fly into Lebanon to protect the American Embassy. U.S. embassies also issued a security alert for Americans in Bahrain, Kuwait and Nigeria.

The U.S. announcement about sending more troops came as Trump said Soleimani’s killing was not an effort to begin a conflict with Iran. “We took action last night to stop a war. We did not take action to start a war,” Trump said, adding that he does not seek regime change in Iran.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed “harsh retaliation” after the airstrike, calling Soleimani the “international face of resistance.” Khamenei declared three days of public mourning and appointed Maj. Gen. Esmail Ghaani, Soleimani’s deputy, to replace him as head of the Quds Force.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called the killing a “heinous crime” and said his country would “take revenge.” Iran twice summoned the Swiss envoy, the first time delivering a letter to pass onto Washington.

Iranian Foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called the U.S. attack a “cowardly terrorist action” and said Iran has the right to respond “in any method and any time.“

Thousands of worshipers in Tehran took to the streets after Friday prayers to condemn the killing, waving posters of Soleimani and chanting “Death to deceitful America.”

However, the attack could act as a deterrent for Iran and its allies to delay or restrain any potential response. Trump said possible targets had been identified and the U.S. was prepared. Oil prices surged on news of the airstrike and markets were mixed.

The killing promised to further strain relations with Iraq’s government, which is allied with both Washington and Tehran and has been deeply worried about becoming a battleground in their rivalry. Iraqi politicians close to Iran called for the country to order U.S. forces out.

The Defense Department said it killed the 62-year-old Soleimani because he “was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region.” It also accused Soleimani of approving orchestrated violent protests at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

The strike, on an access road near Baghdad’s airport, was carried out early Friday by an American drone, according to a U.S. official.

Soleimani had just disembarked from a plane arriving from either Syria or Lebanon, a senior Iraqi security official said. The blast tore his body to pieces along with that of Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy commander of the Iranian-backed militias in Iraq known as the Popular Mobilization Forces. A senior politician said Soleimani’s body was identified by the ring he wore. Iran’s state TV said Friday 10 people were killed, including five Revolutionary Guard members and Soleimani’s son-in-law.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.

The attack comes at the start of a year in which Trump faces both a Senate trial following his impeachment by Congress and a re-election campaign. It marks a potential turning point in the Middle East and represents a drastic change for American policy toward Iran after months of tensions.

The tensions are rooted in Trump’s decision in May 2018 to withdraw the U.S. from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers, struck under his predecessor, Barack Obama.

Since then, Tehran shot down a U.S. military surveillance drone and seized oil tankers. The U.S. also blames Iran for other attacks targeting tankers and a September assault on Saudi Arabia’s oil industry that temporarily halved its production.

Supporters of the strike against Soleimani said it restored U.S. deterrence power against Iran, and Trump allies were quick to praise the action. “To the Iranian government: if you want more, you will get more,” South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham tweeted.

“Hope this is the first step to regime change in Tehran,” Trump’s former National Security Adviser, John Bolton, wrote in a tweet.

Others, including Democratic White House hopefuls, criticized Trump’s order. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said Trump had “tossed a stick of dynamite into a tinderbox,” saying it could leave the U.S. “on the brink of a major conflict across the Middle East.”

Trump, who was vacationing at his private club in Palm Beach, Florida, said he ordered the airstrike because Soleimani had killed and wounded many Americans over the years and was plotting to kill many more. “He should have been taken out many years ago,” he added.

The potential for a spiraling escalation alarmed U.S. allies and rivals alike.

“We are waking up in a more dangerous world,” France’s deputy minister for foreign affairs, Amelie de Montchalin, told RTL radio. The European Union warned against a “generalized flare-up of violence.” Russia condemned the killing, and fellow Security Council member China said it was “highly concerned.” Britain and Germany noted that Iran also bore some responsibility for escalating tensions.

While Iran’s conventional military has suffered under 40 years of American sanctions, Iran can strike in the region through its allied forces like Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Iraqi militias and Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah called on “the resistance the world over” to avenge Soleimani’s killing. Frictions over oil shipments in the Gulf could also increase, and Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard has built up a ballistic missile program.

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said it in a statement Friday that it had held a special session and made “appropriate decisions” on how to respond, but didn’t elaborate.

Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett held a meeting with top security officials Friday, but the Israeli military said it was not taking any extraordinary action on its northern front, other than closing a ski resort in the Golan Heights near Lebanon and Syria as a precaution.

The most immediate impact could be in Iraq. Funerals for al-Muhandis and the other slain Iraqis were set for Saturday.

Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi condemned the strike as an “aggression against Iraq.” An emergency session of parliament was called for Sunday, which the deputy speaker, Hassan al-Kaabi, said would take “decisions that put an end to the U.S. presence in Iraq.”

___

Karam reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Robert Burns, Lolita C. Baldor and Zeke Miller in Washington; Jon Gambrell and Aya Batrawy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Nasser Karimi and Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran; Bassem Mroue and Sarah El Deeb in Beirut; and Joseph Krauss and Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

[mystlnewsonline]

First time in Baghdad: Iran's president to visit Iraq

First time in Baghdad: Iran’s president to visit Iraq

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s president is making his first official visit to Iraq this week as he faces mounting pressure from hard-liners at home in the wake of the Trump administration’s unraveling of the nuclear deal.

Hassan Rouhani‘s trip — billed as “historic and noble” by his foreign minister — is meant to solidify ties between Shiite power Iran and Iraq’s Shiite led-government, a strong…

[investmart007]

TEHRAN, Iran | Iran president fails to appease lawmakers in economic crisis

New Post has been published on https://is.gd/6wVm6U

TEHRAN, Iran | Iran president fails to appease lawmakers in economic crisis

TEHRAN, Iran  — Iranian President Hassan Rouhani failed to convince parliament on Tuesday that his plans will pull the country out of an economic nosedive worsened by America’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal, further isolating his relatively moderate administration amid nationwide anger.

For only the second time in its history, parliament ordered a sitting president to appear before it to answer questions, the last time coming amid widespread discontent in 2011 over Western sanctions in the government of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

While Rouhani warned that “painting a bleak picture of people’s lives will lead to further darkness,” lawmakers voted four separate times to say they were unconvinced of his answers about Iran’s recession, its cratering currency, unemployment and smuggling.

Those questions now could go to Iran’s judiciary for further review, serving as a warning to the cleric his political stature is slipping. “Certainly, we made and we have made mistakes,” Rouhani acknowledged at one point.

Since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution and subsequent takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, it has faced American sanctions. Those measures only increased in the 2000s over Western fears Iran’s nuclear program could allow it to build atomic bombs, something Tehran always denied wanting.

Under the 2015 nuclear deal reach between Iran and world powers including the U.S. under President Barack Obama, Tehran agreed to limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of sanctions. That allowed banks to re-connect Iran’s financial system to the world and brought foreign firms from airplane manufacturers to oil companies back into the country.

But in May, longtime deal skeptic President Donald Trump pulled America from the accord. That only fanned the flames burning through the country’s economy from chronic unemployment, high inflation and drastic drops in its currency. Those problems sparked nationwide protests in December and January across Iran that started in strongholds of Rouhani’s opponents, as well as sporadic, leaderless protests to today.

Lawmakers already have fired Rouhani’s labor and finance ministers this month amid the economic crisis.

Speaking Tuesday before parliament, Rouhani said those protests only strengthened Trump’s hand to pull out of the atomic accord. “This lured Trump into saying . that he will not remain in the deal,” Rouhani said.

Lawmakers did, however, narrowly support Rouhani’s answer regarding sanctions facing Iran’s banks.

Rouhani also made a cryptic remark that Iran has a “third way” to deal with ongoing crisis other than simply abandoning or staying in the nuclear deal. He did not elaborate, but said he mentioned the idea to French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday.

Marcon in a speech Monday mentioned speaking to Rouhani, though only saying that France in coordination with Britain, Germany and the EU will keep working on “preserving” the deal.

Rouhani’s growing political weakness has been a boon to hard-liners within Iran’s Shiite theocracy. Those pressures have only been growing.

A demonstration last week saw hard-line clerics waving a placard calling the Rouhani’s negotiations with the West his “swimming pool.” That’s a reference to long-swirling rumors surrounding the death of former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a political godfather to Rouhani whose body was found in a swimming pool.

“If I am threatened with assassination, I’m OK with it. I don’t think of it as a big deal,” Rouhani said. “We all know that it is our dream to be killed in the path of God.”

By NASSER KARIMI,  Associated Press

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Bracing for US sanctions, Iran lifts ban on exchange offices

Bracing for US sanctions, Iran lifts ban on exchange offices

With the Trump administration set to re-impose some sanctions on Iran on Monday, the country’s Central Bank lifted a ban on exchange offices, allowing them to resume work in a move aimed at bringing in badly needed hard currencies.

[insideusnet]

Iran President: No Way Back to Nuclear Deal if Probe Goes On : Inside US

Iran President: No Way Back to Nuclear Deal if Probe Goes On : Inside US

By NASSER KARIMI and JON GAMBRELL, Associated Press TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s president warned Monday that any roadmap to restore Tehran’s tattered nuclear deal with world powers must see international inspectors end their probe on man-made uranium particles found at undeclared sites in the country. In a rare news conference marking his first year in office, President Ebrahim Raisi also issued…

[indizombie]

Recently, Iranian authorities have introduced restrictions and delivered dramatic warnings. One hospital director told state TV the death toll could reach what Iran incurred in eight years of bloody war with Iraq in the 1980s, a conflict that killed a total of 1 million people on both sides. Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi, who tested positive for the virus in March after dismissing reports of fatalities as hype, declared this week that Iran’s true death toll was likely twice the official count. The virus continues to afflict top Iranian officials, most recently the head of the country’s atomic energy agency (Ali Akbar Salehi) and its vice president in charge of budget and planning (Mohammad Bagher Nobakht). The government, however, continues to oppose a nationwide lockdown, seeking to salvage an economy buckling under unprecedented U.S. sanctions imposed after President Donald Trump withdrew from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers. As the government pivots back and forth, “Iranians are getting confused about what is right and what is wrong,” said Kamiar Alaei, an Iranian health policy expert at California State University, Long Beach. Ordinary Iranians, accustomed to calamity and highly skeptical of state-run news and official claims, are still packing cafes, bazaars and restaurants, throwing caution to the wind.

Nasser Karimi and Isabel Debre, 'Months into pandemic, Iran sees worst wave of virus deaths', Associated Press

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US blames Iran for Saudi strike; big hit for oil prices

https://apnews.com/3c3ce6a941f5489eaa778ccc5db2437c

US blames Iran for Saudi strike; big hit for oil prices

By ROBERT BURNS | Published September 16, 2019 1:28 PM ET | AP | Posted September 16, 2019 1:32 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. tried to build its case Monday that Iran was behind the fiery weekend attack on key Saudi Arabian oil facilities that raised new war worries and sent energy prices spiraling worldwide. Iran denied responsibility, while President Donald Trump said the United States was "locked and loaded" to respond if necessary.

American officials released satellite images of the damage at the heart of the kingdom's crucial Abqaiq oil processing plant and a key oil field, and two U.S. officials said the attacker used multiple cruise missiles and drone aircraft.

The Americans alleged the pattern of destruction suggested Saturday's attack did not come from neighboring Yemen, as claimed by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels there. A Saudi military spokesman later made a similar accusation, alleging "Iranian weapons" had been used in the assault.

Iran rejected the allegations, and a government spokesman said there now was "absolutely no chance" of a hoped-for meeting between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Trump at the U.N. General Assembly next week.

For his part, Trump sent mixed signals, saying his "locked and loaded" government waited for Saudi confirmation of Iran being behind the attack while later tweeting that the U.S. didn't need Mideast oil "but will help our Allies!"

One U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said the U.S. was considering dispatching additional military resources to the Gulf but that no decisions had been made. The U.S. already has the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier battle group in the area, as well as fighter jets, bombers, reconnaissance aircraft and air defenses.

Downplaying any talk of imminent U.S. military action, Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff, Marc Short, told reporters at the White House that the president's language was "a reflection" that his administration was advancing policies that protect the U.S. "from these sorts of oil shocks."

"I think that 'locked and loaded' is a broad term that talks about the realities that" the U.S. is "safer and more secure domestically from energy independence," Short said.

The new violence has led to fears that further action on any side could rapidly escalate a confrontation that's been raging just below the surface in the wider Persian Gulf in recent months. There already have been mysterious attacks on oil tankers that Washington blames on Tehran, at least one suspected Israeli strike on Shiite forces in Iraq, and the downing of a U.S. military surveillance drone by Iran.

Those tensions have increased ever since Trump pulled the U.S. out of Iran's 2015 agreement with world powers that curtailed Iranian nuclear activities and the U.S. re-imposed sanctions that sent Iran's economy into freefall.

Benchmark Brent crude prices gained nearly 20% in the first moments of trading Monday before settling down to over 10% higher as trading continued. A barrel of Brent traded up $6.45 to $66.67.

That spike represented the biggest percentage value jump in Brent crude since the run-up to the 1991 Gulf War that saw a U.S.-led coalition expel Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's forces from Kuwait.

U.S. benchmark West Texas crude was up around 10%. U.S. gasoline and heating oil similarly were up.

The attack halted production of 5.7 million barrels of crude a day, more than half of Saudi Arabia's global daily exports and more than 5% of the world's daily crude oil production. Most of that output goes to Asia.

Yemen's Houthi rebels, who have been targeted by a Saudi-led coalition since March 2015 in a vicious war in the Arab world's poorest country, maintain they launched 10 drones that caused the extensive damage. They reiterated that Saudi oil sites remained in their crosshairs, warning foreign workers to stay away.

U.S. officials say that the damage done to the north-facing parts of the facilities suggest the attack instead came across the Persian Gulf from Iraq or Iran. American officials have yet to offer substantial evidence to support their claims, though Iran in the past has relied on hard-to-attribute attacks or proxy forces to launch assaults against its enemies.

At a news conference, Saudi military spokesman Col. Turki al-Maliki said, "All the indications and operational evidence, and the weapons that were used in the terrorist attack, whether in Buqayq or Khurais, indicate with initial evidence that these weapons are Iranian weapons."

Al-Maliki offered no immediate evidence to support his allegations, which came after Trump said the U.S. awaited word from Saudi Arabia about who it suspected launched the attacks.

Iraqi Premier Adel Abdel-Mahdi said he received a call Monday from U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who confirmed that the attack didn't come from Iraq. The State Department did not immediately acknowledge what was discussed. Iraq is home to Iranian-backed Shiite militias who aided it in its fight against the Islamic State group.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi again denied the U.S. claims Monday, telling journalists the accusation was "condemned, unacceptable and categorically baseless." Government spokesman Ali Rabiei meanwhile said a Trump-Rouhani meeting in New York as of now wouldn't happen.

"Currently we don't see any sign from the Americans which has honesty in it, and if the current state continues there will be absolutely no chance of a meeting between the two presidents," Rabiei said.

Russia's Foreign Ministry, while expressing "grave concern" about the attack, warned against putting the blame on Iran, saying that plans of military retaliation against Iran are unacceptable.

U.S. satellite photos released overnight appeared to show the attack on Abqaiq, the world's largest oil processing facility, may have struck the most sensitive part of the facility, its stabilization area. The Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies has said the area includes "storage tanks and processing and compressor trains — which greatly increases the likelihood of a strike successfully disrupting or destroying its operations."

At 5.7 million barrels of crude oil a day, the Saudi disruption would be the greatest on record for world markets, according to figures from the Paris-based International Energy Agency. It just edges out the 5.6 million-barrels-a-day disruption around the time of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, according to the IEA.

Though the world's overall energy demands in the past were smaller, the Saudi outage has sparked concern among analysts of prices pushing to $80 a barrel and beyond. Publicly traded airlines, whose major costs include jet fuel, suffered globally. That could in turn push up prices on everything from travel to a gallon of gas at the pump.

Saudi Arabia has pledged that its stockpiles would keep global markets supplied as it rushes to repair damage at the Abqaiq facility and its Khurais oil field. However, Saudi Aramco has not responded publicly to questions about its facilities.

Stabilization means processing so-called sour crude oil into sweet crude. That allows it to be transported onto transshipment points on the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, or to refineries for local production.

Fernando Ferreira, the director of geopolitical risk at the Washington-based Rapidan Energy Group, said rebuilding that infrastructure "will take many months."

___

AP Writers Jon Gambrell and Aya Batrawy contributed from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. AP writer Zeke Miller contributed from Washington, Tali Arbel from New York, Elaine Kurtenbach from Bangkok, Nasser Karimi from Tehran, Dave Rising from Berlin, Samy Magdy from Cairo and Qassim Abdul-Zahra from Baghdad.

[mystlnewsonline]

TEHRAN, Iran | Iran launches cruise missile from submarine during drill

TEHRAN, Iran | Iran launches cruise missile from submarine during drill

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran launched a cruise missile from a submarine for the first time during an ongoing annual military drill in the Strait of Hormuz, local media reported Sunday.

The semi-official Fars news agency reported on the Sunday launch and released an image of a green submarine on the surface of the water launching an orange missile. It said other submarines have the same capability. It…

[xtruss]

Iran Starts Enriching Uranium To 60%, Its Highest Level Ever

— By Jon Gambrell | April 4, 2021 | Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran began enriching uranium Friday to its highest-ever purity, edging close to weapons-grade levels, as it attempts to pressure negotiators in Vienna during talks on restoring its nuclear deal with world powers after an attack on its main enrichment site.

A top official said only a few grams an hour of uranium gas would be enriched up to 60% purity — triple its previous level but at a quantity far lower than what the Islamic Republic had been able to produce. Iran also is enriching at an above-ground facility at its Natanz nuclear site already visited by international inspectors, not deep within underground halls hardened to withstand airstrikes.

The narrow scope of the new enrichment provides Iran with a way to quickly de-escalate if it chooses, experts say, but time is narrowing. An Iranian presidential election looms on the horizon as Tehran already threatens to limit international inspections. Israel, suspected of carrying out Sunday’s sabotage at Natanz, also could act again amid a long-running shadow war between the two Middle East rivals.

Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Iran’s parliament speaker, announced the higher enrichment on Twitter.

“The young and God-believing Iranian scientists managed to achieve a 60% enriched uranium product,” Qalibaf said. “I congratulate the brave nation of Islamic Iran on this success. The Iranian nation’s willpower is miraculous and can defuse any conspiracy.”

The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, the country’s civilian nuclear arm, later acknowledged the move to 60%. Ali Akbar Salehi told Iranian state television the centrifuges now produce 9 grams an hour, but that would drop to 5 grams an hour in the coming days.

“Any enrichment level that we desire is in our reach at the moment and we can do it at any time we want,” Salehi said.

It wasn’t clear why the first announcement came from Qalibaf, a hard-line former leader in the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard already named as a potential presidential candidate in Iran’s upcoming June election

While 60% is higher than any level Iran previously enriched uranium, it is still lower than weapons-grade levels of 90%. Iran had been enriching up to 20% — and even that was a short technical step to weapons-grade. The deal limited Iran’s enrichment to 3.67%.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, which monitors Iran’s nuclear program, did not respond to a request for comment. Earlier this week, it sent its inspectors to Natanz and confirmed Iran was preparing to begin 60% enrichment at an above-ground facility at the site.

Israel, which has twice bombed Mideast countries to stop their nuclear programs, plans to hold a meeting of its top security officials Sunday over the Iranian announcement.

“Israel is determined to defend itself against any attempt to harm its sovereignty or citizens, and will do whatever it takes to prevent this radical and anti-Semitic regime from acquiring nuclear weapons,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi said in Cyprus.

Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful, though the West and the IAEA say Tehran had an organized military nuclear program up until the end of 2003. An annual U.S. intelligence report released Tuesday maintained the longtime American assessment that Iran isn’t currently trying to build a nuclear bomb.

Iran previously had said it could use uranium enriched up to 60% for nuclear-powered ships. However, the Islamic Republic currently has no such ships in its navy.

The threat of higher enrichment by Iran already had drawn criticism from the U.S. and three European nations in the deal — France, Germany and the United Kingdom. On Friday, European Union spokesman Peter Stano called Iran’s decision “a very worrisome development.”

“There is no credible explanation or civilian justification for such an action on the side of Iran,” Stano said. The Vienna talks aim to “make sure that we go back from such steps that bring Iran further away from delivering on its commitments and obligations.”

Diplomats reconvened Friday in Vienna, with more talks planned Saturday, Russian representative Mikhail Ulyanov said. Chinese negotiator Wang Qun earlier called for doing “away with all disruptive factors by moving forward as swiftly as we can on the work of negotiations, especially by zeroing in on sanction lifting.”

The 2015 nuclear deal, which former President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from in 2018, prevented Iran from stockpiling enough high-enriched uranium to be able to pursue a nuclear weapon if it chose in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

In Washington, President Joe Biden said Tehran’s latest step was contrary to the deal. “We do not support and do not think it’s at all helpful,” he said. But he added that the Vienna talks had not been sidetracked.

“We are nonetheless pleased that Iran has agreed to continue to engage in indirect discussions with us on how we move forward and what is needed to get back” into the nuclear deal, he said. “It’s premature to make a judgment as to what the outcome will be, but we’re still talking.”

The weekend attack at Natanz was initially described only as a blackout in its electrical grid — but later Iranian officials began calling it an attack.

One Iranian official referred to “several thousand centrifuges damaged and destroyed” in a state TV interview. However, no other official has offered that figure and no images of the aftermath have been released.

In the coming weeks, Iran has threatened to further impede IAEA inspections and potentially destroy video recordings it now holds of its facilities. Meanwhile, it continues to use advanced centrifuges and gain know-how in high enrichment, something that worries nonproliferation experts.

“Because the deal has started to unravel, Iran has begun to acquire more knowledge about how to operate more advanced machines,” said Daryl G. Kimball, the executive director of the Washington-based Arms Control Association. “This particular operation, enriching to 60%, is going to give it even more information.”

Borrowing a term used to describe diluting high-enriched uranium, Kimball added: “That knowledge cannot be down-blended. It cannot be reversed.”

— Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran; Fares Akram in Gaza City, Gaza Strip; Samuel Petrequin in Brussels; and David Rising and Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report.

[christinamac1]

Iran urges Biden to make haste to rejoin the nuclear deal

Iran urges Biden to make haste to rejoin the nuclear deal

Iran warns Biden over nuclear deal, Canberra Times Nasser Karimi  26 Jan 21,  Iran has warned the Biden administration it will not have an indefinite time period to rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers. Iran also said it expects Washington to swiftly lift crippling economic sanctions that Donald Trump imposed after pulling America out of the atomic accord in 2018, as part…

[indizombie]

Iran’s health minister (Saeed Namaki) called on the police and Basij forces, the volunteer wing of the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, to help enforce virus rules. Photo enforcement of the mask law has started at traffic lights, applying the same technology police use for the country’s compulsory headscarf rule for women. In the coming days, Tehran residents caught without masks, who now get off with a warning, may get a cash fine — although at just 500,000 rials, or $1.60, it remains symbolic. “Our main goal is not to give tickets but to raise awareness,” said Ali Rabiei, the government spokesman. While several countries are struggling with resurgences of the virus, the scale of Iran’s outbreak points to “mismanagement” at the highest levels, said Abbas Abdi, a Tehran-based political analyst. “Resolving the crisis requires unity, power, managerial efficiency and ultimately trust in policymakers and officials,” Abdi said. In Iran, he added, “none of this exists.”

Nasser Karimi and Isabel Debre, 'Months into pandemic, Iran sees worst wave of virus deaths', Associated Press