Nuclear Iran

[Jimbuna]

Iran hands Nobel winner fresh jail term - lawyer

A court in Iran has sentenced the jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi to an additional year in prison, her lawyer says.

The 52-year-old human rights activist was convicted of spreading “propaganda against the system” by a branch of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court, Mostafa Nili wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

He said the reasons cited by the court included “comments about Ms Dina Qalibaf”, a student who alleged she was tortured and sexually assaulted by security forces, as well as her call to boycott March’s election and letters to Swedish and Norwegian MPs.

Ms Mohammadi had refused to attend the trial, denouncing it as “unjust and farcical”.

There was no immediate confirmation from the Iranian judiciary.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2vv4e2edg1o

[Jimbuna]

Vessel sinks in Red Sea one week after Houthi attack

Avessel is believed to have sunk in the Red Sea a week after the ship was attacked by Yemen's Houthi Rebels, UK authorities have said,

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency, which is part of Britain's Royal Navy, said late Tuesday that maritime debris and oil have been sighted in the vessel's last reported location in the Red Sea.

The vessel was attacked on June 12 while it was sailing off the coast of Yemen. It was hit twice and the crew was evacuated, UKMTO said.

Last week, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said that an unmanned surface vessel launched by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels had hit a Greek-owned and operated ship off the coast of Yemen.

The hit caused severe flooding and damage to the ship's engine room.
The Houthis, who have controlled parts of Yemen since 2014, have been targeting ships bound for Israeli ports or those owned by Israeli companies in the Red and Arabian seas and Indian Ocean for months, in what they say is retaliation for Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip.

The militia also attacked US and British ships off Yemen after the two countries began launching strikes on areas under the group's control.

The United States, Britain and other Western countries have launched operations to protect ships in the region.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...864a3c59&ei=24

[Exocet25fr]

[Jimbuna]

Yemen’s Houthis release video of attack on ship in Red Sea

https://www.google.com/search?q=hout...Wwear_fLI,st:0

[Jimbuna]

Iran expands nuclear ‘bunker’ sparking fears of weapon development

Inspectors with the UN nuclear watchdog have confirmed major new construction at a fortified nuclear facility built in a mountainside.

A massive expansion of Iran’s main uranium enrichment plants has raised fears the Islamic Republic is racing towards a nuclear weapon – a development that would upend the balance of power in the Middle East, sending tremors around the world.

Inspectors with the UN nuclear watchdog have confirmed major new construction in the heavily protected Fordow enrichment plant. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) statement comes days after Tehran announced its intention to upgrade the fortified nuclear facility, built like a bunker in a mountainside in north-central Iran.

Experts say the addition of around 1,400 more centrifuges at Fordow would allow Iran to more than triple production of weapons-grade uranium (WGU). This would move it closer to “breakout” capability – the stage at which a state can no longer be realistically stopped from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Tehran has also revealed plans to boost production of enriched uranium at its main nuclear plant at Natanz in central Iran.

But the upgrade at Fordow will be of particular concern to the US and Israel. It is the smaller of the two nuclear facilities, but its subterranean setting makes it virtually invulnerable to airstrikes, although underground building work at Natanz means that, too, is becoming more resistant to attack.

Iran told the IAEA that it would install eight more cascades with 174 IR-6 centrifuges at the plants within the next four weeks. The Institute for Science and International Security calls this “a dramatic increase” in enrichment capacity.

Taking into account the stock of 60 per cent enriched uranium already present in Fordow, Iran could, with new installations, produce 145 kilograms of WGU within a month – enough for five nuclear weapons.

Iran and its international opponents will be aware of the symbolism.

The production of sufficient WGU at Fordow (previously called Al Ghadir) was, analysts note, one of the goals of Tehran’s Amad Plan, the nuclear weapons programme officially shelved in 2003.

Fordow stopped uranium enrichment entirely under the 2015 JCPOA nuclear containment deal with world powers. After the Trump administration unilaterally withdrew from the agreement in 2018, production resumed.

Iran is signalling its ability to move towards breakout. But its ultimate intentions are a matter of debate; it continues to maintain a calculated ambiguity on nuclear weapons.

Tehran says it has no plans to make nuclear devices. Nonetheless, leaders of the country’s nuclear energy programme have begun saying publicly that their scientists now possess the components and skills to build a nuclear bomb. Some senior Iranian officials have threatened to pursue nuclear weapons in recent months.
https://inews.co.uk/news/world/iran-...elated_stories

[Otto Harkaman]

https://ground.news/article/iran-con...ium-enrichment
According to Vienna, Iran has put additional centrifuges into operation in response to a resolution by the International Atomic Energy Agency. There is sharp criticism from the United States.

[Jimbuna]

Likely Yemen Houthi rebel attack targets ship in Gulf of Aden as Eisenhower reportedly heads home

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A commercial ship traveling through the Gulf of Aden saw explosions near the vessel, authorities said Saturday, likely the latest attack by Yemen's Houthi rebels attempting to target the shipping lane.

The apparent fire by the Houthis comes after the sinking this week of the ship Tutor, which marked what appears to be a new escalation by the Iranian-backed Houthis in their campaign of attacks on ships in the vital maritime corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, U.S. officials reportedly ordered the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, the aircraft carrier leading America's response to the Houthi attacks, to return home.

The captain of the ship targeted late Friday saw “explosions in the vicinity of the vessel,” the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said.

“The crew are reported safe and the vessel is proceeding to its next port of call,” the UKMTO said, without elaborating on whether the ship sustained any damage.

The Houthis, who have held Yemen's capital, Sanaa, since 2014, did not immediately claim the attack. However, it can take the rebels hours or even days to acknowledge their assaults.

The Houthis on Friday released footage of one of their drone boats, the “Tufan,” or “Flood,” which they said targeted the Tutor.

The Houthis have launched more than 60 attacks targeting specific vessels and fired off other missiles and drones in their campaign that has killed a total of four sailors. They have seized one vessel and sunk two since November. A U.S.-led airstrike campaign has targeted the Houthis since January, with a series of strikes May 30 killing at least 16 people and wounding 42 others, the rebels say.

In March, the Belize-flagged Rubymar carrying fertilizer became the first to sink in the Red Sea after taking on water for days following a rebel attack.

The Houthis have maintained that their attacks target ships linked to Israel, the United States or Britain. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the Israel-Hamas war.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Naval Institute's news service reported, citing an anonymous official, that the Eisenhower would be returning home to Norfolk, Virginia, after an over eight-month deployment in combat that the Navy says is its most intense since World War II. The report said an aircraft carrier operating in the Pacific would be taking the Eisenhower's place.

The closest American aircraft carrier known to be operating in Asia is the USS Theodore Roosevelt. The Roosevelt anchored Saturday in Busan, South Korea, amid Seoul's ongoing tensions with North Korea.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...c9670698&ei=10

[Jimbuna]

US slaps sanctions on network it accuses of moving billions for Iran's military

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on nearly 50 entities and people it accused of moving billions of dollars for Iran's military.

The U.S. Treasury Department in a statement said those targeted on Tuesday constitute a "shadow banking network" used by Iran's Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL) and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), both of which are under U.S. sanctions.

The network helped the MODAFL and IRGC - which earn money notably from the sale of oil and petrochemicals - gain access to the international financial system and process the equivalent of billions of dollars since 2020, the Treasury said.

The Treasury said the revenue generated by the MODAFL and IRGC through networks of Iranian exchange houses and foreign cover companies supported the provision of weapons and funding to Iran's proxy groups, including Yemen's Houthi group, and the transfer of drones to Russia for use in the war against Ukraine.
Washington has issued rafts of sanctions targeting Iranian drones and the Houthis, who have been launching drone and missile strikes in shipping lanes since November in what they say is solidarity with Palestinians in Israel's war in Gaza.

"We continue to work with allies and partners, as well as the global financial industry, to increase vigilance against the movement of funds supporting terrorism," Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in the statement.

Iran's mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately comment on the action.

Tuesday's action targeted dozens of companies in Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates and Marshall Islands, as well as Iran and Turkey-based firms.

The Treasury said the MODAFL Supply Division uses exchange houses in Iran that manage numerous cover companies registered in jurisdictions such as Hong Kong or the UAE to launder revenue, including from oil sales conducted by Sahara Thunder, which the U.S. imposed sanctions on in April.

The Treasury at the time accused Sahara Thunder of being a front company that oversees MODAFL's commercial activities in support of the IRGC and Russia's war in Ukraine, playing a key role in Iran's design, development, manufacture and sale of thousands of drones.

The move freezes the U.S. assets of banned companies and individuals, and generally bars Americans from dealing with them. Those that engage in certain transactions with them also risk being hit with sanctions.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...745be8a4&ei=14

[Reece]

Good news there Jim!

[Jimbuna]

I doubt it will impact them much but I'd love it if I'm wrong.

[Jimbuna]

Iran’s presidential frontrunner could revive nuclear deal with West

“Iranian elections are not free and fair, but they have on many occasions been genuinely competitive,” says Sina Toossi, a researcher at the National Iranian American council. “This election is shaping up to be one of these.”

Ahead of the first round of voting for Iran’s presidential election on Friday, polls consistently show a lead for the sole reformist candidate, heart surgeon and former health minister Masoud Pezeshkian, who has argued against forcing women to wear hijabs and for a new nuclear deal and warmer relations with the West.

Once dismissed as a rank outsider and token presence alongside five hardliners handpicked as candidates by Iran’s Guardian Council after Ebrahim Raisi’s death in a helicopter crash last month, Dr Pezeshkian appears to be gaining momentum as his rivals stall.
His two closest rivals according to polls, arch-conservative politician Saeed Jalili and military-aligned parliamentary speaker Mohammad Qalibaf, are said to be locked in talks over one of the candidates pulling out to avoid splitting the conservative vote, but without success, a scenario that allowed reformist Hassan Rouhani to claim the presidency in 2013.

Two hardline candidates pulled out on Thursday, including the mayor of Tehran, Alireza Zakani, who urged Mr Jalili and Mr Qalibaf to “unite”.

The reformist candidate has a “viable path to the presidency if turnout increases,” said Mr Toossi, noting that turnout has slumped in recent elections, suggesting this is partly due to suppression of reformist candidates and government crackdowns on political expression.

Apathy may still be a barrier for Dr Pezeshkian after the brutal response to the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement that emerged following the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022 in the custody of religious police for allegedly not wearing a hijab, Mr Toossi added, with some activist groups boycotting the vote.

Dr Pezeshkian, a member of Iran’s Azeri minority, has maintained a longstanding record of sympathy for the women’s protest movement as a candidate.

“I have come to be the president of a country that gives due respect to women and girls,” he said in a recent speech, promising to fight against mandatory wearing of the hijab and enforcement by religious police.

The reformist candidate has also linked Iran’s economic woes, with soaring inflation fuelling a cost of living crisis, to the crippling sanctions imposed by the West over Iran’s nuclear programme and sponsorship of militant groups across the Middle East.

To remove “the shadow of sanctions from the Iranian people”, Mr Pezeshkian has argued for a revival of the deal agreed by former president Mr Rouhani with the US, UK, France, Germany, China and Russia in 2015 to place limits on Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief, which was later ditched by Donald Trump.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...43e654e6&ei=24