Iran is permitted to pursue the construction of two newly announced nuclear plants under the parameters of last summer’s nuclear agreement, Obama administration officials informed the Washington Free Beacon, setting the stage for Tehran to move forward with construction following orders from President Hassan Rouhani.
Traces of man-made uranium were found at the Parchin facility, southeast of Tehran, by investigators from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, as part of an investigation tied to the landmark nuclear deal reached last July between Iran and global powers.
The head of the UN atomic watchdog was granted access Sunday to a controversial Iranian military site where it is alleged covert research to build a nuclear bomb took place, AFP reported.
Even as President Obama was securing the Senate support necessary to assure passage of the nuclear deal with Iran, Tehran’s top defense officials were scoffing at U.S. claims the pact will restrict the Islamic Republic’s military ambitions.
President Obama’s intense lobbying on Wednesday secured support from a 34th Senate Democrat, ensuring his Iranian nuclear deal will survive a veto battle with Congress and setting into motion the extraordinary imposition of a foreign agreement over the objections of large numbers of voters and big majorities in both the House and Senate.
Enforcing President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran will greatly expand the work of the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog and put it in a political spotlight that rivals, if not exceeds, the run-up to the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Iran signaled its anger over the recent leaking of an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) document that revealed evidence Teheran had attempted to sanitize its Parchin military nuclear facility.
The White House on Wednesday said it was ‘confident’ in the abilities of the International Agency for Atomic Energy to monitor and inspect the possible military dimensions on Iran’s past nuclear work and was ‘comfortable’ with confidential arrangements between the IAEA and Tehran to ensure compliance with the nuclear deal signed on July 14.
Iran will be allowed to use its own inspectors to investigate a site it has been accused of using to develop nuclear arms, operating under a secret agreement with the U.N. agency that normally carries out such work, according to a document seen by The Associated Press.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is opposed to a landmark nuclear deal reached with world powers last month, a prominent Iranian hard-liner claimed Saturday.
Undermining one of President Obama’s primary arguments for the nuclear deal with Iran, the head of the United Nation’s nuclear watchdog agency said Iran has refused to allow U.N. inspectors to interview scientists and military officers to investigate allegations that Tehran operated a covert nuclear-weapons program, the Washington Times reported.
Iran will not allow American or Canadian inspectors working for the U.N. nuclear watchdog to visit its nuclear facilities, an official said in remarks broadcast by state TV on Thursday.
One of the clauses in the nuclear deal reached between world powers and Iran last week guarantees that the world powers will assist Iran in thwarting attempts to undermine its nuclear program.
Senior Obama administration officials are defending Iranian nuclear violations in the aftermath of a bombshell report published Wednesday by the United Nations indicating that Iran has failed to live up to its nuclear-related obligations, according to sources apprised of the situation.
Iran took a hard line Thursday on two of the biggest demands of world powers in a final nuclear accord, rejecting any extraordinary inspection rules and threatening to ramp up enrichment of bomb-making material if the United States and other countries re-impose sanctions after the deal is in place.
The Obama administration helped to secure the release of several Iranians detained in the United States and the United Kingdom, some convicted of illegal arms smuggling, according to a report that comes as U.S. prisoners languish in Iranian jails.
U.S. and Iranian negotiators in Vienna on Tuesday agreed to extend a deadline for an agreement on Iran’s disputed nuclear program until July 7, as sticking points remained.
Former CIA Director Michael Hayden said Sunday that the United States has lost its edge going into the final days of a nuclear negotiation with Iran.
Sens. Mark Kirk (R., Ill.) and Robert Menendez (D., N.J.) revived on Thursday long-stalled legislation to impose and extend sanctions on Iran for a period of at least 10 more years, according to sources familiar with the move.
The United States and other nations negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran are ready to offer high-tech reactors and other state-of-the-art equipment to Tehran if it agrees to crimp programs that can make atomic arms,