Latest news with #NuclearNonProliferation
Russia Today
5 days ago
- Politics
- Russia Today
Moscow rejects Israel-Iran and Ukraine conflict comparison
It is wrong to compare Israel's attack on Iran with the Ukraine conflict, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said, maintaining that the nature and context of the two conflicts are different. Speaking on Tuesday at the 'Primakov Readings' forum in Moscow, Lavrov said the conflict in the Middle East was triggered solely by Israel's suspicion that Iran had violated the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which was not confirmed by inspections from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Israel attacked Iran on June 13, claiming that Tehran was on the brink of developing a nuclear bomb, despite the IAEA and US intelligence insisting there was no evidence of this. The Iranian authorities have maintained that that they are not working on a bomb, while defending their right to pursue a peaceful nuclear program. In contrast, Lavrov said Ukraine had openly violated its commitments by moving NATO closer to Russia's borders and creating threats to Russia's security. Moscow's position on NATO enlargement has been a central issue in its conflict with Ukraine, and Russian officials have repeatedly cited Western military support for Kiev as a destabilizing factor. 'The threat to our military security and the legal eradication of everything Russian – these are the root causes that we could not, cannot, and will not allow to persist,' Lavrov said. 'That is why it is unfair to say that these conflicts are in any way similar,' he stressed. The foreign minister also said that prior to 2022, the Ukrainian side continued to intensify its shelling of the Donbass and killing of civilians in violation of the 2014-2015 Minsk agreements. 'They prepared a plan to seize these territories by force in order to set up NATO bases in Crimea. The British had planned to build a base on the Sea of Azov – all of this is known,' Lavrov said. 'But there is not a single fact of Iran carrying out any hostile action against Israel,' the minister added. He said that unlike in Ukraine, where the Russian language is being completely eradicated despite being one of the official languages of the United Nations, 'no other country in the world bans a specific language.' 'By the way, Hebrew is not banned in Iran – there are synagogues there, Judaism is not prohibited. Likewise, Hebrew is allowed in the Palestinian territories,' Lavrov noted. 'In Israel, Arabic is not banned either,' he added.
Bloomberg
6 days ago
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Iran Says Nuclear Arms-Control Treaty Irreparably Damaged by US
Iran said US strikes on its nuclear sites over the weekend have delivered an 'irreparable blow' to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, rendering it ineffective. Iran's envoy for the International Atomic Energy Agency, Reza Najafi, described US attacks as an act of aggression that 'delivered a fundamental and irreparable blow to the international non-proliferation regime conclusively demonstrating that the existing NPT framework has been rendered ineffective.'
ABC News
21-06-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Is Iran set to leave the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty?
As the bombs keep landing and Israel continues its devastating attacks on Iran's nuclear program, it's easy to forget Iran remains a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, or NPT. Up until Israel's strikes Iran was still submitting to inspections by the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The nuclear watchdog has continued to gather data on Iran's nuclear program, but Tehran has increasingly placed severe restrictions on access. But with the devastating damage to its nuclear installations, some analysts believe this confrontation could drive Iran out of the treaty — and actually provide more impetus to develop nuclear weapons. "Iran's reaction would be, 'What was the point of adhering to the Non-Proliferation Treaty?'" Middle East historian Ibrahim al-Marashi told 7.30. "'We might as well, even with all the damage done, we should get a nuclear weapon. As our ultimate guarantor of survival.'" In an interview with 730 this week, Iran's ambassador to Australia Ahmad Sadeghi denied his country is developing a nuclear weapon. "The nuclear program of Iran is for the peaceful measures," Mr. Sadeghi said. The NPT came into force in 1970 and currently more than 190 countries are signatories. Its aim is to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. Inspections in Iran have become more difficult since the US walked away from an agreement with the country in 2018. That deal saw the US and other countries loosen economic sanctions in return for Iran agreeing not to develop a nuclear weapon. "The deal was working until Donald Trump was elected in 2016," said Barbara Slavin from not-for-profit think tank the Stimson Centre. She's been analysing American-Iranian relations for four decades. "[Trump] began criticising the agreement and he finally left it in 2018, while Iran was still in full compliance with that deal. Now following that, Iran gradually began to ramp up the programme again, to the point where it was very, very advanced." The day before Israel launched its first attacks, the IAEA declared Iran was in breach of its NPT obligations and said it could not assure that Iran's nuclear programme was only peaceful. "Just before the Israelis attacked, the IAEA board of governors actually issued a censure resolution against the Iranian government for its lack of cooperation," Ms Slavin said. "I think the Israelis thought that strengthened their case to attack Iran." Israel has long argued that a nuclear-armed Iran would threaten its existence. But Ms Slavin and many analysts point out there's an important caveat to that argument: Although it is not officially acknowledged, Israel is believed to possess multiple nuclear weapons. "So if Israel really felt that its existence was at stake, it could use nuclear weapons against Iran or any other adversary. That's why Israel developed nuclear weapons in the 1960s," Ms Slavin said. Mr al-Marashi says that contradiction — that Iran is part of the NPT and Israel isn't — is hard to ignore. "A lot of commentators or just regular people would say that there's a double standard: that Iran [belongs to] the NPT, but that Israel practises a policy of nuclear opacity," Mr al-Marashi said. "Not being a member of the NPT … [Israel] deliberately tries to be vague about its nuclear arsenal to keep people guessing." While not confirming it has nuclear weapons, Israel argues a nuclear capable Iran poses an existential threat because its leaders have repeatedly said they want to destroy Israel. Watch 7.30, Mondays to Thursdays 7:30pm on ABC iview and ABC TV Do you know more about this story? Get in touch with 7.30 here.
ABC News
20-06-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Israel is targeting Iran's nuclear uranium enrichment plants. Here are the contamination risks
Israel has been targeting Iran from the air since last Friday in what it has described as an effort to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), five nuclear facilities have been struck, sparking fears the air strikes could raise health risks across the region. Here's what damage has been caused so far and the safety risks of attacking nuclear sites. Several military and nuclear sites in Iran. Israel says the attacks are to block Iran from developing atomic weapons. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the operations were to "strike the head of Iran's nuclear weaponization program". Iran denies ever having pursued a plan to build nuclear weapons and is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. It says the nuclear sites it does have are for peaceful purposes. If Israel continues attacking Iran until it removes the country's nuclear capability, destroying the Fordow enrichment plant is central to its plan. While another important facility, Natanz, has been hit, the Fordow site would be much harder to target. This is because it's located inside a mountain, 90-metres underground and can only be reached by American "bunker-buster" bombs, which Israel does not possess. Because Israel believes Iran is enriching uranium to levels that could allow it to build a nuclear weapon, despite the Islamic Republic's claims its nuclear work is for "peaceful purposes". Enriched uranium, specifically uranium-235, is an essential component in many nuclear weapons. "When you dig uranium out of the ground, 99.3 per cent of it is uranium-238, and 0.7 per cent of it is uranium-235," Kaitlin Cook says, a nuclear physicist at the Australian National University. "The numbers 238 and 235 relate to its weight — uranium-235 is slightly lighter than uranium-238." To enrich uranium, basically means increasing the proportion of uranium-235, while removing the uranium-238. This is typically done with a centrifuge, a kind of "scientific salad spinner" which rotates uranium thousands of times a minute, separating the lighter uranium-235 from the base uranium. For civilian nuclear power, Dr Cook says uranium-235 is usually enriched to about 3 to 5 per cent. But once uranium is enriched to 90 per cent, it is deemed weapons-grade. According to the IAEA, Iran's uranium has reached about 60 per cent enrichment, well on its way to being concentrated enough for a nuclear weapon. Dr Cook says the process for enriching uranium from 60 per cent to weapons-grade is much easier than it is to get to the initial 60 per cent. That's because there's less uranium-238 to get rid of. According to the US Institute for Science and International Security, "Iran can convert its current stock of 60 per cent enriched uranium into 233kg of weapon-grade uranium in three weeks at the Fordow plant", which it said would be enough for nine nuclear weapons. In the hours after Israel attacked Iran last Friday, Netanyahu said Iran was just days away from being able to build nuclear weapons. In a White House briefing, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Iran has all it needs to achieve a nuclear weapon. "It would take a couple of weeks to complete the production of that weapon, which would, of course, pose an existential threat not just to Israel, but to the United States and to the entire world." But there has been some back and forth between US authorities on whether Iran was really that close to producing nuclear weapons. In March, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told members of Congress that Iran was not moving towards building nuclear weapons. "The IC [intelligence community] continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons programme he suspended in 2003," she said. On Air Force One on Monday night, after hastily leaving the G7 summit, President Donald Trump offered a direct contradiction to Ms Gabbard's claims. "I don't care what she said," Mr Trump said. "I think they were very close to having it." The IAEA said Israel had directly hit the underground enrichment halls at the Natanz facility, leaving them "severely damaged, if not destroyed all together". According to the IAEA, the Natanz site was one of the facilities at which Iran was producing uranium enriched up to 60 per cent U-235. After the attack, the IAEA found radioactive contamination at the site, but it said the levels of radioactivity outside remained unchanged and at normal levels. Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Effie Defrin said: "We've struck deep, hitting Iran's nuclear, ballistic and command capabilities." A nuclear complex at Isfahan and centrifuge production facilities in Karaj and Tehran were also damaged. Israel said on Wednesday it had targeted Arak, also known as Khondab, the location of a partially built heavy-water research reactor. The IAEA said it had information that the heavy-water reactor had been hit, but that it was not operating and reported no radiological effects. Experts say attacks on enrichment facilities are mainly a "chemical problem", not radiological. Darya Dolzikova, a senior research fellow at London think tank RUSI, says the main concern from destroying an enrichment plant is releasing the harmful uranium hexafluoride gas — highly corrosive and toxic — that's contained in centrifuges. "When UF6 interacts with water vapour in the air, it produces harmful chemicals," Ms Dolzikova said. The extent to which any material is dispersed would depend on factors including weather conditions, she added. "In low winds, much of the material can be expected to settle in the vicinity of the facility; in high winds, the material will travel farther, but is also likely to disperse more widely." Peter Bryant, a professor at the University of Liverpool who specialises in radiation protection science and nuclear energy policy, says nuclear facilities are designed to prevent the release of radioactive materials into the environment. "Uranium is only dangerous if it gets physically inhaled or ingested or gets into the body at low enrichments," Professor Bryant said. While there so far has been no major radiological incidents as a result of the attacks, IAEA director-general Rafael Mariano Grossi stressed the possible nuclear safety and security risks. "There is a lot of nuclear material in Iran in different places, which means that the potential for a radiological accident with the dispersion in the atmosphere of radioactive materials and particles does exist," he said. In a post on X, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also voiced his concern about the potential "immediate and long-term impacts on the environment and health of people in Iran and across the region". Well that's a different story. A strike on Iran's nuclear reactor at Bushehr could cause an "absolute radiological catastrophe", says James Acton, co-director of the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. While most reactor vessels are protected by steel and concrete containment structures, Dr Cook says the surrounding infrastructure, like spent fuel pools and cooling equipment, would "definitely be a concern" if targeted. For Gulf states, the impact of any strike on Bushehr would be worsened by the potential contamination of Gulf waters, jeopardising a critical source of desalinated potable water. In the UAE, desalinated water accounts for more than 80 per cent of drinking water. While Bahrain and Qatar are fully reliant on desalinated water. "If a natural disaster, oil spill, or even a targeted attack were to disrupt a desalination plant, hundreds of thousands could lose access to freshwater almost instantly," said Nidal Hilal, professor of engineering and director of New York University Abu Dhabi's Water Research Center. "Coastal desalination plants are especially vulnerable to regional hazards like oil spills and potential nuclear contamination," he said. On Thursday, an Israeli military spokesperson said the military has struck the Bushehr nuclear site in Iran. However, an Israeli military official later said that comment "was a mistake". The official would only confirm that Israel had hit the Natanz, Isfahan, and Arak nuclear sites in Iran. Pressed further on Bushehr, the official said he could neither confirm or deny that Israel had struck the location. Bushehr is Iran's only operating nuclear power plant, which sits on the Gulf coast, and uses Russian fuel that Russia then takes back when it is spent to reduce proliferation risk. Heavy water is H20 made up of hydrogen-2 instead of hydrogen-1. Dr Cook says it's a little heavier than normal water. "When you use heavy water, you can run your reactor on non-enriched uranium, avoiding the expense of enriching it in the first place, though the water does cost more. "But the problem is that heavy-water reactors can also be used to produce plutonium, which can be used in nuclear weapons." Israel's military said its fighter jets targeted the Arak facility and its reactor core seal to halt it from being used to produce plutonium. "The strike targeted the component intended for plutonium production, in order to prevent the reactor from being restored and used for nuclear weapons development." India and Pakistan, both nuclear-armed states, have heavy-water reactors. So does Israel, but it has never acknowledged having atomic weapons but is widely believed to have them. ABC with wires
Reuters
17-06-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
G7 expresses support for Israel, calls Iran source of instability
WASHINGTON, June 16 (Reuters) - The Group of Seven nations expressed support for Israel in a statement, opens new tab issued late on Monday and labeled its rival Iran as a source of instability in the Middle East, with the G7 leaders urging broader de-escalation of hostilities in the region. The air war between Iran and Israel - which began on Friday when Israel attacked Iran with air strikes - has raised alarms in a region that had already been on edge since the start of Israel's military assault on Gaza in October 2023. "We affirm that Israel has a right to defend itself. We reiterate our support for the security of Israel," G7 leaders said in the statement. "Iran is the principal source of regional instability and terror," the statement added and said the G7 was "clear that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon." Israel attacked Iran on Friday in what it called a preemptive strike to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons. Since then the two Middle Eastern rivals have exchanged blows, with Iranian officials reporting over 220 deaths, mostly civilians, while Israel said 24 civilians were killed. Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons and has said it has the right to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, including enrichment, as a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Israel, which is not a party to the NPT, is the only country in the Middle East widely believed to have nuclear weapons. Israel does not deny or confirm that. President Donald Trump planned to leave the G7 summit in Canada early to return to Washington due to the Middle East situation. The United States has so far maintained that it is not involved in the Israeli attacks on Iran although Trump said on Friday the U.S. was aware of Israel's strikes in advance and called them "excellent." Washington has warned Tehran not to attack U.S. interests or personnel in the region. "We urge that the resolution of the Iranian crisis leads to a broader de-escalation of hostilities in the Middle East, including a ceasefire in Gaza," the G7 statement said, adding the nations were also ready to coordinate on safeguarding stability in energy markets. An Israeli strike hit Iran's state broadcaster on Monday while Trump said in a social media post that "everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran." Separately, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also discussed the Israel-Iran war in phone calls with his British, French and European Union counterparts on Monday. Washington said Trump was still aiming for a nuclear deal with Iran.
