Iran acknowledges accusation it enriched uranium to 84%

JONGAMBRELL

February 23, 2023

Iran on Thursday directly acknowledged an accusation attributed to international inspectors that it enriched uranium to 84% purity for the first time, which would put the Islamic Republic closer than ever to weapons-grade material.

The acknowledgement by a news website linked to the highest reaches of Iran's theocracy renews pressure on the West to address Tehran's program, which had been contained by the 2015 nuclear deal that America unilaterally withdrew from in 2018. Years of attacks across the Middle East have followed.

Already Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who recently regained his country's premiership, is threatening to take military action similar to when Israel previously bombed nuclear programs in Iraq and Syria. But while those attacks saw no war erupt, Iran has an arsenal of ballistic missiles, drones and other weaponry it and its allies already have used in the region.

The acknowledgment Thursday came from Iran's Nour News, a website linked to Iran's Supreme National Security Council, overseen by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Nour News separately is sanctioned by Canada for having “participated in gross and systematic human rights violations and perpetuated disinformation activities to justify the Iranian regime’s repression and persecution of its citizens" amid nationwide protests there.

The comments by Nour News follow days of muddled comments by Iran not directly acknowledging the accusation by inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran had enriched up to 84%.

Bloomberg first reported Sunday that inspectors had detected uranium particles enriched up to 84%. The IAEA, a United Nations agency based in Vienna, has not denied the report, saying only “that the IAEA is discussing with Iran the results of recent agency verification activities.”

In its comments Thursday, Nour News urged the IAEA to “not fall prey to the seduction of Western countries” and declare that Iran's nuclear program was “completely peaceful.”

“It will be clear soon that the IAEA surprising report of discovering 84% enriched uranium particles in Iran’s enrichment facilities was an inspector’s error or was a deliberate action to create political atmospheres against Iran on the eve of the meeting of" its board, Nour News said on Twitter. The board, a group of nations that oversees the IAEA, will meet beginning March 6 in Vienna.

The IAEA did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday over Nour News' remarks.

It wasn't immediately clear where the 84% enrichment allegedly took place, though the IAEA has said it found two cascades of advanced IR-6 centrifuges at Iran's underground Fordo facility “interconnected in a way that was substantially different from the mode of operation declared by Iran to the agency in November last year.” Iran is known to have been enriching uranium at Fordo up to 60% purity — at level which nonproliferation experts already say has no civilian use for Tehran.

Iran also enriches uranium at its Natanz nuclear site.

Weapons-grade uranium is enriched up to 90%. While the IAEA's director-general has warned Iran now has enough uranium to produce “several” nuclear bombs if it chooses, it likely would take months more to build a weapon and potentially miniaturize it to put on a missile.

The new tensions over Iran's program also take place against the backdrop of a shadow war between Iran and Israel that has spilled out across the wider Middle East. Netanyahu, who long has advocated military action against Iran, mentioned it again in a talk this week.

“How do you stop a rogue nation from acquiring nuclear weapons?” Netanyahu rhetorically asked. “You had one that’s called Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. It was stopped by military force, ours. You had a second one that is called Syria that tried to develop nuclear weapons. And it was stopped by a military action, ours.”

He added: “A necessary condition, and an often sufficient condition, is credible military action. The longer you wait, the harder that becomes. We’ve waited very long.”

 Iran signs breakthrough deal to export 45,000 cars to Russia

Bybne correspondent in Tehran

February 23, 2023

Iran’s second largest automaker by volume, SAIPA, is set to arrive on the Russian market following the signing of a breakthrough agreement for the export of 45,000 of its vehicles to Russia over the next Persian year (March 21), Tejarat Online reported on February 22.

Iran has been stating for months that it wants to mop up the bottom end of the Russian car market following the exodus of European and Japanese brands from Russia amid the economic backlash against the country in the wake of the Ukraine invasion. However, SAIPA faces stiff competition from low-cost Chinese imports and local carmaker AvtoVaz, the producer of Lada vehicles, who both offer cars at the same price point. Built on the backs of localised foreign platforms, Iranian cars have, meanwhile, never been tested in harsh Russian winter conditions.

With the conclusion of the export contract—drawn up in line with understandings reached at the 2022 Moscow Automobility Exhibition as Russia and Iran boosted political and a range of economic ties—45,000 vehicles manufactured by SAIPA will be exported to Russia in several shipments. They will have a total value of $450mn.

The deal to export the models was signed with Russia’s BM Group, renowned for its production of Russian military equipment.

Vehicles included as part of the deal are of the Shahin, Kwik and Saina models, all built from the same platform, derived in Iran from imported systems.

SAIPA has enjoyed success in recent years with the creation of several models built from the same platform, with two further models to be released including a new small hatchback model and a crossover.

Alireza Peyman Pak, head of Iran's Trade Development Organisation, was cited by Tejarat Online as saying: 'The turnover of the automobile sector in Russia is more than $20bn and we can get a good share of this market after the departure of their main partners due to [Ukraine war] sanctions.'

Mohammad Ali Temouri, CEO of SAIPA, said: 'Our partners in Russia are two major car manufacturers of the country that have closed due to sanctions, and SAIPA Group is ready to send its engineering and technical team to Russia to update their production lines and make things possible. We'll provide car production and supply in the Russian market.'

SAIPA is already in a deal with AvtoVAZ for the production of the mark-I Dacia Logan. It is being rebranded by both SAIPA and Russia for local production.

SAIPA’s main competitor in Iran, Iranian number one automaker Iran Khodro (IKCO), exported some of its vehicles to the Russian market between 2007 and 2009, but things did not work out. Only a few IKCO cars remain on Russia’s roads. Some buyers of IKCO models complained that Iranian cars could not handle cold Russian winters. There were also objections to poor-quality parts.

IKCO sold cars in Russia that were based on old Peugeots—for example, theSamand model, which is essentially nothing more than a Peugeot 405 from the 1980s.

By the end of the 2000s, the Samand was seen in Russia as outdated. The country was busy actively developing the production of Western, Korean and Japanese brands that offered more interesting models.

Since then, IKCO has taken a step forward in terms of its range of cars. They include a recently released small crossover model, the Rira, based on a Groupe Peugeot Societe Anonyme (Groupe PSA) platform from 2017.

 Biden Diplomats Trying to Block U.K. Plan to Designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as Terror Group

JeffZymeri

February 22, 2023

Biden administration diplomats are trying to block a U.K. plan that would see Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) designated as a terror group, despite the fact that the U.S. took similar steps during the Trump administration.

The U.S. State Department, which is currently trying to revive the defunct Iran Nuclear deal, believes that the U.K. can play a key role as interlocutors and fears that role would be undermined by designating the IRGC a terror group, according to a new report from The Telegraph.

The move would harden the U.K.’s position against Iran and deal a blow to international talks, supported by the Biden administration, that are aimed at reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which the U.S. withdrew from under President Trump.

Designating the IRGC a terrorist group would make it a criminal offense to belong to the organization, attend meetings, or otherwise encourage support of its activities. Even displaying the organization’s logo or flag in public would be criminalized. It is a formal legal process carried out under a U.K. law known as the Terrorism Act 2000.

Prominent proscribed terrorist groups in the U.K. include Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Irish Republican Army.

The government not only assesses a group’s terrorist activities abroad, but also the specific threat to U.K. citizens.

In a rare public address in November of last year, MI5 director Ken McCallum asserted that instability in Iran has real-world consequences in the U.K.

“Iran projects threat to the U.K. directly, through its aggressive intelligence services.  At its sharpest this includes ambitions to kidnap or even kill British or U.K.-based individuals perceived as enemies of the regime,” explained McCallum. “We have seen at least ten such potential threats since January [of 2022] alone.”

U.S. intervention is now being used from sectors of the U.K. government to undermine the plan to proscribe the IRGC, originally proposed by the Home Office. U.K. foreign secretary James Cleverly has questioned the move and the Foreign Office has pointed to the IRGC’s centrality within Iran.

A decision was expected in January, but the news that the Foreign and Home Offices are at loggerheads clarifies the reason for the delay. The final call now rests upon prime minister Rishi Sunak’s shoulders.

Nile Gardiner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at The Heritage Foundation, condemned the implications of the news.

“This is absolutely disgraceful. The Biden Administration is groveling to the terrorist regime in Tehran,” Gardiner said.