Iran yesterday confirmed that it had stepped up uranium enrichment beyond the limits of its nuclear deal with world powers, amid heightened tensions with the US and after it seized a South Korean tanker in strategic Gulf waters.
The Islamic republic said it was now refining uranium to 20 percent purity — far above the level permitted under its 2015 agreement, but significantly below the 90 percent required for an atomic bomb — in a step Washington condemned as “nuclear extortion.”
The EU noted Iran’s steps “with deep concern” and planned to “redouble our efforts to preserve the agreement and return to its full implementation by all parties,” EU spokesman Peter Stano said.
Photo: Reuters
It was the most striking suspension yet of Tehran’s commitments under its landmark deal with six nations, which has been fraying ever since US President Donald Trump withdrew from it in 2018 and reimposed crippling sanctions.
A war of words has flared again in the final weeks of the Trump presidency, and at a time when Iran and its allies have marked one year since a US drone strike in Baghdad killed Iran’s top military commander, Qassem Soleimani.
Commemorations in honor of Soleimani — whom the US blamed for attacks on its interests in Iraq and elsewhere — saw angry mourners in Iraq chant anti-US slogans, but passed without violence.
The Iranian armed forces on Monday also announced a two-day drill of domestically made drones, including “combat, surveillance, reconnaissance and electronic warfare.”
On Monday, its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched a dramatic action on the high seas, near the strategic Straits of Hormuz, a chokepoint through which a fifth of world oil output passes.
Its speedboats seized the South Korean-flagged Hankuk Chemi carrying oil chemical products and its multinational crew of 20, accusing it of having polluted sea waters.
South Korea has demanded the ship’s release and deployed a destroyer carrying its anti-piracy unit to the area.
Seoul is to send a government delegation to Iran “at the earliest possible date” to negotiate the release of the vessel and its crew, the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
Iran’s move came after it had urged Seoul to release billions of dollars of Iranian assets frozen in South Korea as part of the US sanctions.
“We are not hostage-takers,” Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei said.
“We are used to such allegations... It is the government of [South] Korea that has taken over US$7 billion of ours hostage on baseless grounds,” he said.
South Korean Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Choi Jong-kun would go ahead with a planned three-day trip to Tehran early next week, his office said.
As eight basketball-playing international students appealed to the Taiwanese basketball industry after they were excluded from the draft of an upcoming new league merging the P.League+ and the T1 League, the new league’s preparatory committee spokesperson Chang Shu-jen (張樹人) yesterday said the committee would tomorrow discuss the supplementary measures and whether the international students can join the draft. The students on Tuesday called for support on their right to play in the upcoming new league, after a merger involving the two leagues impacted their eligibility for the draft. The international players from the University Basketball Association (UBA), led by first pick prospect
Some foreign companies are considering moving Taiwanese employees out of China after Beijing said it could impose the death penalty on “die-hard” Taiwanese independence advocates, four people familiar with the matter said. The new guidelines have caused some Taiwanese expatriates and foreign multinationals operating in China to scramble to assess their legal risks and exposure, said the people, who include a lawyer and two executives with direct knowledge of the discussions. “Several companies have come to us to assess the risks to their personnel,” said the lawyer, James Zimmerman, a Beijing-based partner at the Perkins Coie law firm. He declined to identify
WARNING: China has stepped up harassment of foreign vessels after its new regulation took effect last month, an official said, citing an incident in the Diaoyutai Islands The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday linked China’s seizure of a Taiwanese fishing vessel illegally operating in its territorial waters to Beijing’s new regulation authorizing the China Coast Guard to seize boats in waters it claims. Chinese officials boarded and then seized a Taiwanese fishing vessel operating near China’s coast close to Kinmen County late on Tuesday and took it to a Chinese port, the CGA said. The Penghu-registered squid fishing vessel Da Jin Man No. 88 (大進滿88) was boarded and seized by China Coast Guard east-northeast of Liaoluo Bay (料羅灣), 17.5 nautical miles (32.4km) from Taiwan’s restricted waters off Kinmen,
NOT ENOUGH: Although the US is to deliver Switchblade 300s and Altius 600M-Vs to Taiwan, military leaders believe the nation needs more attack drones, a source said The Ministry of National Defense (MND) has included the funding needed to mass-produce Type-1 and Type-2 suicide drones in next year’s budget plan, a military source said yesterday. Although the US government last month approved sales of Switchblade 300 loitering munitions and Altius 600M-V uncrewed aerial vehicles to Taiwan, which are scheduled for delivery between this year and the next, military leaders assessed that Taiwan would still have an inadequate number of attack drones to bolster national defense, the source said, asking to remain anonymous. Taiwan needs to mass produce locally made attack drones, including Type-1 and Type-2 suicide drones, they