US President Donald Trump has escalated threats against Tehran, warning that time was \u201crunning out\u201d for a nuclear deal<\/p>\n
Western intelligence agencies see no indication that Iran is enriching uranium for \u201cbomb-grade material,\u201d the New York Times has reported, citing sources. While activity has been detected at nuclear sites, including those damaged by last year\u2019s strikes, no high-level enrichment is underway, the report claims.
\nLast summer, the US and Israel carried out coordinated strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, justifying the campaign as preventing Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons \u2013 an ambition Iran denies. The attacks targeted the Fordow and Natanz enrichment plants and the Isfahan research center.
\nIn its report published on Thursday, the NYT claimed uranium buried at the struck sites \u2013 material closest to weapons-grade levels \u2013 remains in place. Work at the sites appears limited to excavation aimed at creating more secure facilities. No new nuclear sites have been detected, though limited activity has been observed at two incomplete sites near Natanz and Isfahan, according to the paper.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s \u2018armada\u2019 issues warning to Tehran<\/p>\n
Trump claimed the strikes \u201cobliterated\u201d Iran\u2019s enrichment capacity, but according to the newly released US National Defense Strategy, they only \u201csignificantly degraded\u201d the program. Sources told the NYT that Iran could restart centrifuges in two months and reach bomb-grade enrichment in up to a year once it retrieves its buried fuel.
\nTrump has escalated threats against Iran this week, shifting from condemning its response to anti-government protests \u2013 framed by Tehran as a foreign-backed insurrection \u2013 to issuing nuclear ultimatums. On Wednesday, he announced a \u201cmassive armada\u201d was heading toward Iran, ready to use \u201cviolence\u201d unless Tehran negotiates a nuclear deal. On Friday, Trump said he had set a deadline for the talks, warning cryptically: \u201cIf we don\u2019t make a deal, we\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Trump mulling new Iran strikes \u2013 media<\/p>\n
Iran responded defiantly, with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi saying Tehran was \u201cready for war\u201d and would consider US proposals for negotiations only if the military threat was removed.
\n\u201cNegotiations cannot take place under the shadow of threats,\u201d he stated in Istanbul on Friday, while on a visit to explore a possible mediation initiative.
\nIran\u2019s top security chief, Ali Larijani, met\u00a0with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Friday, reportedly to discuss Trump\u2019s threats.
\nMoscow has urged the US to avoid military action in Iran and pursue negotiations, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warning this week that \u201cany forceful actions can only create chaos in the region,\u201d and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov saying Russia was ready to help defuse tensions and facilitate talks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
US President Donald Trump has escalated threats against Tehran, warning that time was \u201crunning out\u201d for a nuclear deal Western intelligence agencies see no indication that Iran is enriching uranium…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}