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Iran nuclear chief says 60% enrichment has started at Natanz site
Iran has begun 60% uranium enrichment at its Natanz plant, the country's nuclear chief said on Friday, days after an explosion at the site that Tehran blamed on Israel.
"We are producing about nine grams of 60% enriched uranium an hour," Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, told state television.
"But we have to work on arrangements... to drop it to 5 grams per hour. But then we will simultaneously produce 20% (uranium)," Salehi said.
Earlier, parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said Iranian scientists had successfully started enriching 60 percent uranium at 12:40 a.m. local time (2010 GMT).
"The will of the Iranian nation makes miracles that thwart any conspiracy," Qalibaf said on Twitter.
In Vienna, a spokesman for the United Nations nuclear watchdog IAEA declined to comment on the Iranian statements about 60% enrichment.
Iran has said its decision to increase enrichment to its highest level ever was in response to sabotage at its nuclear site at Natanz on Sunday by Israel.
Iran and global powers are meeting in Vienna to try to rescue a 2015 nuclear deal abandoned by Washington three years ago, in an effort potentially complicated by Tehran’s decision to ramp up uranium enrichment.
The 2015 agreement sought to make it harder for Iran to develop an atomic bomb - something it denies ever trying to do - in return for lifting sanctions.
Abbas Araqchi, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator at nuclear talks in Vienna, said on Tuesday that Iran would activate 1,000 advanced centrifuge machines at Natanz.
An Iranian official told Reuters that "60% enrichment will be in small quantity" only.
Multiple Israeli media outlets have quoted unnamed intelligence sources as saying the country's Mossad spy service carried out the sabotage operation at the Natanz complex. Israel - widely believed to be the only Middle Eastern country with a nuclear arsenal - has not formally commented on the incident.
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Saudi Arabia executed 101 people, including three Afghans this year
The European-Saudi Human Rights Organization in Berlin condemned the executions and said this was three times higher then last year
Saudi Arabia has executed 101 foreign nationals this year, including three Afghan citizens.
AFP reported that 21 Pakistanis, 20 Yemenis, 14 Syrians, 10 Nigerians, nine Egyptians, eight Jordanians, seven Ethiopians, three Sudanese, three Indians, three Afghans and one Sri Lankan, one Eritrean and one Filipino.
The European-Saudi Human Rights Organization in Berlin condemned the executions and said this was three times higher then last year.
The organization’s legal director stated: “This is the largest number of foreign nationals executed in a single year. Saudi Arabia has never executed 100 foreign nationals in one year before.”
Amnesty International meanwhile stated that Saudi Arabia was the third highest country for the number of executions in 2023, after China and Iran.
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Canada sent 19 failed asylum seekers back to Afghanistan last year
Canada's border guards sent 19 rejected Afghan asylum seekers back to the country last year despite Otawa’s Temporary Suspension of Removals (TSR) that has been in place for Afghan nationals since 1994.
CBC reported that none of the 19 Afghans had their cases rejected on the basis of safety or security risks. The border service did not however reveal further details.
The border agency said a TSR is meant to "halt removals to a country or place when general conditions, such as armed conflict or an environmental disaster, pose a risk to the entire civilian population."
It also said individuals who were found inadmissible "on grounds of criminality, serious criminality, international or human rights violations, organized crime, or security" can be removed despite a TSR, CBC reported.
The CBSA said the 19 who failed their refugee claims left Canada "voluntarily," and that the Afghans were "aware that they benefit from a stay of removal due to the Temporary Suspension of Removal on Afghanistan but requested to have their removal order enforced despite the legislative stay.
"In other words, the individual was advised that they can remain in Canada until the TSR is lifted and they opted to return to Afghanistan."
Canada has welcomed some 54,000 Afghans since August 2021, surpassing a commitment it made to bring in 40,000 in 2021.
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Trump team compiling list of military officers responsible for US withdrawal from Afghanistan
Trump has on a number of occasions condemned the withdrawal as a “humiliation” and “the most embarrassing day in the history of our country.”
Citing a US official and a person familiar with the plan, NBC stated a commission would then gather information about who was directly involved in the decision-making for the military, how it was carried out, and whether the military leaders could be eligible for charges as serious as treason.
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