The International Atomic Energy Agency reported to member states that Iran has begun operating one of three cascades of IR-6 centrifuges that it had recently installed at its underground Natanz site. Iran is feeding the cascade with uranium enriched to two percent purity and enriching it up to five percent. One of the two other cascades of IR-6 centrifuges at the site was undergoing passivation, a process that precedes enrichment. The other had yet to be fed with any nuclear material.
News Briefs
August 29, 2022
-- Reuters
August 25, 2022
Russia has obtained hundreds of Iranian drones to use in Ukraine, according to Western intelligence officials. The sources said the drones appeared to be operational and ready to use.
-- Associated Press
August 24, 2022
Iran began a two-day exercise to test its combat and reconnaissance drones. The war games involve 150 aircraft and are taking place at multiple locations across Iran. The country is also testing its air defense and electronic warfare capabilities during the exercise.
-- Reuters
August 15, 2022
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) began a two-week drone tournament in Kashan with participants from Armenia, Belarus, and Russia. The competition is part of a series of annual military games first launched by Russia in 2015 and will showcase drones' reconaissance and targeting capabilities.
-- Al Jazeera
August 11, 2022
An Argentine federal judge ordered the seizure of a Venezuelan-owned Boeing 747 at the request of the United States due to the aircraft's suspected links to terrorism. The plane, which the Iranian company Mahan Air had sold to Venezuelan airline Emtrasur, has been grounded in Buenos Aires since June. Both airlines are sanctioned by the United States. Agents from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations reportedly inspected the plane the same day that the order was issued.
-- Reuters
August 9, 2022
A Russian rocket placed a Russian-built but Iranian-owned remote-sensing satellite called Khayyam into low-earth orbit. The Iranian Space Agency said the satellite, which has a higher resolution than Iranian-made satellites, will be used for civilian purposes such as environmental monitoring. It also said the satellite will be fully under Iranian control "from day one" and that no other country will have access to the information it gathers, rebutting earlier reporting that Russia may first use it for surveillance in Ukraine.
-- Al Jazeera
August 8, 2022
U.S. and European officials announced that negotiations to restore the 2015 nuclear deal had finished and that there would be no further changes to the text of the proposed agreement. They said that Iran must now make a final decision whether to accept or reject the deal. Iranian officials, however, said they had conveyed an initial response to the draft and would return with additional views later.
-- Wall Street Journal
August 4, 2022
Negotiations aimed at restoring the 2015 nuclear deal resumed in Vienna, although this round of talks appeared not to include high-level delegations from all the countries that were part of the original deal. According to Iranian state media, Iran still demands that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) be removed from the U.S. list of terrorist organizations as a precondition to a deal. Further, Iran wants the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to abandon its investigation into traces of uranium found at previously undeclared sites.
-- Associated Press
August 3, 2022
According to an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report, Iran has completed the installation of three cascades of IR-6 centrifuges at its Natanz fuel enrichment plant. Iran also plans to install an additional six cascades of IR-2m centrifuges at a new operating unit in the same location.
-- Reuters
July 27, 2022
The Iranian-flagged oil tanker Lana (formerly Pegas) will retrieve part of its cargo and return home following a ruling of the Greek Supreme Court in Iran's favor. The United States had confiscated the cargo after the tanker was impounded by the Greek authorities more than two months prior. In response, Iranian forces had seized two Greek tankers in the Persian Gulf, which have not yet been released.
-- Reuters