Iran announced that it has begun enriching uranium up to 20 percent purity using advanced IR-6 centrifuges at its Fordow facility. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) verified that Iran was using a system of "modified sub-headers" for one cascade of these centrifuges, a set-up that allows Iran to more quickly and easily switch between enrichment levels.
News Briefs
July 7, 2022
The British government announced that the Royal Navy seized a shipment of Iranian weapons in the Gulf of Oman on two occasions in January and February 2022. The shipments included surface-to-air missiles and engines for land-attack cruise missiles. The British navy linked the engines to an Iranian-made cruise missile with a 1,000-kilometer range that it said Houthi rebels in Yemen have used against Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Iran denied that it had shipped the weapons to Yemen.
-- Associated Press
June 29, 2022
A round of indirect negotiations between Iran and the United States in Doha, Qatar aimed at restoring the 2015 nuclear deal ended on June 29 without any significant progress. The talks, which lasted two days and were mediated by EU official Enrique Mora, were the first since multilateral discussions in Vienna stalled in mid-March. There was no date set for the next round of negotiations.
-- The Wall Street Journal
June 27, 2022
On July 27, a cyberattack struck Iran's three largest steel-producing companies. Khuzestan Steel Company, a state-owned firm, said that it had stopped production because of the hack. Gonjeshke Darande, a hacking group, said that it conducted the cyberattack in retaliation for the "aggression of the Islamic Republic" and noted the companies' ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). According to video released by the group, the cyberattack caused a fire at a Khuzestan Steel factory; however, Khuzestan Steel's CEO said that no damage had occurred that would impact the company's ability to supply its customers. The hackers also appeared to target mills in Bandar Abbas and Mobarakeh.
-- Associated Press
June 26, 2022
In March, senior military officers from Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States held a meeting in the Egyptian city of Sharm El Sheikh to discuss potential cooperation to defend against the threat of drones and missiles from Iran. Attendees included Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces Lieutenant General Aviv Kochavi, Chief of Staff of the Saudi Armed Forces General Fayyadh bin Hamed Al Ruwaili, and General Frank McKenzie, who headed U.S. Central Command at the time, as well as Lieutenant General Salem Bin Hamad Al-Nabit, who oversees the Qatari Armed Forces.
-- The Wall Street Journal
June 26, 2022
On June 26, Iran's state media announced that the country launched a solid-fueled Zuljanah space launch vehicle (SLV). Satellite imagery indicated that Iran had been preparing a launch at Imam Khomeini Spaceport in Semnan Province. The Iranian Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL) said that the Zuljanah is capable of carrying a 220-kilogram satellite into low-earth orbit. The United States criticized the Iranian launch.
-- Associated Press
June 25, 2022
On June 24, Iran began adding concrete to the walls of the second unit of the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP). Mohammad Eslami, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), visited the plant and said that construction on the second and third units of the BNPP had fallen 28 months behind schedule. The two units combined have a planned capacity of 2,100 megawatts.
-- Tasnim News Agency
June 23, 2022
On June 23, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced that it was replacing Hossein Taeb, the head of the IRGC Intelligence Organization for the last 12 years, with General Mohammad Kazemi. Taeb will now serve as an advisor to Major General Hossein Salami, the commander of the IRGC. The reshuffle follows the suspicious deaths of a number of IRGC members in recent weeks.
-- Agence France-Presse
June 20, 2022
On June 20, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that Iran is preparing to enrich uranium using the second of two advanced IR-6 centrifuge cascades at the underground Fordow facility. This second cascade is the first to feature modified sub-headers that enable it to easily pivot between different levels of uranium enrichment. Iran has not told the IAEA the level at which the new cascade would enrich uranium but had given previous estimates of 5 to 20 percent purity.
-- Reuters
June 16, 2022
On June 16, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned several Iranian petrochemical firms and China- and United Arab Emirates-based front companies. The sanctioned entities were connected to an Iranian state-owned enterprise and Triliance, a Hong Kong-based company which the United States had already blacklisted for its transactions with Iran. The Treasury Department also sanctioned Chinese national Jeff Gao and Indian national Mohammad Shaheed Ruknooddin Bhore, alleged brokers for Triliance.
-- Agence France-Presse