IAEA chief tours sensitive Iran nuclear plants
The UN nuclear chief toured two Iranian uranium enrichment plants that have been the focus of Western concern after Tehran said it’s ready to address “doubts” about its nuclear ambitions.
The visit to Iran by International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi comes after he warned “the margins for manoeuvre are beginning to shrink” over its nuclear programme.
Samuel Hickey, of the Washington-based Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, said Grossi’s tour of the two plants is “significant for both technical monitoring and symbolic reasons”.
“Natanz serves as Iran’s main uranium enrichment facility while Fordo houses some of its most advanced centrifuges,” Hickey said.
Fordo “is among Iran’s most proliferation-sensitive sites”, he added. Hickey said by allowing Grossi to visit the plants Iran “is signalling that the easiest access to these facilities is through diplomatic engagement”.
New video of Israeli captive Sasha Trupanov in Gaza
Palestinian Islamic Jihad, allied with Hamas, released new footage of Israeli captive Sasha Trupanov who has been held in Gaza since the October 2023 attack.
Trupanov, identified by his relatives in the previous video released on Wednesday, appealed to Aryeh Deri – leader of the Sephardi ultra-Orthodox party Shas, a member of Israel’s governing coalition – to help free him and the other captives held in Gaza.
The Shas party supports a deal for their release under the Jewish religious obligation to do everything possible to free captives.
Trupanov, 29, is a dual Russian-Israeli citizen who was abducted with his girlfriend, Sapir Cohen, from the Nir Oz kibbutz near the Gaza border. His mother and grandmother were also abducted and released along with Cohen during a week-long truce and captive-prisoner exchange in November 2023. His father, Vitaly, was killed in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova called for the release of Trupanov and another captive, Maxim Herkin, in comments made before the release of the latest clip.
