Nuclear Weapons

VLADIMIR Putin’s prized golden goose – Russia’s oil empire – has become a sitting duck, and it’s Ukraine’s drones that are pulling the trigger.

In the latest episode of Battle Plans Exposed, military intelligence expert Philip Ingram MBE lays bare how Kyiv has opened a devastating new front in the war in the oilfields, refineries and pipelines that bankroll Putin’s invasion.

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“This is the oil war,” Ingram says.

“It’s a highly strategic, calculated campaign to cripple the engine of Putin’s war.”

Watch the latest episode on The Sun’s YouTube channel here…

For decades, Russia’s vast energy reserves paid for everything from tanks and cruise missiles to soldiers’ salaries and propaganda handouts.

Before the invasion, energy exports made up around 40 per cent of the Kremlin’s budget.

Even under sanctions, oil and gas still bring in 30 per cent of Russia’s income.

The episode shows how Ukraine has zeroed in on this “river of oil money” with pinpoint strikes hundreds of miles inside Russian territory.

Long-range drones have torched colossal refineries, exploded pumping stations and set storage tanks ablaze – systematically dismantling Moscow’s refining capacity.

Footage of Rosneft’s Ryazan refinery erupting into flames after a single drone strike captures the scale of the destruction.

“This isn’t a military base on the border,” Ingram warns.

“This is a core piece of Russia’s national infrastructure – hundreds of miles from Ukraine.”

What makes these attacks so devastating is their precision.

Ingram explains that the real targets aren’t the giant tanks but the refinery’s processing units – “the heart of the refinery,” where crude is split into diesel for tanks, jet fuel for fighters and gasoline for the home front.

Knock one of these units out, and the entire facility is useless for months, even years.

The episode shows how Ukraine has already knocked out at least 12 per cent of Russia’s refining capacity – stripping away over 600,000 barrels a day.

That’s billions in lost revenue that can’t be pumped into Putin’s war chest.

The impact is twofold. First, it chokes the Russian military itself: “No diesel, and tanks don’t move.

“No jet fuel, and fighters are grounded,” Ingram says.

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Second, it hits ordinary Russians – with fuel shortages, soaring prices and the chilling sight of their industrial heartland burning.

The Kremlin’s response? Denial, spin and panic.

Moscow has been forced to ban fuel exports for six months, sacrificing vital revenue just to stop unrest at home.

“Putin’s greatest fear,” Ingram says, “is the Russian people rising up.”

This is asymmetric warfare at its most ruthless – cheap Ukrainian drones inflicting billion-dollar wounds on the Kremlin.

The episode shows how the campaign has shattered Russia’s aura of invulnerability, exposed its sprawling oil empire as a fatal weakness, and brought the war crashing into the lives of ordinary Russians.

And as Ingram puts it: “It proves that in modern warfare, the most effective battle plans aren’t always about brute force on the tactical frontline, but about finding your enemy’s single point of failure – and striking it again and again with unrelenting precision.”

It comes as Ukraine claims to have turned the tide on the eastern front in a brutal counter-offensive.

Kyiv’s top general Oleksandr Syrskyi said his troops had clawed back around 60 square miles since August, with Putin’s men retreating from a further 70 square miles north of bomb-blitzed Pokrovsk.

He boasted Russian forces had paid a horrifying price — 1,500 killed, another thousand wounded and 12 main battle tanks blown to pieces.

“Control has been restored in seven settlements and nine more have been cleared of enemy sabotage and reconnaissance groups,” Syrskyi declared, claiming nearly 165 square kilometres were liberated and almost 180 cleared of Russian saboteurs.

The breakthrough follows a shaky summer where Russian “saboteurs” punched six miles through Ukrainian lines overnight, threatening to cut supply roads.

But Ukraine has regrouped and is now pushing them back, Syrskyi insisting: “In the past 24 hours alone the enemy have lost 65 servicemen, 43 of them killed in action, along with 11 pieces of equipment.”

The destroyed kit ranges from tanks to artillery, drones and even a quad bike used by desperate Russian troops.

Russia has tried to claw back the narrative, claiming it captured a hamlet south of Pokrovsk — a claim Ukraine flatly denies.

Instead, Kyiv points to wrecked Russian armour littering the battlefield and insists the Kremlin’s army is being bled dry.

The fighting comes as Volodymyr Zelensky prepares to meet Donald Trump on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

Ukraine’s war leader is set to press the US president for tougher sanctions if Putin refuses to come to the table.

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Trump — who once called Putin a “genius” — admitted the dictator had “let him down”.

“I thought this war would be one of the easiest to solve because of my relationship with Putin. But he has really let me down,” he said during his visit to Britain.

But Britain’s spy chief Sir Richard Moore has poured cold water on any idea of a quick peace.

In a message aimed squarely at Trump, he said: “I have seen absolutely no evidence that President Putin has any interest in a negotiated  peace short of Ukrainian capitulation.”

He warned the world not to be duped by the Kremlin tyrant: “We should not believe him or credit him with strength he does not have.”

Moore added Russia was grinding forward “at a snail’s pace and horrendous cost” — and that Putin had “bitten off more than he can chew.”

He lauded Ukraine’s resistance and heaped praise on Zelensky, saying: “My admiration for him is unbounded,” while savaging Putin for plunging Russia into “long term decline” where he invests only in “missiles, munitions and morgues.”

The warning came days after Russia’s indiscriminate blitz killed three civilians in Zaporizhzhia — two women aged 40 and 79 and a man of 77 — even as Ukrainian forces notched up new gains and unleashed fresh revenge strikes on Russian soil.

Last month, Kyiv marked Independence Day with a wave of drone attacks crippling Russian energy sites and claimed to have wiped out three of the “Butchers of Bucha” in precision bombings in occupied Luhansk.

The Russian soldiers had been accused of taking part in the notorious 2022 massacre where hundreds of civilians were executed, tortured and raped as Putin’s troops stormed towards Kyiv.

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UKRAINE claimed its troops have turned the tide in a key part of the eastern front.

Kyiv’s top general Oleksandr Syrskyi said his troops had recaptured some 60 square miles in a major reversal since August.

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He also claimed Putin’s invaders had abandoned positions in a further 70 square miles north of the bomb-blitzed town of Pokrovsk.

The advances are welcome successes for Kyiv after months of Russian assaults wore down Ukraine’s morale.

Gen Syrskyi claimed Russian forces had suffered eye-watering losses including 1500 killed in action, another thousand wounded and at least 12 main battle tanks destroyed.

In a statement on Monday Gen Syrskyi said: “Control has been restored in seven settlements and nine more have been cleared of enemy sabotage and reconnaissance groups.

“As of 12pm on 22 September 2025, a total of 164.0 km² have been liberated and another 180.3 km² cleared of enemy sabotage groups.”

Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy announced the counter-attack success last week.

The fight back followed a shock Russian advance in August.

Small groups of Russian “saboteurs” found weak points in the Ukrainian line and advanced almost six miles overnight, threatening to cut a key supply road between Dobropillia and Kostiantynivka.

Ukraine’s troops scrambled to contain the breakthrough and have now started to push them back.

Gen Syrskyi said his forces had continued to advance yesterday.

He said: “In the past 24 hours alone the enemy have lost 65 servicemen, 43 of them killed in action, along with 11 pieces of equipment.”

The wrecked Russian kit included four artillery guns, six drones and a quad bike which Russian troops used for assaults.

Gen Syrskyi claimed his assault teams “advanced between 200 m and 2.5 km in certain areas.”

The destroyed Russian weapons ranged from 12 main battle tanks to almost 60 motorcycles over the course of the counter offensive.

Russia hit back by claiming its troops had advanced to the south of Pokrovsk and captured the hamlet of Kalynivske.

Ukraine denied the Russian advance.

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It comes as President Zelensky prepared to meet Donald Trump at the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

Zelenskyy is expected to press Trump for sanctions on Russia if Putin refuses to meet them.

President Trump said Putin had “let him down” over peace in Ukraine.
Speaking during his state visit to Britain Trump said he thought the war in Ukraine would have been the easiest war for him to solve because of their relationship.

He said: “I thought this war would be one of the easiest to solve because of my relationship with Putin. But he has really let me down.”

The head of Britain’s MI6 warned Putin was “stringing us along”.

In a message aimed squarely at Donald Trump, the spy chief Sir Richard Moore said: “I have seen absolutely no evidence that President Putin has any interest in a negotiated  peace short of Ukrainian capitulation.

Sir Richard, who is known as C, used his final chief as head of Britain’s Secret Intelligence  Service to say Putin lies to the world, to his people and “perhaps even to himself.”

He said: “We should not believe him or credit him with strength he does not have.”

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Trump has called Putin a genius, repeatedly mentioned Russia’s size and strength, and he rolled out the red carpet for Putin when they met in Alaska last month.

Sir Richard, who has access to Britain’s most secret reports on Putin’s intentions, insisted the Russian dictator was still determined to bring Kyiv under Russian control.

He said: “Putin seeks to impose his imperial will by all means at his disposal.”

But he said Russia was doomed to fail.

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He said: “He cannot succeed. Russia simply does not have the wherewithal to fully subjugate Ukraine by force.

Sir Richard acknowledged Russian troops were “grinding forward on the battlefield”.

But he said it was at “a snail’s pace and horrendous cost”.

He said: “Putin has bitten off more than he can chew.

“History warns us never to underestimate a country fighting for its independence and for its very survival.

“Greater powers than Russia have failed to subjugate weaker powers than Ukraine.

“In the end, if we hold our nerve, Putin will need to come to terms with the fact that he has a choice – to risk an economic and political crisis that threatens his own rule, or make a sensible deal.”

Sir Richard, who has been tipped as a possible British ambassador to Washington, lavished praise on Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy.

He said: “My admiration for him is unbounded.”

By contrast he accused Putin of plunging Russia into “long term decline”.

He said: “He invests not in infrastructure, schools and hospitals but in missiles, munitions and morgues.”

Britain and European leaders have rallied around President Zelenskyy after the war leader had a disastrous meeting with President Trump in the White House in March.

Trump’s relations with Zelenskyy have since improved but Ukrainians fear he could cut US support to Ukraine on a whim.

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Trump threatened Russia with “serious consequences” if he didn’t make steps towards peace.

But Trump’s deadline passed with no penalties for Russia.

And Moscow has since flown a squadron of drones into Poland during a night-time blitz on Ukraine.

Sir Richard goaded the Russian president – who is himself a former KGB intelligence officer –  by encouraging Russians to spy for Britain.

And he boasted that some of Putin’s opponents were already “secretly working with MI6”.

Sir Richard was making his final public speech before stepping down after five years as the chief of MI6.

And he formally launched new “dark web portal” codenamed Silent Courier,  to help potential spies contact MI6 secretly from anywhere in the world.

He is due to be replaced by Blaise Metreweli, the first ever female chief of MI6, who is currently serving as Q, head of the MI6 gadgets.

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has suggested that he is open to talks with the US if Washington stops insisting that his country give up its nuclear weapons.

“If the United States drops the absurd obsession with denuclearising us and accepts reality, and wants genuine peaceful coexistence, there is no reason for us not to sit down with the United States,” Kim said in a speech at the Supreme People’s Assembly in Pyongyang on Sunday, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The North Korean leader also commented on US President Donald Trump, whom he met three times during Trump’s first presidency, saying: “Personally, I still have fond memories of US President Trump.”

Kim’s comments come after both Trump and South Korean leader Lee Jae-myung expressed their willingness to meet with their North Korean counterpart at a meeting at the White House last month.

“Someday, I’ll see him. I look forward to seeing him. He was very good with me,” Trump said at the time, adding that he knew Kim, whose family has ruled North Korea for three generations, “better than anybody, almost, other than his sister”.

Lee, who has been vocally supportive of thawing relations with his country’s northern neighbour since taking office in June, said at the same meeting that he hoped the US president would “build a Trump Tower” in North Korea “so that I can play golf there”.

Despite overtures from Lee and Trump, North Korea has been critical of joint military drills between the US and South Korea, with Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, describing them as a “reckless” invasion rehearsal.

A more realistic goal

In recent interviews with the BBC and the Reuters news agency, Lee has also expressed an openness to negotiating his country’s stance on North Korea’s nuclear weapons.

Speaking to the BBC on Sunday, Lee said he would be open to a more “realistic” goal of North Korea agreeing to stop acquiring more nuclear weapons, rather than continuing with “fruitless attempts” at making it give up its existing arsenal.

“So long as we do not give up on the long-term goal of denuclearisation, I believe there are clear benefits to having North Korea stop its nuclear and missile development,” Lee said.

In an interview with Reuters, also published on Sunday, Lee acknowledged that sanctions had ultimately failed to deter Pyongyang, which today is adding an estimated 15 to 20 nuclear weapons to its arsenal every year.

“The reality is that the previous approach of sanctions and pressure has not solved the problem; it has worsened it,” Lee said.

Addressing the Supreme People’s Assembly in Pyongyang on Sunday, Kim also said that sanctions had only made his country stronger and more resilient, despite reports that the nation of some 26 million people has long suffered from a food crisis.

“There will never be, and will never ever be for eternity, any negotiations with enemies of exchanging some things out of some obsession with lifting sanctions,” Kim said.

The United Nations imposed sanctions on North Korea for pursuing its banned nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes close to 20 years ago.

But Kim Jong Un last year promised to “exponentially” boost his nation’s nuclear arsenal to defend itself against “hostile” forces.

The push comes as the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s (SIPRI) Yearbook warned in its latest annual report that the world is at risk of a new arms race among the nine nuclear-armed states: China, France, Israel, India, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the US.

Meanwhile, Kim’s signalling of an openness to meeting with Washington comes after he met with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, and Russia’s leader, Vladimir Putin, in Beijing earlier this month for a military parade marking 80 years since the end of World War II.

In comments apparently addressed to Xi regarding the Beijing celebrations, Trump said on his Truth Social platform: “Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against the United States of America.”

VLADIMIR Putin has fired his top general amid ongoing humiliating blows from Ukraine.

General Alexander Lapin, 61, was reportedly sacked for failing to sweep through the Sumy region – considered one of the tyrant’s key war goals.

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Once a decorated militant, he was awarded the Kremlin’s top honour: the Hero of Russia.

Despite his many medals, however, he came under fire and was criticised as “incompetent” by military experts.

Putin ally Ramzan Kadyrov, head of Chechnya, said of him three years ago: “If I had my way, I would have demoted Lapin to private, deprived him of his awards, and sent him to the front line to wash off his shame with the rifle in his hands.”

Reports suggest Russia lost three battalions in its attempt to capture the Sumy region as Ukraine continues to grind down on Vlad.

His dismissal, however, has raised suspicions Putin is looking for scapegoats to explain his humiliating military defeats.

This includes his slow territorial gains into Ukraine while losing millions of men both injured and killed.

He was also earlier blamed for Ukraine’s impressive advance into Russia’s Kursk region, which the tyrant only narrowly pushed back on thanks to North Korean forces.

During the war, Lapin commanded the Centre group of forces, reaching  the title Hero of Russia.

A year later, he was appointed Chief of the General Staff of Russian Ground Forces.

Later he commanded the Leningrad Military District, then the North group.

In his new role, he will be in charge of recruiting contract soldiers in Tatarstan, the 44th largest region in Russia.

He will also liaise with service families including widows of fallen soldiers. 

It comes as analysts have recognised how Ukraine has been heavily defending a key town for over a year in its war with Russia.

The key town of Pokrovsk has also been deemed strategically critical for Putin’s territorial ambitions.

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As a vital railway and transport hub, Provosk could give Russia a huge supply line if captured, according to intelligence officer Philip Ingram.

It has been nicknamed the “gateway to Donetsk” by Russian media with key crossroads that could enable Putin the seize the rest of the area.

Putin has also revealed how he just about “dodged” death trying to fire up the engine of a motorbike.

The 72-year-old told defence minister Andrei Belousov of the incident: “I once got on a motorcycle, revved it.

“And it went into a spin and flipped over.

“I just dodged it at the last second. It fell right next to me.”

The Russian leader has long sought to cultivate an image as a macho tough guy as part of his domestic persona.

He shared the motorbike anecdote dressed in military fatigues – despite being hundreds of miles from the war zone.

Four countries vote to stop sanctions from being reintroduced, while nine vote against sanctions relief.

The United Nations Security Council has voted not to permanently lift economic sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme, delivering a major economic blow that Tehran claims is “politically biased”.

A resolution on Friday to block the sanctions fell in the Security Council by a vote of four to nine, meaning European sanctions will return by September 28 if no significant deal is reached beforehand.

Russia, China, Pakistan and Algeria voted to stop the sanctions from being reintroduced, while nine UNSC members voted against sanctions relief. Two countries abstained.

The vote follows a 30-day process launched in late August by Britain, France and Germany – known as the E3 – to reinstate sanctions unless Tehran meets their demands.

Iran says Europeans ‘misusing JCPOA mechanism’

Iranian officials have accused the European trio of abusing the dispute mechanism contained in the 2015 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which allows for the application of sanctions under a “snapback mechanism”.

“What Europeans are doing is politically biased and politically motivated … They are wrong on different levels by trying to misuse the mechanism embedded in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA),” Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh said.

The Europeans offered to delay the snapback for up to six months if Iran restored access for UN nuclear inspectors and engaged in talks with the US.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi claimed that Tehran had presented a “reasonable and actionable plan” and insisted Iran remains committed to the NPT.

But the E3 accuse Tehran of breaching their nuclear commitments, including by building up a uranium stockpile of more than 40 times the level permitted under the JCPOA. The UN’s nuclear watchdog board also ruled back in June that Iran was not respecting international nuclear safeguards.

‘Clock is ticking for high-level diplomacy’

The UNSC vote allowing sanctions to snap back is not the complete “end of negotiations,” as the parties have just over a week to come up with a last-ditch deal, said Al Jazeera’s Diplomatic Editor James Bays, reporting from the UN.

“It’s the week where world leaders are all here in New York for the high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly, so it sets the stage for high-level diplomacy between Iran and particularly the three European countries,” said Bays. But “we’re reaching the end of this high-stakes diplomacy, and the clock really is ticking.”

Under the JCPOA – signed by Iran, the United States, China, Russia and the EU – Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief. But the agreement unravelled in 2018 after then-US President Donald Trump pulled out and reimposed unilateral sanctions.

Tensions escalated further earlier this summer, when Israel launched a 12-day war on Iran, with Israeli and US forces striking several nuclear facilities.

Iran has repeatedly denied pursuing nuclear weapons but affirmed its right to peacefully pursue nuclear energy.

BRITAIN must square up to Russia over its threats to undersea cables or risk a “catastrophic” attack a report by parliament has warned.

The military is “too timid” defending pipelines and seabed internet cables and must adopt a much more “muscular” approach, it said.

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The report by Parliament’s National Security Strategy Committee called for “punitive consequences” for saboteurs that go beyond calling them names.

It warned: “Otherwise, aggressors that are content with implausible deniability can cause damage with minimal risk.”

It comes after Navy chief General Sir Gwyn Jenkins warned Russia’s sub-sabotage unit GUGI was “regenerating”.

The committee of 22 MPs and peers warned Russia was the “primary threat” capable of causing severe disruption to the UK.

They cited “numerous allegations” of Russia and China using proxy actors to sabotage subsea cables in the Baltic and Indo-Pacific.

They panned Labour’s former telecoms minister Chris Bryant for dismissing their concerns as “apocalyptic”.

The report said: “The Minister (Bryant) suggested that exploring the risks of a co-ordinated attack on subsea infrastructure was unhelpfully “apocalyptic”.

“We disagree. Focusing on fishing accidents and low-level sabotage is no longer good enough.”

The report warned the UK faces a “strategic vulnerability”.

Proper “defensive preparations” could reduce the chances of a sabotage attack, it added.

Sir David Omand, a former GCHQ spychief, warned Britain would be in Russia’s “crosshairs” in the event of a ceasefire in Ukraine.

He said: “We really must expect the Russians to pick on us.”

Professor Kevin Rowlands, from the Royal Navy’s Strategic Studies Centre, told the committee that Russia’s GUGI had over 50 vessels including submarines that could dive to 6,000 metres.

He raised fears over vessels deliberately dragging their anchors to sever seabed cables and saboteurs armed with axes cut cables on land.

He said: “Dragging an anchor over a well‑plotted cable is easy and deniable.

“Pre-positioning any timed charges is difficult and risky for whoever is doing that.

“Using divers is difficult and, again, is trackable.”

He added: “In the future, one-way uncrewed underwater vehicles are probably a way ahead for any adversary.”

The MoD said it was investing “in new capabilities to help protect our offshore infrastructure, using the latest technology”.

It said: “This includes through the UK-led reaction system Nordic Warden, to track potential threats to undersea infrastructure, the high-tech RFA Proteus and Atlantic Bastion – high tech sensors above and below the seas to track submarines.”

The Sun understands the advice came from lawyers paid by the Ministry of Defence to act on behalf of the SAS and its veterans.

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Germany says it’s possible to temporarily delay sanctions after E3’s top diplomats hold call with Iranian counterpart.

Germany says the “ball is still in Iran’s court” after the French, British and German foreign ministers held talks by phone with their Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, regarding Tehran’s nuclear programme.

Wednesday’s phone call came after the European powers last month triggered a 30-day deadline for “snapback” sanctions to come into force in the absence of a negotiated deal on the Iranian nuclear programme.

A German Federal Foreign Office spokesman told the AFP news agency on Wednesday that the offer from the so-called E3 powers “to discuss a temporary extension of the snapback if Iran fulfils certain conditions remains on the table” but added: “At this point, the steps taken by Iran have not been sufficient.”

Before the call, Tehran called for a “positive approach and goodwill” from the E3.

The E3 has been warning Tehran for weeks that United Nations sanctions could be reimposed by October when a 2015 nuclear agreement between Tehran and major powers expires.

A spokesman for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has warned that renewing the sanctions would have consequences.

The E3 has accused Tehran of violating provisions of the 2015 nuclear pact, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The agreement, which all three countries signed, saw Iran agree to curb its nuclear programme in exchange for a lifting of international sanctions on its economy.

A component of the nuclear deal, the “snapback” mechanism, allows sanctions to be reimposed quickly if Iran is found to be in violation of the accord.

The call, which also included European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, followed an agreement reached by Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last week on resuming cooperation between Tehran and the UN nuclear watchdog, including in principle the inspection of nuclear sites. Iran’s Supreme National Security Council has backed renewed nuclear inspections.

Earlier in the week, Iran was pushing for a resolution prohibiting attacks on nuclear installations at the IAEA’s General Conference, which started on Monday in Vienna and ends on Friday.

According to Iran’s deputy nuclear chief, Behrouz Kamalvandi, who is in Vienna, the United States is putting pressure on member states to block the resolution and has “even threatened the agency that they will cut off assistance to the organisation”.

During a 12-day conflict in June, Israel and the US struck Iranian nuclear facilities, claiming Iran was getting too close to being able to produce a nuclear weapon, and IAEA inspections were interrupted over security concerns and complaints by Tehran.

Resumed cooperation between Iran and the IAEA is one of the three conditions set by European powers to hold off on completing the UN snapback mechanism, which they invoked in August.

“It is a natural expectation that Iran’s positive approach and goodwill should be reciprocated by the European side. … If some European parties start nagging this is not enough, that would mean they do not accept the IAEA,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Wednesday.

“We hope that with contacts like today’s and future ones, all parties will come to the conclusion that escalating tensions and perpetuating the current situation is not in anyone’s interest.”

Since US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the Iranian nuclear deal in 2018 and reimposed sanctions, the Board of Governors of the IAEA has adopted four Western-backed censure resolutions against Iran, which maintains its nuclear programme is for peaceful civilian purposes.

Neither US intelligence nor the IAEA found earlier this year that Iran was pursuing an atomic weapon.

In latest development of his weapons arsenal, Kim supervised the test of a new solid-fuel rocket engine for North Korea’s ICBMs.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has overseen a test of a new rocket engine designed for intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that he described as marking a “significant change in expanding and strengthening” the country’s strategic nuclear forces.

The country’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Tuesday that the successful test marked the ninth and final ground test of the solid-fuel rocket engine, built with carbon fibre and capable of producing 1,971 kilonewtons of thrust – a measure of propulsive force which is more powerful than earlier North Korean rocket engines.

The KCNA said that Kim expressed satisfaction after Monday’s test, calling the “eye-opening” development of the new rocket engine a “significant change” in North Korean nuclear capabilities.

The announcement that tests on the solid-fuel rocket are now complete comes a week after Kim visited the research institute that developed the engine, and where he unveiled that a next-generation Hwasong-20 ICBM is currently under development.

The development of North Korea’s ICBM arsenal adds to Pyongyang’s efforts in recent years to build weapons that pose as a viable threat to the continental United States, according to defence analysts.

Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions are seen as a means to bolster North Korea’s status as a nuclear power and give it leverage in negotiating economic and security concessions with the US and other world powers.

North Korea also marked the 77th anniversary of its founding on Tuesday, by the current leader’s grandfather, Kim Il-sung.

In a separate report, KCNA said that Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to Kim and called for strengthened “strategic communication” between Beijing and Pyongyang.

“The Chinese side is ready to join hands in promoting the China-DPRK friendship and the socialist cause of the two countries through the intensified strategic communication and brisk visits and close cooperation with the DPRK side,” Xi wrote, using the acronym for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Last week, Kim joined Russian President Vladimir Putin and Xi in Beijing for China’s Victory Day Parade commemorating the end of World War II.

Analysts have said that the rare trip to an international gathering of world leaders was a diplomatic win for Kim, who has fortified his alliance with Russia and China.

Head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, says he hopes for a ‘successful conclusion’ in the coming days.

Talks on resuming International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections of Iran’s nuclear sites have made progress, but its chief warned that there was “not much” time remaining.

On Monday, the director general of the United Nations nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, told the 35-nation IAEA Board of Governors in Vienna, Austria, that “Progress has been made”.

“It is my sincere hope that within the next few days it will be possible to come to a successful conclusion of these discussions,” Grossi said, adding: “There is still time, but not much.”

He did not elaborate on what the timeframe meant exactly.

While Tehran allowed inspectors from the IAEA into Iran at the end of August, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said no agreement had been reached on the resumption of full cooperation with the watchdog.

Following a 12-day war, which saw Israel and the United States bomb cities across Iran, as well as Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear facilities, in June, Tehran decided to change its cooperation with the IAEA.

Iran expressed anger at the IAEA for paving the way for Israel’s attack by censuring the country the day before Israel struck with a damning report in May that declared that Tehran was in breach of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).

Fury then followed when the watchdog did not condemn Israeli or US attacks. In July, Iran passed a law suspending cooperation with the agency.

Within the law, any future inspection of its nuclear sites needs approval by Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.

However, last week, Grossi told the Reuters news agency in an interview that the board was pushing for a deal to inspect Iranian sites, including those targeted by Israel and the US.

Grossi confirmed that the IAEA had no information from Iran on the status or whereabouts of its stock of highly enriched uranium since Israel’s attacks on June 13.

“I believe there is a general understanding that by and large, the material is still there. But, of course, it needs to be verified. Some could have been lost,” he said.

“We don’t have indications that would lead us to believe that there has been major movement of material,” Grossi added.

Late last month, France, Germany and the United Kingdom triggered a mechanism to reimpose sanctions on Iran after a series of meetings failed to reach an agreement on the Iranian nuclear programme.

The three European countries, known as the E3, had been warning Tehran for weeks that UN sanctions could be reimposed by October when a 2015 nuclear agreement between Tehran and major powers expires.

Abbas Araghchi says despite ‘snapback’ sanctions process, Iran is open to a ‘realistic and lasting bargain’.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has accused Britain, France and Germany of pursuing a “reckless” strategy on his country’s nuclear programme, warning that their alignment with Washington will only diminish Europe’s global standing.

Writing in The Guardian on Sunday, Araghchi said the decision by the so-called E3 to trigger a process that could reinstate United Nations sanctions “lacks any legal standing” and is bound to fail.

“The truth is that they are intently pursuing a reckless course of action … This is a grave miscalculation that is bound to backfire,” Araghchi wrote.

In August, Germany, France and the United Kingdom – Europe’s largest economies – triggered a 30-day process to activate “snapback” sanctions over what they called “significant” violations of a 2015 agreement to limit Iran’s nuclear programme.

The United States, which bombed three nuclear facilities in June as part of an Israeli assault on Iran, has welcomed the European countries’ move.

Araghchi accused the three powers of ignoring the fact that it was the US, not Iran, that withdrew from the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). While Tehran took what he described as “lawful remedial measures” under the accord, the E3 failed to uphold their own obligations.

Araghchi noted that European leaders once pledged to protect trade with Iran after US President Donald Trump reimposed sanctions in 2018. “None of it materialised,” he wrote, adding that Europe’s promises of “strategic autonomy” collapsed under US pressure.

Instead, he argued, Europe has acted as a bystander, cheering Washington’s aggressive approach. “Openly cheerleading illegal military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities protected by international law – as Germany’s chancellor has done – does not constitute ‘participation’” in the deal, he wrote.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz suggested in June that the West is benefitting from the Israeli assault against Iran.

“This is dirty work that Israel is doing for all of us,” he said.

Araghchi stressed in his Guardian column that Tehran remains open to dialogue. “[Iran] is ready to forge a realistic and lasting bargain that entails ironclad oversight and curbs on enrichment in exchange for the termination of sanctions,” he said.

He cautioned that ignoring this chance could plunge the region into deeper instability, especially amid escalating tensions with Israel. “The powerful armed forces of Iran are ready and able to once again pummel Israel into running to ‘daddy’ to be bailed out,” Araghchi warned, arguing that Israeli provocations risk dragging the US into costly conflicts.

The Trump administration had also claimed that the door remains open for talks with Iran.

“The United States remains available for direct engagement with Iran – in furtherance of a peaceful, enduring resolution to the Iran nuclear issue,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement following the E3 announcement on sanctions last month.

“Snapback does not contradict our earnest readiness for diplomacy, it only enhances it.”

A round of nuclear talks between US and Iranian officials was set to take place on June 15. But Israeli bombs started falling on Tehran two days before the scheduled negotiations, postponing them indefinitely.

Washington insists that Iran cannot enrich uranium domestically, but Iran insists that its right to enrichment is non-negotiable.

The 2015 nuclear deal – which Trump nixed during his first term as US president – gives Iran the right to enrich uranium at a low level for civilian purposes under a strict monitoring system.

The snapback mechanism in the JCPOA gave any party to the agreement – the US, UK, Germany, France, Russia or China – the power to kick-start a process to revive six UN Security Council sanctions resolutions.

And the snapback is veto-proof, meaning Russia and China, both allies of Iran, cannot block the restoration of the sanctions.

In 2020, the US tried to activate the snapback clause of the JCPOA, but the effort failed because Washington was no longer a participant in the agreement.

THIS is the moment US military forces bombed a drug running boat from the Tren de Aragua gang.

Dramatic footage shows a kinetic strike target and destroy a smuggling vessel in the Southern Caribbean.

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Washington designates Venezuela’s Tren de Agarua gang as a Maduro-backed terror group.

President Donald Trump, 79, confirmed US forces attacked the boat, killing 11.

Speaking from the Oval Office today, Trump said: “Over the last few minutes we just shot out a drug carrying boat, a lot of drugs on that boat.

“You’ll be seeing that, it just happened moments ago, our Great General and head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who has been so incredible, including what took place in Iran knocking out potential nuclear power, I think within a month they would have had it if we didn’t do what we did.

“And there’s more where that came from. There’s a lot of drugs pouring into our country. These came out of Venezuela, a lot of things are coming out of Venezuela. We took it out.”

Meanwhile Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on X: ” The US military conducted a lethal strike… against a drug vessel which had departed from Venezuela and was being operated by a designated narco-terrorist organization.”

A senior defense official confirmed further information on the “precision strike” would “be made available at a later time.”

This comes amid rising tension between Caracas and Washington.

Last week the US leader sent warships to Venezuela as the country’s dictator moved 15,000 troops to the border with Colombia.

Three US destroyers and 4,000 marines are sailing towards the South American coastline as tensions skyrocket.

It comes after after Trump’s administration announced a $50million bounty on the ruthless tyrant’s head.

Trump has accused President Nicolas Maduro of “mass murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and acts of violence and terror across the United States and Western Hemisphere”.

The White House previously accused the Tren de Aragua of having “unlawfully infiltrated the United States and are conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions against the United States.”

Trump also invoked the Alien Enemies Act against the Tren de Aragua gang as he continues efforts to speed up deportations.

The 1798 Act was last used to justify the internment of Japanese-American civilians during World War 2.

The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 gives gargantuan levels of authority to the Republican to target and remove undocumented immigrants.

It is designed as a law to be invoked if the US is at war with another country or a nation has invaded the US or threatened to do so.

The proclamation called for all of those subject to the measure to be arrested, detained and removed immediately.

Trump said in a proclamation: “All Venezuelan citizens 14 years of age or older who are members of TdA, are within the United States, and are not actually naturalized or lawful permanent residents of the United States are liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as Alien Enemies.”

But, a judge quickly blocked Trump from invoking the act and ordered any flights carrying the gang members to turn around with the order now set for a battle through the courts.

Tren de Aragua is a transnational criminal organisation and U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization from Venezuela.

Believed to have over 5,000 members, Homeland Security officials labeled the group “high-threat,” according to US media reports.

In comments after the strike today, the US president wrote on X: “Earlier this morning, on my Orders, Military Forces conduced a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility.

“TDA is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, operating under the control of Nicolas Maduro, responsible for mass murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and acts of violence and terror across the United States and Western Hemisphere.

“The strike occurred while the terrorists were at sea in International waters transporting illegal narcotics, heading to the United States.

“The strike resulted in 11 terrorists killed in action. No US Forces were harmed in this strike.

“Please let this serve as a notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America. BEWARE! Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

It comes as Trump has laughed off wild online rumours about his death, dismissing them as “fake news” during a primetime address after days of frenzied speculation over his health.

The president appeared on Tuesday to announce that U.S. Space Command headquarters will move from Colorado to Alabama.

He was then asked if he had seen the viral claims that he was no longer living.

“Really? I didn’t see that. That’s pretty serious!” Trump said, before insisting he had been busy behind the scenes.

“I did numerous interviews and had some pretty poignant posts on my social media site. I was very active over the weekend,” he added, noting that he also visited “some people” at his golf club in Sterling, Virginia.

The press conference had been called to announce that U.S. Space Command headquarters will move from Colorado Springs, Colorado, to Huntsville, Alabama — a reversal of Joe Biden’s 2023 decision to keep the base in Colorado.

Trump originally reestablished Space Command in 2018, saying its mission was to defend U.S. interests in space.

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THIS is the dramatic moment Ukrainian drones destroy two Russian bridges used by troops as a key supply route.

The crossings in the Belgorood region were obliterated when two “cheap” drones struck a stash of Vlad’s mines hidden beneath them.

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Video shows the device locking in its target before descending on the bridge.

As a whole stretch of the deck explodes, flames and clouds of thick smoke balloon into the air.

Surrounding trees and forest land are blown up in its path.

Ukraine’s 58th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade, which conducted the operation told CNN they had taken a closer look at the bridge after “it became clear that something was going on there”.

When they sent a drone to the area, they discovered a huge pile of anti-tank mines and other ammunition.

The bridges were mined as they were of key strategic importance to Putin.

Lining them with explosives gave him the option of suddenly blowing them up in case of a Ukrainian advance.

This isn’t the first time Ukraine has demolished Russian crossings.

Just a couple months ago, Ukraine blitzed Russia’s iconic Kerch bridge with more than a tonne of underwater mines.

The pre-dawn blast sent a plume of water erupting into the sky.

Ukraine‘s SBU intelligence service said the blast left the bridge in an “emergency state” after devastating its foundations.

It was at least the third attempt to destroy the key road and rail link from Russia to occupied Crimea.

The same SBU special forces unit behind Sunday’s historic drone strikes in Russia claimed responsibility for the pre-dawn attack.

They claimed their agents spent months mining the substructure of the 12 mile road and rail link.

This came as Ukrainian special forces blew Vladimir Putin’s bridges to pieces last year using US-made missiles.

Incredible footage showed a series of attacks with Himars rockets in Russia‘s border region as Kyiv marches on with its brave advance into Kursk.

According to Kyiv, important Russian equipment was destroyed along with Vlad’s bridges.

Video also showed Ukrainian Defence Forces demolishing Russian field munitions, fuel depots, a radio-electronic warfare complex, and a 152-mm D-20 gun, a Ukrainian military officer told the Kyiv Post.

The nuclear danger today is greater than at any time since the Cold War. The world faces the prospect of a renewed arms race, this time unconstrained by the agreements that for decades kept catastrophe at bay. It is estimated that there are now 12,241 nuclear warheads worldwide. Arms control is unravelling before our eyes: Inspections under the New START treaty, the last remaining arms control agreement between the United States and Russia, remain suspended, and with its expiration in February 2026, there is no successor in sight. The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty is gone, the Treaty on Open Skies has been abandoned, and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty has still not entered into force. At the same time, the world’s geopolitical landscape is more volatile than ever.

Deep down, everyone knows nuclear weapons are a danger. We know their destructive power: Instant annihilation, radiation sickness, cancers, poisoned land, and generations of suffering. Yet the international community increasingly accepts the idea that nuclear weapons make countries safe. It is true that, at the level of geopolitics, they can provide a shield of deterrence. But on a global scale, they are a sword of Damocles hanging over all of humanity. The longer we pretend they guarantee security, the greater the danger that one day deterrence will fail. This danger is becoming even more disturbing with the growing reliance on artificial intelligence in military technologies.

I know this danger all too well, not in theory, but in my body and in my country’s history. I was born without arms, a legacy of nuclear testing carried out by the Soviet Union in my homeland of Kazakhstan. From 1949 to 1989, more than 450 nuclear tests were conducted at the Semipalatinsk test site. More than a million people were directly exposed to radiation, and the consequences are still felt today in the third and fourth generations: Cancers, birth defects, environmental destruction, and intergenerational trauma. My own life is a testimony to the human price paid for so-called “national security”. I became an artist, painting with my mouth and feet, and an activist so my country’s tragedy will not be repeated anywhere else.

What Kazakhstan went through is the reason why, since independence, my country has been a leading proponent of nuclear disarmament. We inherited the world’s fourth-largest nuclear arsenal and chose to give it up voluntarily. We shut down the Semipalatinsk test site permanently. We established the International Low-Enriched Uranium Bank in cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, creating a global backstop against nuclear fuel crises. And today, Kazakhstan is preparing to build its first nuclear power plant. This is an important distinction: Our country is not against nuclear energy, which can be harnessed peacefully to meet the growing demand for electricity and reduce carbon emissions. But nuclear weapons are a different matter entirely. They do not light homes; they only destroy them. That is why it was Kazakhstan’s initiative at the United Nations that led to the proclamation of August 29, the date on which the Semipalatinsk test site was officially closed, as the International Day against Nuclear Tests.

Kazakhstan has done its part. But this fight is bigger than us. The world needs much wider support if we are to reduce the risk posed by nuclear weapons. I acknowledge that the dream of a world free of nuclear weapons may feel distant today. But there are concrete steps the international community can take right now to reduce the danger, if only the will can be found.

First, we must address the madness of keeping thousands of warheads on hair-trigger alert. About 2,100 nuclear weapons remain on short-notice alert, with leaders given only minutes to decide whether to unleash them. In such a compressed timeframe, the risk of false alarms, technical glitches, or even AI-driven misjudgments grows intolerably high. De-alerting these weapons is the most obvious near-term risk-reduction step. Human survival should not rest on a rushed decision made in mere moments.

Second, nuclear-armed states must publicly reaffirm their moratorium on nuclear testing, regardless of treaty politics. If they cannot yet ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, they should at least pledge never to test again. That is the bare minimum owed to the victims of past testing, from Semey to the Pacific and beyond.

Third, we must reaffirm the humanitarian principle that nuclear weapons are inhumane by their very nature. That is the moral heart of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Even if governments cannot yet sign or ratify it, they can embrace its spirit, recognising that no state, no people, can ever respond adequately to the detonation of a nuclear device in a populated area.

Fourth, the world must prevent new frontiers of nuclear danger. We must reaffirm the ban on nuclear weapons in orbit, ensuring that outer space remains free of these doomsday devices. And all states should commit that decisions on nuclear use will never be delegated to artificial intelligence.

Finally, we must fight the greatest danger of all: Forgetting. Each August 29, we should not only mark the International Day against Nuclear Tests but also commit to education and remembrance. Every schoolchild should know what happened at Semey, at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, at Bikini Atoll. Only when the world remembers our suffering will it choose never to repeat it.

The vision of a world free of nuclear weapons is not naive, and it is not impossible. Kazakhstan showed what is possible when it closed the Semipalatinsk test site and renounced its nuclear arsenal. If a nation that endured hundreds of nuclear tests could choose a nuclear-weapon-free path, others can too. The question is whether humanity has the courage to do it.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

Washington, DC – The decision by European countries to impose “snapback” sanctions against Iran may further exacerbate international tensions, experts say, as fears of a regional war loom over the Middle East.

On Thursday, Germany, France and the United Kingdom – Europe’s largest economies – triggered a 30-day process to reimpose sanctions over what they called “significant” violations of a 2015 agreement to limit Iran’s nuclear programme.

“What we’re heading toward is the snapback scenario where the sanctions come back and Iran is likely to retaliate in some way that’s unhelpful,” said Ryan Costello, the policy director at the National Iranian American Council (NIAC).

And the tensions could escalate into renewed violence after the Israeli attacks on Iran earlier this year. “It’s another kind of domino falling on the way toward the June war reigniting,” Costello said.

The United States, which bombed three nuclear facilities in June as part of an Israeli assault on Iran, has welcomed the European countries’ move.

But the administration of US President Donald Trump has also kept the door open for talks with Iran.

“The United States remains available for direct engagement with Iran – in furtherance of a peaceful, enduring resolution to the Iran nuclear issue,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement. “Snapback does not contradict our earnest readiness for diplomacy, it only enhances it.”

Costello, however, underscored that Iran was at the table before Israel launched its 12-day war.

A round of nuclear talks between US and Iranian officials was set to take place on June 15. But Israeli bombs started falling on Tehran two days before the scheduled negotiations, postponing them indefinitely.

Costello said that, in order to return to the nuclear discussions, the US and Europe first have to rebuild trust with Iran.

“The overwhelming sentiment in Iran is that those talks were all a ruse – that Israel was going to attack Iran with US support to some degree regardless of what they did at the negotiating table,” he told Al Jazeera. “So both the Europeans and the US have to reflect that reality.”

What is snapback?

The current crisis can be traced back to Trump’s decision to pull the US out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal during his first term in 2018.

The 2015 accord – formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – compelled Iran to curb its nuclear programme in exchange for lifting international sanctions against its economy.

But to ensure that Iran can be penalised quickly if it violates the agreement, the deal included a “snapback” mechanism to reimpose a series of United Nations sanctions.

The mechanism gave any signatory to the agreement – the US, UK, Germany, France, Russia or China – the power to kickstart a process to revive six UN Security Council sanctions resolutions.

And the snapback is veto-proof, meaning Russia and China, both allies of Iran, cannot block the restoration of the sanctions.

In 2020, the US tried to activate the snapback clause of the JCPOA, but the effort failed because Washington was no longer a party in the agreement.

Since the US exit in 2018, Iran has been gradually escalating its nuclear programme, but Iranian officials insist that the country is not seeking a nuclear weapon.

Thursday’s decision to reimpose UN sanctions on Iran appears to be timed against the expiration of the snapback provision in October, which marks 10 years after the nuclear deal came into effect.

Experts say the governments in Paris, London and Berlin are essentially invoking a provision from a long-abandoned agreement to secure UN sanctions against Iran.

Sina Toossi, senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, said the snapback was included in the JCPOA to ensure that all sides abide by the deal, but European powers are using it to further pressure Iran.

“The overall US and European approach to Iran has been just brute power – like might is right,” Toossi told Al Jazeera.

“Anything about legal contacts and history and international norms doesn’t matter. They just want to use this instrument to unilaterally reimpose sanctions on Iran.”

What does Europe want?

France, Germany and the UK, however, have outlined three conditions to delay the snapback sanctions by six months.

The demands are for Iran to resume direct talks with the US, restore full cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog, and disclose the new location for its heavily enriched uranium after the US and Israeli strikes.

Some US reports have suggested that the uranium stockpiles are buried under the now-damaged nuclear facilities, but Iran may have also moved the material before the US bombed its nuclear sites.

Analysts say that, while the European conditions may seem reasonable on the surface, they are challenging for the Iranian leadership to agree to.

The European powers want Tehran to recommit to negotiations with Washington, without assurances from the US and Israel that they wouldn’t attack again.

Tehran had also suspended full cooperation with the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) after the watchdog failed to condemn the US and Israeli attacks, which it said breached international law.

Earlier this month, Iran allowed some IAEA inspectors back into the country, but the UN agency still has not accessed or assessed the damage at Iran’s enrichment facilities.

As for the uranium, Iran fears that disclosing the location of the stockpiles will only invite Israel or the US to bomb them.

“If they make the location of that enriched uranium very clearly known to the wider world, including US and Israel, then it’s a blinking target for follow-up US or Israeli strikes on those facilities to set Iran’s programme back further,” Costello told Al Jazeera.

“So because that hasn’t been ruled out, it becomes very difficult for Iran to strike such an agreement.”

Impact of snapback

But the three European powers argued that the demands are necessary because Iran’s nuclear programme constitutes a “clear threat to international peace and security”.

“Today, Iran’s non-compliance with the JCPOA is clear and deliberate, and sites of major proliferation concern in Iran are outside of IAEA monitoring,” the countries said in a statement.

“Iran has no civilian justification for its high enriched uranium stockpile … which is also unaccounted for by the IAEA.”

Tehran has rejected that argument, saying that European powers had breached the 2015 agreement first by accepting the US’s 2018 decision to restore secondary sanctions on Iran’s economy.

Most countries and businesses around the world enforce US sanctions out of fear of being sanctioned themselves.

The Iranian economy is already reeling under heavy US sanctions with global implications.

But the UN sanctions – which include an arms embargo – could enable unilateral sanctions by other countries. They may also further undermine trust in the Iranian economy. Already, the Iranian rial fell sharply after Thursday’s announcement.

“There is more currency depreciation because of the snapback; it’s another psychological shock to the economy,” said Toossi.

Europe goes hawkish

Since the turn of the 21st century, European countries have been seen as a moderating influence on Washington’s hawkish impulses towards Iran.

Despite abiding by the US sanctions, European leaders had vocally opposed Trump’s exit from the JCPOA in 2018.

But since Trump returned to office in January, France, Germany and the UK appear to have taken a harder line against Tehran.

In June, European powers not only failed to condemn Israel’s unprovoked war on Iran, but they also seemed to endorse it. Chancellor Friedrich Merz even suggested Germany and the West are benefitting from the assault.

“This is dirty work that Israel is doing for all of us,” he said.

Trita Parsi, the executive vice president of the Quincy Institute, a think tank that promotes diplomacy, said Europe’s new posture towards Iran is linked to its broader relationship with the US.

Iran has been accused of supplying Russia with drones to use in its war against Ukraine, so now Europe sees Tehran as a threat, Parsi said.

He also noted that nearly all trade between Europe and Iran has been destroyed by US sanctions.

“Iran simply does not matter that much for Europeans,” he told Al Jazeera in a TV interview.

“So doing something that endears Europe with the hardline elements in the Trump administration, I think, is something that is seen as valuable in Europe … given how tremendously strained the current transatlantic relationship is right now.”

For now, the nuclear tensions continue to grind on. The US continues to demand that Iran dismantle its nuclear programme, while Tehran insists on maintaining uranium enrichment domestically.

Toossi said there’s an irony in the whole affair: The three European powers are invoking a provision of the JCPOA that grants Iran the right to uranium enrichment, but they are using it to align with the US demand for no more enrichment.

“The hypocrisies and contradictions are just immense in all of this,” he said.

Three European powers are expected to reimpose punishing United Nations sanctions on Iran for ostensibly not engaging with the international community to reach a deal on its nuclear programme.

Known as the E3, France, Germany and the United Kingdom have given Iran until August 31 to make some tough decisions.

As the deadline looms, observers and analysts fear that reimposing UN sanctions will significantly escalate regional tensions and embolden Israel and the United States to attack Iran again.

Standoff

While the stakes are high, the demands by the E3 –  three of the six remaining signatories to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal – aren’t so easy to meet, experts told Al Jazeera.

They want Iran to resume negotiations with the US over its nuclear programme and allow international inspectors back in to monitor sites and stockpiles of highly enriched uranium.

The US quit the nuclear deal in 2018 and reimposed its own sanctions on Iran.

In April and May this year, it entered nuclear talks with Iran, demanding that Iran give up its centrifuges – needed to highly enrich uranium – and “downblend” its current nuclear programme.

Downblending is a process where highly enriched uranium is diluted with low-enriched uranium.

But in June, the US changed its position and demanded that Iran give up its entire nuclear programme, a suggestion Iran rejected outright.

The US suspended talks, and Israel attacked Iran in June, in an apparent attempt to dismember the ruling government.  The “12-day war” saw the US join in to bomb Iran’s nuclear sites.

Since then, the US has maintained that Iran must give up its nuclear programme as a precondition for new talks.

Iran has long stated that it has no interest in pursuing a nuclear bomb and that its programme is for civilian purposes.

Moreover, as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Iran is entitled to enrich uranium for civilian sectors such as energy, cancer research, and other scientific research.

Trita Parsi, Iran expert and executive vice president of the Quincy Institute, told Al Jazeera the E3’s demands risk accelerating another round of regional conflict.

“If you restart talks at a moment when you know that talks will fail, then you ensure that military attacks will happen sooner rather than later,” Parsi told Al Jazeera.

Remnants of the JCPOA

The JCPOA was signed between Iran and the members of the UN Security Council (UNSC), plus Germany and the European Union.

The deal stipulated that Iran must not enrich uranium above 3.67 percent, far below weaponisation.

In return, the parties agreed to lift debilitating UN sanctions, yet any one of the signatories could reimpose sanctions unilaterally if they found Iran was not complying with the JCPOA.

When US President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the JCPOA in 2018, Iran accused the US of violating the deal and the Europeans of “indirectly” violating it by not providing options for Iran to avoid US sanctions.

Iran also notified the Europeans and the US that it would increase enrichment levels beyond JCPOA limits.

Experts believe Iran was increasing enrichment to gain leverage with Western states for a future deal, as Al Jazeera previously reported.

And after the 12-day war, Iran denied access to the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is tasked with monitoring Iran’s nuclear sites under the NPT and the JCPOA.

Along with resuming talks with the US, the E3 requires Iran to grant access to IAEA inspectors in return for delaying the triggering of snapback sanctions for another six months.

Some within Iran’s leadership believe the IAEA leaked sensitive information to the US.

“One position coming out of Tehran is that their cooperation with the IAEA over the years prepared the ground for the [US] attacks…because the US and Israel had very clear mapping and info of the programme,” Negar Mortazavi, an expert on Iran with the Center for International Policy (CIP), said.

“There is now a big view in Iran’s domestic political space that maybe we should stop cooperating with the IAEA,” she added.

Iran is reportedly hiding some 400kg (880lb) of 60 percent enriched uranium, a level just below weapons-grade.

Iran views the 60 percent stockpile as its last bargaining chip vis-a-vis Washington, according to Hamidreza Azizi, an expert on Iran and visiting fellow with the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWB).

He added that Iran is, therefore, reluctant to disclose the whereabouts of that uranium out of fear of giving up its last source of leverage in future negotiations.

“[The E3] wants complete transparency that removes the ambiguity around Iran’s most sensitive nuclear activities. From their perspective, only this would justify extending the snapback deadline,” Azizi told Al Jazeera.

Zero-sum game

Iran has reached out to the US to resume talks since June, according to CIP’s Mortazavi.

She added that, on the one hand, Iran refuses to project weakness after the war for fear of signalling that it will make concessions if attacked by the US and Israel, while, on the other hand, the US refuses to engage until Iran agrees to “zero enrichment”.

The US is also struggling to save face after Trump declared that Iran’s nuclear programme had been completely destroyed in June, an assessment quickly contradicted by US intelligence.

Yet any resumption of talks would be a clear admission that Iran’s nuclear programme is still very much functional, said Parsi.

Azizi, from SWB, believes that the E3 and Iran should consider reaching a limited and more flexible arrangement to avoid snapback sanctions.

This could entail resuming limited and reversible cooperation with the IAEA and establishing a roadmap for future talks with the US.

However, he’s not optimistic that the E3 will extend such an offer because it would like to locate the stockpile of 60 percent enriched uranium, which, in their view, is a serious nuclear proliferation threat.

Iran, for its part, seems ready to accept a deal that grants partial access to the IAEA. Inspectors from the agency reportedly arrived in Tehran on August 27, although the Iranian government said no deal had been reached with the IAEA as of yet.

Effect of sanctions?

If Iran doesn’t meet the E3’s demands, it will come under a conventional arms embargo, face restrictions on its ballistic missile development, and its top officials will have their assets frozen and travel bans issued for them.

Most notably, Iran will be ordered by the UNSC to stop uranium enrichment, as per the JCPOA. This could give Israel and the US the legitimacy of international law to try and “enforce” this order by attacking Iran again, argues Parsi.

“When you have a demand by the UN Security Council [saying] Iran should stop uranium enrichment, it means the US/Israel demand will suddenly have the force of international law behind it,” he told Al Jazeera.

Azizi believes the combination of snapback sanctions, Iran’s hidden stockpiles of enriched uranium and lack of IAEA inspections could lead to renewed conflict.

“Israel has already demonstrated its willingness to use force again … If Iran were to resume enrichment at scale or show signs of moving toward weaponisation under the cover of opacity, the risk of another Israeli attack would rise sharply,” he told Al Jazeera.

What’s more, Iran would be prohibited under UN resolutions from importing weapons from Russia or China, which, in theory, would make the government and its people more vulnerable to external threats.

China and Russia could ignore the sanctions, arguing they were an abusive attempt to force Iran to give up its nuclear programme.

UN resolutions are often ignored by the US, its allies, and other world powers to protect their interests.

Parsi argues that the E3’s threat of restoring UN sanctions is driven more by wanting to curry favour with the Trump administration than by any real concern for de-escalating tensions in the Middle East.

“Europeans want to get themselves on the same page with the US,” he told Al Jazeera.

“At the end of the day, what’s far more important to the Europeans is that they maintain good relations with the US, not work [to deescalate the situation] with Iran.”

BRITAIN must ramp up missile defences – like Israel’s Iron Dome – or risk its nuclear bases being obliterated in the first hours of a war with Russia.

Moscow would target RAF jets and Royal Navy nuclear submarines if it launched a surprise attack, a report by the Rusi think tank has warned.

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A pre-emptive strike could “cripple” Britain’s nuclear deterrent and conventional military power – as most of the UK’s best weapons are “concentrated on just a few sites”.

The report warned a single Russian Yasen-class submarine could launch 40 cruise missiles from the Norwegian Sea with “relatively low warning”.

Yet the UK lacks both the radars to detect them “skimming over the sea” – or the weapons to shoot them down.

The report’s author Sidharth Kaushal said the immediate threat comes from sub-sonic Russian cruise missiles which can be launched from planes and submarines.

By 2035 the main risk will come from intermediate range ballistic missiles, like the Oreshnik blasted at Ukraine last year.

By 2040 the UK will need to defend against “hypersonic glide vehicles” which can travel at 20 times the speed of sound.

He also warned short range drones could be smuggled close to targets and launched from sea containers – like Ukraine’s Operation Spiders Web – or launched by Spetznaz special forces.

Kaushal said calls for a British Iron Dome were warranted by Russia’s focus on “long-range conventional precision strike” weapons.

He said: “The initial priority is the expansion of its capacity for the defence of critical military installations against what is primarily a cruise missile threat.”

The report urged Keir Starmer to buy space based sensors and long range radars that can see 3000km away, the equivalent of Lands End to Moscow.

He said “long-range precision strikes” was central to Kremlin military doctrine.

He said: “The destruction of aircraft on the ground is particularly salient. The destruction of nuclear attack submarines that carry submarine-launched cruise missiles is also described as a priority.”

Russian targets would likely the Royal Navy Bases at Devonport and Clyde and RAF Marham in Norfolk, where the nuclear capable fleet of F-35 stealth jets is based.

It comes after RAF war games showed Britain would be overwhelmed if it faced a Russian missile attack like the first night of the war in Ukraine.

Air Commodore Blythe Crawford said: “It was not a pretty picture.”

The drills suggested bases would be blown to smithereens and £100 million fighter jets could get blitzed before they could hide.

Air Cdre Crawford, who was head the RAF’s Air and Space Warfare Centre at the time, said it showed the UK “home base” was no longer safe.

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The drills used a £36 million wargaming system to test the UK’s responses to “hundreds of different types of munitions” attacking from multiple different directions.

It exposed multiple vulnerabilities including a chronic shortage of airfields and a lack of hardened shelters for protect and hide jets on the ground.

The government sold off scores of airfields and watered-down the RAF’s powers to commandeer civilian runways.

The Armed Forces rely on RAF Typhoons, which scramble from RAF Lossiemouth, to shoot down incoming drones and cruise missiles.

The only British missiles that could intercept Russian ballistic missiles are based onboard the Royal Navy’s Type 45 destroyers.

Air Cdr Crawford warned Britain had got lax by standing at the edge of Europe and “feeling as though the rest of the continent stood between us and the enemy”.

He said: “Ukraine has made us all sit up.” The government announced last week it was buying six more launchers to for its Sky Sabre air defence systems.

The weapons, used by the Royal Artillery, can shoot down targets the size of a tennis ball at two times the speed of sound.

There is no final agreement between the IAEA and Iran yet, says Iranian foreign minister, but talks will continue.

Iran says the return of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) does not mark the resumption of full cooperation with the United Nations nuclear watchdog.

Inspectors from the IAEA have entered Iran with the consent of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Iran’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.

“No final text has yet been approved on the new cooperation framework with the IAEA and views are being exchanged,” Abbas Araghchi said, in comments cited by the state broadcaster.

He noted that “the changing of the fuel of Bushehr nuclear reactor has to be done under the supervision of inspectors of the international agency”, the state news agency ICANA reported.

Iran suspended cooperation with the agency following a 12-day war with Israel in June, with Tehran pointing to the IAEA’s failure to condemn Israeli and US strikes on its nuclear facilities. Bushehr was not targeted in the attacks.

IAEA chief Rafael Grossi confirmed on Tuesday that a team of inspectors was “back in Iran”.

“When it comes to Iran, as you know, there are many facilities. Some were attacked, some were not,” Grossi told Fox News in an interview aired on Tuesday.

“So we are discussing what kind of … practical modalities can be implemented in order to facilitate the restart of our work there.”

The announcement comes after Iran held talks with the United Kingdom, France and Germany in Geneva on Tuesday, with Tehran seeking to avert the so-called snapback sanctions European powers have threatened to reimpose under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal.

Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei warned Europe’s top three powers that reimposing sanctions on the country will have consequences.

The UK, France and Germany – parties to the 2015 deal – have threatened to trigger the accord’s “snapback mechanism” by the end of August.

Both sides will continue nuclear talks in the coming days.

Tuesday’s meeting was the second round of talks with European diplomats since the end of the June war, which began with an unprecedented Israeli surprise attack targeting senior military officials and nuclear facilities.

The conflict derailed Iran’s nuclear negotiations with the United States.

Israel says it launched the attacks to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon – an ambition Tehran has repeatedly denied, insisting its programme is solely for civilian purposes such as energy production.

Under the JCPOA, Iran committed to regular inspections of its nuclear energy programme in return for relief on some Western sanctions. The nuclear deal was torpedoed in 2018 when Donald Trump, during his first term as president, unilaterally withdrew the US and slapped harsh sanctions on Iran.

UKRAINIAN forces claim to have killed three perpetrators of the Bucha massacre in a slew of revenge bombings.

It comes as Kyiv marked its Independence Day by unleashing a wave of drone strikes crippling key energy infrastructure in Russia.

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Ukraine‘s military intelligence unit GUR said three Russian soldiers dubbed “Butchers of Bucha” were wiped out in surgical bombings in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region.

They were targeted in the Luhansk region while operating as a mobile air defence group to cover a Russian military-repair base.

Bucha is a town close to Kyiv where Russian troops were accused of perpetrating appalling war crimes as they sought to storm Kyiv in 2022.

Hundreds of Ukrainian people were subjected to executions, torture, mutilation, and sexual violence including rape used by as weapon of war.

After the Russian retreat, mass graves were found where dozens of bodies were hastily buried by Putin’s occupying force.

There were numerous accounts of indiscriminate killings of civilians, including those seeking to flee the violence.

The revenge attack came in Kalynove village, where the Russian soldiers were linked to the Bucha atrocities.

Ukrainian military officials said: “In 2022, [these dead] Russian occupiers directly took part in committing war crimes in the city of Bucha.

“The detonation was in the yard of an apartment building where six Russian invaders were staying with their military transport.

“As a result of the explosion, two enemy pickups with machine guns were destroyed, one landed with ammunition.”

“There will be just retribution for every war crime committed against the Ukrainian people.”

Meanwhile, the Russia‘s defence ministry said at least 95 Ukrainian drones had been intercepted across more than a dozen Russian regions.

The attaclc come on August 24, the day that Ukraine celebrates its declaration of independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

One of the drones was shot down over the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant in western Russia, one of the country’s biggest energy nuclear facility.

It detonated upon impact and sparked a fire, forcing a sharp fall in the capacity of a reactor at according to the facility.

The plant said the fire had been extinguished, adding there were no casualties or increased radiation levels.

There was damage to a transformer which supplies the plant, and the power of reactor number three was reduced by 50 per cent.

Russian authorities said Ukrainian drones had also been shot down over areas sometimes far from the front, including Saint Petersburg in the northwest.

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The attacks caused tourist mayhem at St Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport as more than 99 flights were diverted or delayed at the busy hub.

Ten drones were shot down over the port of Ust-Luga on the Gulf of Finland, sparking a fire at a fuel terminal owned by Russian energy group Novatek, regional governor Aleksandr Drozdenko said.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said: “This is how Ukraine strikes when its calls for peace are ignored.

“Today, both the US and Europe agree: Ukraine has not yet fully won, but it will certainly not lose. Ukraine has secured its independence. Ukraine is not a victim; it is a fighter.”

Ukraine meanwhile said Russia had attacked it overnight with a ballistic missile and 72 Iranian-made Shahed attack drones, 48 of which the air force said had been shot down.

A Russian drone strike killed a 47-year-old woman in the eastern region of Dnipropetrovsk, the governor said.

It came amid Donald Trump’s rising frustration with Putin for dragging out the war.

Washington is now trying to get Moscow to agree to a one-on-one meeting with Zelensky.

Pressure has been mounting on Putin to sit down with Zelensky since the White House summit – but the latest language from Russia looks suspiciously like well-worn stalling tactics.

Trump hoped he would be able to convince Putin to stop the bloodshed when he met the dictator in Anchorage.

But since then, little tangible progress has been made towards a peace deal.

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In a social media post, Trump appeared to hint that he is open to Ukraine launching more attacks on Russia.

He suggested that it would be “impossible” for Ukraine to win the war without attacking Russia.

He said: “It is very hard, if not impossible, to win a war without attacking an invader’s country.

“It’s like a great team in sports that has a fantastic defence, but is not allowed to play offence.

“There is no chance of winning! It is like that with Ukraine and Russia.”

Trump sets deadline

He set a two-week time frame for assessing peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.

Don told Todd Starnes on Newsmax: “I would say within two weeks we’re going to know one way or the other.

“After that, we’ll have to maybe take a different tack.”

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Putin is ready to meet Zelensky only after working through a list of vague “issues”.

Lavrov said: “Our president has repeatedly said that he is ready to meet, including with Mr Zelensky.”

But he insisted the meeting would only happen “with the understanding that all issues that require consideration at the highest level will be well worked out”.

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Head of US Defense Intelligence Agency Jeffrey Kruse fired alongside two senior Navy officials in latest purge.

United States Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has fired a general whose agency’s preliminary intelligence assessment angered President Donald Trump for reporting that the US attack on Iranian nuclear sites in June had inflicted limited damage, according to reports.

The Pentagon firings on Friday, which, according to US officials who spoke to the Reuters and Associated Press (AP) news agencies, also include two other senior military commanders, are the latest moves by the Trump administration to purge officials at the Department of Defense .

It was not immediately known on what grounds Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse, who led the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) since early 2024, was fired.

But President Trump had previously decried the agency’s initial findings on US strikes against Iran.

The initial DIA assessment – which was widely reported on by US media – contradicted claims by Trump that the strikes totally destroyed the nuclear sites, drawing the ire of both the president and officials within his administration.

Kruse “will no longer serve as DIA director”, a senior defence official said on condition of anonymity on Friday, without providing an explanation for the general’s departure.

Prior to becoming director of the DIA, Kruse served as the adviser for military affairs for the director of national intelligence, and also held positions including director of intelligence for the coalition against the ISIL (ISIS) group.

Hegseth also fired Vice Admiral Nancy Lacore, who is chief of the Navy Reserve, as well as Rear Admiral Milton Sands, a Navy SEAL officer who oversees Naval Special Warfare Command, according to officials who spoke to both AP and Reuters.

All three military officials said they did not know why they were fired by the Trump administration, which has demanded loyalty across the government.

“The firing of yet another senior national security official underscores the Trump administration’s dangerous habit of treating intelligence as a loyalty test rather than a safeguard for our country,” said US Senator Mark Warner, who is the vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

Since beginning his second term in January, Trump has overseen a purge of top military officers, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Charles “CQ” Brown, whom he fired without explanation in February.

Other senior officers dismissed this year include the heads of the US Navy and Coast Guard, the general who headed the National Security Agency, the vice chief of staff of the US Air Force, a Navy admiral assigned to NATO, and three top military lawyers.

The chief of the US Air Force also made a surprise announcement on Monday that he planned to retire only halfway through his tenure.

Hegseth has insisted the president is simply choosing the leaders he wants in top positions, but Democratic lawmakers have raised concerns about the potential politicisation of the traditionally neutral US military.

Earlier this year, Hegseth additionally ordered at least a 20 percent reduction in the number of active-duty four-star generals and admirals in the US military, as well as a 10 percent cut in the overall number of general and flag officers.

News of Kruse’s firing came two days after Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced that she was revoking – on Trump’s orders – the security clearances of 37 current and former US intelligence professionals.

Gabbard has also announced the first major overhaul of her office since its creation, slashing personnel by more than 40 percent by October 1 and saving more than $700m per year.