nuclear

Kyiv, Ukraine – On October 2, Russian President Vladimir Putin alleged that Ukrainian attacks had destroyed a high-voltage transmission line between the Moscow-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine and Kyiv-controlled areas.

Days earlier, Ukraine’s leader, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Russian shelling had cut the plant off from the electricity network.

The mammoth, six-reactor plant – Europe’s largest and known in Ukraine as the ZAES – sits less than 10km (6.2 miles) south of the front line. It has been shut since 2022, generating none of the electricity that once provided up to a fifth of Ukraine’s needs.

But dozens of Moscow-deployed engineers have frantically tried to restart it – so far unsuccessfully. Ukraine has long feared that Russia is trying to connect the power grid and quench a thirst for energy in Crimea and other occupied areas.

Putin purported that the alleged Ukrainian strikes caused a blackout at the plant and that it had to be fuelled by diesel generators.

The latest blackout at the plant is the longest wartime outage of power.

“On the [Ukrainian] side, people should understand that if they play so dangerously, they have an operating nuclear power station on their side,” Putin told a forum in St Petersburg.

‘The radioactivity is so powerful’

In fact, apart from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Ukraine has three operating power stations – as well as the shutdown Chornobyl facility, the site of one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters.

“And what prevents us from mirroring [Ukraine’s alleged actions] in response? Let them think about it,” Putin said.

His threat had apparently already been fulfilled a day earlier. Ukraine accused Russia of shelling that damaged the power supply to the colossal protective “sarcophagus” over the Chornobyl station’s Reactor Four that exploded in 1986.

Both the Chornobyl station and the plant in Zaporizhzhia need electricity for their safety systems and, most importantly, for the uninterrupted circulation of water that cools nuclear fuel.

The fuel, thousands of uranium rods that keep emitting heat, are too radioactive to be taken anywhere else.

In Chornobyl, the fuel is spent and submerged in cooling ponds or “dry-stored” in ventilated, secured facilities.

But at the Zaporizhzhia site, the rods are still inside the reactors – and are newer, hotter, and made in the United States.

Before the war, Ukraine began a switch from the hexagonal, bee-cell-like rods made by Rosatom, Russia’s nuclear monopoly, to the square rods made by Westinghouse, an energy giant based in Pittsburgh in the US.

The US-made rods will take years to cool down enough to be removed without the risk of contamination, according to a former Zaporizhzhia plant engineer who fled to Kyiv.

“The radioactivity is so powerful that one can’t get the fuel out, [or] transport or handle in other ways until it burns out. It will take years,” the engineer told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity because of security concerns for relatives in Enerhodar.

Ukrainian forces ‘prevent’ Russia’s alleged plans

A greater challenge at the plant is a severe lack of reactor-cooling water. The Zaporizhzhia station stood less than 15km (9 miles) upstream from the mammoth, Soviet-designed Novo-Kakhovka dam on the Dnieper River.

The dam created a reservoir with up to 18 cubic kilometres (4.76 trillion gallons) of water that freely flowed to the power station. In June 2023, the dam was destroyed by powerful blasts – Ukraine and Russian traded blame – and the water level dropped dramatically.

The deep cooling ponds around the plant that never froze, even in the harshest winters, had been filled to the brim, but the water keeps evaporating. There is enough to cool the shutdown reactors – but not nearly enough if the station is restarted and the uranium rods turn the water into steam to power the turbines.

“It’s absolutely impossible to switch on even one bloc,” the engineer said. “Of course, the Russians keep digging and supply some water, but it’s not enough at all.”

The biggest problem is Russia’s failure to hook the plant to the energy grid of occupied regions as Ukrainian forces pin-pointedly destroy the transmission lines Russia is building – along with fuel depots and thermal power stations, he said.

“The Russians are restoring them any way they can, but Ukrainian forces very much prevent the restoration,” the engineer quipped.

Bellona, a Norway-based nuclear monitor, said on October 2 that a “greater danger lies in Moscow’s potential use of the crisis to justify reconnecting the plant to its own grid – portraying itself as the saviour preventing a nuclear disaster”.

Should Moscow do that, the step would only “worsen [the] strategic situation, give Moscow additional leverage, and bring a potential restart closer – a move that, amid ongoing fighting, would itself sharply increase the risk of a nuclear accident,” it said.

Analysts pointed to a deal proposed by US President Donald Trump in March to transfer the plant to US management as a possible solution.

Ukrainian strikes “will go on until Russia makes a peace deal that also includes US control over the ZAES and its operation”, Nikolay Mitrokhin, a researcher with Germany’s University of Bremen, told Al Jazeera.

Meanwhile, in recent weeks, blackouts in Crimea have become unpredictable and distressing, a Crimea local told Al Jazeera.

“They switch the power off and switch it back on without any warning. Then again – on and off, on and off. My fridge died,” said a resident of Simferopol, Crimea’s administrative capital, on condition of anonymity out of fear for his safety.

Russia understands that improved power supply is a prerequisite for its efforts to restore occupied Ukrainian regions and conquer more Ukrainian land, said an observer.

Moscow needs the plant to “cover the growing [energy] consumption in the region, considering not just occupied Crimea, but also the occupied areas [above the Sea of] Azov. And also within the context of Russia’s plan to occupy part of the Zaporizhia region,” Kyiv-based analyst Aleksey Kushch told Al Jazeera.

Greenpeace said that its detailed analysis of high-resolution satellite images taken after what Putin alleged were Ukrainian strikes showed that he was bluffing.

“There is no evidence of any military strikes in the area surrounding the pylons and network of power lines in this part of Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant,” the international environmentalist group said on October 1.

The images showed that the power towers remained in position and there were no craters left by explosions around the lines, it said.

Greenpeace concluded that the blackout at the plant is “a deliberate act of sabotage by Russia” whose aim is to “permanently disconnect the plant from the Ukraine grid and connect the nuclear plant to the grid occupied by Russia”.

Iranian FM warns that Europe has ‘eliminated justification for talks’ with UN nuclear watchdog after triggering snapback sanctions.

Iran’s foreign minister has declared that cooperation with the United Nations nuclear watchdog is “no longer relevant” after Western countries reinstated international sanctions on the country.

“The Cairo agreement is no longer relevant for our cooperation with the IAEA,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday, referring to a deal signed last month with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

That agreement had laid out a framework for renewed inspections and monitoring after Tehran suspended cooperation following Israeli and United States attacks on its nuclear facilities in June.

However, the deal lost significance after Britain, France and Germany – all signatories to the 2015 nuclear accord – triggered the return of UN sanctions, accusing Iran of breaching its commitments, claims which Tehran has rejected.

“The three European countries thought they had leverage in their hands, threatening to implement a snapback,” Araghchi told foreign diplomats in Tehran. “Now they have used this lever and seen the results. The three European countries have definitely diminished their role and almost eliminated the justification for negotiations with them.”

He added that the European trio “will have a much smaller role than in the past” in any future talks over Iran’s nuclear programme.

Double standards

Tehran has accused the IAEA of double standards, saying the agency failed to condemn Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear sites despite its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Western states, led by the US and supported by Israel, have long accused Iran of seeking nuclear weapons – allegations Tehran strongly denies. Iran insists its programme is purely civilian and that it retains the right to enrich uranium under the NPT.

Some Iranian lawmakers have suggested withdrawing from the NPT altogether, though President Masoud Pezeshkian has maintained that Iran will remain committed to its treaty obligations.

Araghchi said Tehran’s “decision regarding cooperation with the agency will be announced”, without elaborating, but noted that “there is still room for diplomacy”.

Talks between Iran and the US that began in April to revive a broader nuclear agreement collapsed after Israeli attacks in June targeted Iranian nuclear, military and residential sites.

Tehran has since accused Washington of sabotaging diplomacy and demanded guarantees and recognition of its rights before any potential resumption of negotiations.

Iran has repeatedly denied seeking a nuclear weapon, while Israel is widely believed to possess an undeclared nuclear arsenal of dozens of atomic bombs.

Oct. 2 (UPI) — The United States is blacklisting 44 individuals and firms accused of being involved in Iran’s nuclear program and weapons procurement network, as the Trump administration continues to increase its so-called maximum pressure strategy on Tehran.

The sanctions were announced by the U.S. State and Treasury departments on Wednesday, days after the restoration of United Nations sanctions and other punitive measures on Iran.

Among sanctions announced Wednesday, the State Department hit five individuals and one entity connected to Iran’s Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research, the successor of Iran’s pre-2004 nuclear program and originally sanctioned by the administration of President Barack Obama in 2014.

Known by the initials SPND, the Tehran-based entity, founded in February 2011, is responsible for nuclear weapons development research.

The State Department said it blacklisted Reza Mozaffarinia, director of SPND, Ali Fuladvand, head of the Research Directorate at SPND, and Mohammad Reza Ghadir Zare Zaghalchi, longtime SPND-affiliated official and head of U.S.-designated Shahid Fakhar Moghaddam Group.

Andisheh Damavand International Technologies was also blacklisted for facilitating the travel of Iranian nuclear experts to Russia to pursue sensitive duel-use technologies as was its CEO, Ali Kalvand.

The sanctions comes after the State Department blacklisted three Iranian officials and one entity linked to SPND in May.

Coinciding with the State Department action was the Treasury designating 21 entities and 17 individuals accused of facilitating the acquisition of “sensitive goods and technology” for Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces, it said.

“The Iranian regime’s support of terrorist proxies and its pursuit of nuclear weapons threatens the security of the Middle East, the United States and our allies around the world,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.

Among those targeted Wednesday were individuals accused of being part of a network operating out of Iran, Germany, Turkey, Portugal and Uruguay that was procuring military aircraft equipment for Tehran, including U.S.-manufactured helicopters.

The Treasury said its sanctions were part of President Donald Trump‘s February memorandum reinstating the maximum pressure campaign of his first administration.

In 2018, Trump unilaterally pulled the United States from an Obama-era accord, which aimed to prevent Iran from securing a nuclear weapon. Calling the multinational joint Comprehension Plan of Action “defective at its core,” he then reinstated sanctions against Iran in hopes of coercing it back to the negotiation table on a new deal.

Instead, the reclusive regime advanced its nuclear program.

The United Nations last week reinstated sanctions under a so-called snapback mechanism that had been terminated when the JCPOA was implemented in 2016, and which Trump had sought to have reimpose since 2018.

The U.S. State Department said Wednesday’s sanctions were in support of those “snapback” punitive measures.

“The United States is committed to denying Iran all paths to a nuclear weapon,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.

“We will not hesitate to hold accountable anyone who supports Tehran’s proliferation activities.”

Oct. 1 (UPI) — Chinese military researchers recently reported that multiple nuclear strikes on a single target will produce greater damage than a single blast from a larger warhead to destroy hard targets.

The researchers examined the effect of three nuclear strikes on a single target in rapid succession in a laboratory study published in a peer-reviewed journal.

The study examined how three successive nuclear strikes on the same target would create a greater destructive force than when using a single nuclear weapon, according to Interesting Engineering.

The Chinese military researchers are assessing ways to magnify the damage caused by multiple shock waves produced by nuclear weapons, they said in an article that recently was published in the peer-reviewed journal Explosion and Shock Waves.

Xu Xiaohui, an associate professor at the People’s Liberation Army Engineering University in Nanjing, led the lab experiment that NextGenDefense said is based on the U.S. military’s 1965 Palanquin experiment.

Researchers in that experiment detonated a 4.3-kiloton nuclear device 279 feet beneath the Earth’s surface.

“Until now, most nuclear earth-penetration studies had examined only single warhead impacts based on the long-held belief that one powerful bunker-buster would be enough to collapse or destroy hardened underground facilities,” Xu, et al., said, as reported by PressTV.

The Chinese experiment simulated nuclear blasts within a lab setting by using a high-pressure gas gun that shot tiny particles at glass spheres containing a simulated blast gas to trigger a rapid release of energy that mimics a nuclear explosion, Interesting Engineering reported.

The study indicated surface damage expanded from 71,000 square feet in a single blast to more than 860,000 square feet after three blasts.

The study suggests a rapid triple strike would quadruple the damage caused by a 5-kiloton detonation 65 feet beneath the Earth’s surface and produce a much larger crater.

The results suggest multiple strikes could be effective at destroying hard underground targets, such as nuclear refinement facilities and other locations associated with national security, Interesting Engineering reported.

The Chinese researchers concluded that the use of precision-guided bombs using low-yield warheads deployed in clusters would be more effective at destroying hardened underground targets than a single blast.

Ukrainian leader says the plant has been without power for seven days, the longest stretch since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is “critical” as the facility has been without power for seven days.

“It has been seven days now. There has never been anything like this before,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address on Tuesday.

One of the diesel generators providing emergency power to the plant is no longer working, Zelenskyy said, a week after external power lines went down.

“Russian shelling has cut the plant off from the electricity network,” the Ukrainian leader said.

“This is a threat to everyone. No terrorist in the world has ever dared to do with a nuclear power plant what Russia is doing now.”

The outage is the longest the Russian-occupied plant has gone without power since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

It is also the 10th time since the start of the war that the plant – the largest in Europe – has been disconnected from the power grid.

Russia seized control of Zaporizhzhia in the first weeks of the war, and the plant’s six reactors, which before the conflict produced about one-fifth of Ukraine’s electricity, were shut down after Moscow took over.

But the plant needs power to maintain cooling and safety systems, which prevent reactors from melting – a danger that could set off a nuclear incident.

Russian officials have not commented on the latest statements on conditions at the plant.

But Moscow and Kyiv have repeatedly accused each other of risking a potentially devastating nuclear disaster by attacking the site, and have traded blame over the latest blackout.

Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations’s nuclear watchdog, earlier this week decried the cutoff of the external power lines but assigned no blame to either side.

In a statement on Tuesday, Grossi said he was engaging with officials from both countries to restore offsite power to Zaporizhzhia as soon as possible.

“I’m in constant contact with the two sides with the aim to enable the plant’s swift re-connection to the electricity grid,” the IAEA chief said.

“While the plant is currently coping thanks to its emergency diesel generators – the last line of defence – and there is no immediate danger as long as they keep working, it is clearly not a sustainable situation in terms of nuclear safety,” he added.

“Neither side would benefit from a nuclear accident.”

IAEA monitors are stationed permanently at Zaporizhzhia and at Ukraine’s three other nuclear power stations.

The IAEA is engaging with both sides of the military conflict to help pave the way for the restoration of offsite power to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya NPP as soon as possible, Director General @rafaelmgrossi said today: https://t.co/ODSjkR6fXd pic.twitter.com/SbWEh7TBCq

— IAEA – International Atomic Energy Agency ⚛️ (@iaeaorg) September 30, 2025

Sept. 30 (UPI) — A senior North Korean diplomat vowed that Pyongyang would “never give up” its nuclear weapons in a rare address to the United Nations General Assembly on Monday.

Speaking during the General Debate, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Son Gyong said that imposing denuclearization on the North is “tantamount to demanding it to surrender sovereignty and right to existence.”

His appearance before the General Assembly marked the first time Pyongyang has sent a senior diplomat since 2018.

“We will never give up nuclear, which is our state law, national policy and sovereign power as well as the right to existence,” Kim said. “Under any circumstances, we will never walk away from this position.”

The North passed a law declaring itself a nuclear-armed state in 2022. Leader Kim Jong Un called the decision “irreversible” and later amended the country’s constitution to enshrine the permanent growth of Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal.

The vice minister told the attendees that the North’s nuclear arsenal was a necessary “war deterrent” against mounting threats by the United States and its allies.

“In order to permanently maintain this state of balance and ensure everlasting peace on the Korean Peninsula, we have stipulated nuclear in our constitution as a sacred and absolute thing that can never be touched upon and tampered with,” he said.

Kim added that the North was open to engagement with “countries that respect and take friendly approaches towards it.”

His speech comes as both Washington and Seoul have expressed hope to engage with North Korea.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who held a pair of high-profile summits with Kim Jong Un during his first term in office, has suggested on several occasions that he would meet with the North Korean leader again.

Kim Jong Un appeared to open the door to restarting diplomacy with the United States last week, saying he has “fond memories” of Trump but warning that denuclearization was off the table.

“If the United States abandons its vain obsession with denuclearization, acknowledges reality and desires genuine peaceful coexistence with us, there is no reason why we should not sit down with the United States,” Kim said.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, meanwhile, has made efforts to reduce tensions between the two Koreas since he took office in June, with conciliatory gestures such as removing propaganda loudspeakers from border areas.

In his debut address to the General Assembly last week, Lee unveiled a peace initiative that sought engagement and normalization with the North while offering a “phased solution” to nuclear disarmament that would start with a weapons development freeze.

After Vice Minister Kim’s U.N. address, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday reaffirmed its ultimate goal of denuclearization.

“Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is a consistent goal of the international community, including South Korea and the United States,” a ministry spokesperson said at a press briefing.

In a rare appearance at the United Nations, North Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Kim Son Gyong staunchly defended the country’s nuclear programme. It was the first time North Korea had dispatched an official from Pyongyang to address the UN General Assembly since 2018.

So far this year, NuScale Power (SMR 0.66%) stock has more than tripled in value. The reason: rapidly rising interest in small-scale nuclear power. NuScale is arguably the leading developer of small modular reactors, with a quantifiable first-mover advantage. This lead could provide it with a decades-long runway of growth, fueled by another rapidly growing industry: artificial intelligence.

Small-scale nuclear is closer to reality than many think

Proponents of nuclear power as a scalable, renewable, low-carbon source of power have been repeatedly stymied by global events that have hindered nuclear power expansion. From reactor meltdowns to sudden tsunamis, public opinion has shifted heavily due to numerous public failures of nuclear technology. Public outcry and safety concerns caused regulatory scrutiny to soar across many parts of the world, leading to huge cost overruns and engineering delays for many major nuclear projects.

The tides have turned yet again in recent years due to soaring energy demand from sectors like artificial intelligence — a sector that is requiring ever higher amounts of energy to thrive and survive. Big tech, for example, is deploying billions of dollars into restarting old nuclear facilities, as well as building several new facilities across the U.S. According to the Harvard Business Review, big tech has gone “all in” on nuclear.

These projects could take many years to come to fruition, and only deep-pocketed entities like Big Tech can afford to see them through. That’s partially why there’s so much hype around small modular reactors: a newer generation of nuclear reactors that can be built in a factory off-site and delivered anywhere in the world. That’s a huge advantage for power-hungry data centers located in cold, remote areas of the world — an advantage for reducing cooling costs, but a problem when it comes to sourcing large amounts of reliable local energy.

Small-scale nuclear has been a dream for decades. But the reality of small-scale nuclear may finally be upon us. NuScale has the first and only SMR certified by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for commercial production. Management believes the company’s first order is just months away.

Image source: Getty Images.

NuScale Power is the obvious choice for nuclear investors

In 2023, the NRC certified the first-ever SMR for commercial production: NuScale’s 50 MW model. Earlier this year, however, the company was able to gain certification for a larger 77 MW model. NuScale management thinks that its first order could be made official by this December — less than 90 days from now. The company already has a dozen reactors under construction. This would allow it to fulfill one or two initial orders, given that the company expects customers to combine six to 12 modules into each operating facility.

To be sure, competition exists. But none have gained certifications from the NRC. Some companies, like Oklo, have begun the application process, but NuScale is safely one to three years ahead of the competition in this regard. That lead is especially true when considering that NuScale has already lined up nearly all of the necessary materials and outsourcing partners to begin fulfilling orders. NuScale management believes they could handle up to 20 orders per year as demand materializes.

Investors should be cautious regarding the timelines here. Even if NuScale receives an order in 2025, construction of the project wouldn’t be completed until 2030 at the earliest. NuScale would, of course, receive revenue before that date. But there may not be a fully functioning, real-world use case of SMRs for another five years, a reality that may keep demand low in the meantime.

Still, NuScale is an exciting growth company that has a healthy lead on the competition. With a market cap of just $10 billion, the stock looks like a reasonable bet for patient investors, even after the strong run-up.

Sept. 28 (UPI) — A decade after they were lifted, economic and military sanctions were reimposed on Iran Sunday over its nuclear program.

Britain, France and Germany have accused Iran of “continued nuclear escalation,” and reactivated what is known as a “snapback mechanism” over Iran’s lack of cooperation to de-escalate the country’s nuclear program.

Iran suspended inspections of its nuclear facilities under terms of a 2015 deal after Israel and the United States bombed several of the country’s nuclear sites in June.

Iranian President Masound Pezeshkian has continued to maintain that his country has no intentions of developing nuclear weapons, and made the claim again last week.

Pezeshkian has called the reimposition of sanctions “unfair, unjust and illegal,” and a setback to Iran’s fledgling relations with the West.

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action limits Iran’s nuclear facilities, stockpiles of enriched uranium and the amount of research it is allowed to undertake. It allows Iran to develop nuclear infrastructure, but not weapons.

Iran escalated its nuclear program after President Donald Trump pulled out of the JCPOA during his first term in 2018.

European negotiators told the U.N. Security Council in August that Iran had violated “the near entirety of its JCPOA commitments,” and gave the country a month’s warning to scale back its nuclear program before Russia assumed control of the Security Council in October.

Several meetings with Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi have produced no progress in meeting key European demands, including evidence that Iran is working on a diplomatic solution, complying with inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency and disclosing the whereabouts of more than 400 kg of highly enriched uranium.

The European nations have also called for resumed talks between Iran and the United States.

Kim Jong Un references ‘new important nuclear strategy’ in high-level meeting with scientists and military officials.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has directed top officials to strengthen the nation’s “nuclear shield and sword”, saying only a “nuclear counteraction” could safeguard his country’s security.

In a meeting with nuclear scientists and technicians on Friday, including Hong Sung-mu, a senior official believed to have spearheaded North Korea’s nuclear programme, Kim said the production of nuclear materials and weapons was an “essential top priority”, according to state media.

“The powerful deterrent, namely, the logic of peacekeeping and security by force with nuclear forces as its backbone is the invariable stand of the DPRK,” Kim was quoted as saying by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is North Korea’s official name.

Kim also made reference to “main tasks” that had been carried out by the country’s nuclear weapons research institute with regard to “a new important nuclear strategy”, South Korea’s official Yonhap news agency reported.

The North Korean leader did not provide details regarding that new strategy.

“Comrade Kim Jong Un said we must constantly sharpen and renew the nuclear shield and sword that can reliably guarantee national sovereignty, security and interests and the right to development,” KCNA added.

Kim’s meeting with his nuclear scientists and military officials follows just days after South Korea said Pyongyang was presumed to possess as much as 2,000kg (2 tonnes) of highly-enriched uranium.

South Korea’s Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said on Thursday that just 10-12kg (22-26lbs) of enriched uranium was adequate to build a nuclear bomb.

“Even at this very hour, uranium centrifuges at four locations (in North Korea) are running, probably accumulating nuclear materials,” Chung said, according to Yonhap.

The minister also said it was now impossible to convince North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons programme through the forces of sanctions, but the resumption of talks between Pyongyang and Washington could offer a “breakthrough” to denuclearisation efforts.

“It will be desirable for [talks] to take place as soon as possible,” the minister said.

Kim said recently there was no reason to avoid dialogue with the US if Washington ceased insisting that his country give up nuclear weapons.

“Personally, I still have fond memories of US President Trump,” Kim said, according to KCNA, referring to meeting Trump three times during the United States president’s first administration.

“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 was quoted as saying.

“The world already knows full well what the United States does after it makes a country give up its nuclear weapons and disarms,” Kim said.

“We will never give up our nuclear weapons,” he added.

According to data compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence, Nano Nuclear Energy‘s (NNE -2.79%) share price had eroded by almost 11% week to date as of Thursday night. This, despite the fact that the company was included on several stock indexes managed by a well-known indexer.

Come and join

Before market open that day, Nano announced that its stock is now a component of not one, not two, but three equity indexes managed by S&P Dow Jones Indices. The trio is the S&P Global Broad Market index (BMI), the S&P Total Market index (TMI), and the SPX Completion index.

Image source: Getty Images.

These, however, are not as closely tracked and have less prominence than other equity gauges in the S&P family (most notably the S&P 500 index).

At least Nano has plenty of company. In terms of composition, the BMI is certainly sprawling. As of the end of August, it has 14,782 component stocks, which are collectively headquartered in 48 countries around the globe.

The other indexes are notably smaller, at 3,360 for S&P Completion and 3,865 for TMI. The two are related — S&P Completion has the same composition as TMI, except with the stocks also on the S&P 500 index stripped out.

The good old index effect

Nano’s ascensions definitely represent an advancement for the next-generation nuclear company. However, many investors might be thinking they aren’t enough of an advancement, since in prestige and visibility terms, the trio is under the level of closely monitored mainstays, again like the S&P 500 index.

Nevertheless, if it hasn’t already been discovered and researched simply by its presence in the currently hot nuclear sector, Nano will soon go under the microscope by a host of index funds. After all, such vehicles are constantly on the hunt for good investments among a relatively limited pool of stocks.

South Korea reports Pyongyang building up enriched uranium supplies, insists ‘stopping’ its nuclear development ‘urgent’.

North Korea is believed to have accumulated large quantities of weapons-grade uranium, according to South Korea.

Seoul’s Unification Minister Chung Dong-young on Thursday cited an assessment that Pyongyang possesses 2,000kg (about 4,400 pounds) of highly enriched uranium “at a purity of 90 percent or higher”.

If confirmed, the amount would also signal a sharp increase in North Korea’s stockpile of nuclear material.

Intelligence provided by civilian experts reveals that North Korea is operating four enrichment plants, he added.

“Even at this very hour, North Korea’s uranium centrifuges are operating at four sites,” Chung told reporters, only mentioning the known site of Yongbyon, which Pyongyang purportedly decommissioned after talks but later reactivated in 2021.

Foreign experts believe North Korea has built additional uranium-enrichment sites as leader Kim Jong Un has been pushing hard to expand his nuclear arsenal.

The North has long been known to hold a “significant” amount of highly enriched uranium, the key material used to produce nuclear warheads, according to South Korea’s defence ministry.

Enrichment must be pushed to more than 90 percent, the concentration termed weapons-grade, to ensure that the critical mass sets off the chain reaction leading to a nuclear explosion.

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), 42kg (92.6 pounds) of highly enriched uranium is needed for one nuclear weapon; 2,000kg would be enough for roughly 47 nuclear bombs.

Chung said “stopping North Korea’s nuclear development is an urgent matter”, but argued that sanctions will not be effective and that the only solution lies in a summit between Pyongyang and Washington.

International diplomacy on ending North Korea’s nuclear programme has stalled since 2019, when high-stakes summitry between Kim and United States President Donald Trump fell apart without any agreement.

Kim said recently that he was open to talks with the US as long as the demand that the North surrender its nuclear arms remains a condition.

North Korea, which conducted its first nuclear test in 2006 and is under a raft of United Nations sanctions for its banned weapons programmes, has never publicly disclosed details of its uranium enrichment facilities.

South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung, who took office in June, has promised a more dovish approach towards Pyongyang compared with his hawkish predecessor, Yoon Suk-yeol, saying he will not seek regime change.

Chung said, by designating Pyongyang as the “main enemy” and insisting on denuclearisation first, the previous administration had effectively allowed North Korea’s nuclear capabilities “to expand without limit”.

Agreement between Rosatom and Iran targets energy expansion with eight new nuclear plants planned by 2040.

Russia and Iran have signed a memorandum of understanding on the construction of small nuclear power plants in Iran, according the Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, as Tehran has been engaged in a diplomatic push to avert new sanctions over its nuclear programme.

The agreement was signed by Rosatom chief Alexei Likhachev and Iran’s top nuclear official, Mohammad Eslami, on Wednesday at a meeting in Moscow. Rosatom described it as a “strategic project”.

Eslami, who is also Iran’s vice president, told Iranian state media earlier this week that the plan was to construct eight nuclear power plants as Tehran seeks to reach 20GW of nuclear energy capacity by 2040.

Iran, which suffers from electricity shortages during high-demand months, has only one operating nuclear power plant, in the southern city of Bushehr. It was built by Russia and has a capacity of approximately 1GW.

The development comes amid looming sanctions on Iran, after the United Nations Security Council voted on Friday not to permanently lift economic sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme, meaning sanctions will return by September 28 if no significant deal is reached beforehand.

Russia was among four nations that voted to stop the sanctions from being reintroduced.

Iran pushed back against the UNSC vote, saying the resumption of sanctions would “effectively suspend” the country’s cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN watchdog.

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

The E3 have accused Tehran of breaching its nuclear commitments, including by building up a uranium stockpile of more than 40 times the level permitted under a 2015 nuclear deal, from which Trump unilaterally withdrew in 2018, during his first term. The deal allowed Iran to enrich uranium up to 3.67 percent purity.

In its defence, Iran says it boosted its nuclear enrichment only after Trump withdrew from the deal and reimposed sanctions on the country. Tehran deems the US action a violation of the 2015 deal.

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”.

New sanctions would result in freezing of Iranian assets abroad, a halt in arms deals with Tehran, and penalise the development of ballistic missile programme, among other measures.

Iran has repeatedly denied pursuing nuclear weapons but affirmed its right to peacefully pursue nuclear energy. Addressing the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran would never seek a nuclear bomb.

On Tuesday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tehran will not directly negotiate with the United States over Iran’s nuclear programme, calling talks with the US “a sheer dead end”.

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

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.”

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.

Today is the day.

At 2 p.m. ET Wednesday, give or take a few minutes, the Federal Open Market Committee should decide on its next round of interest-rate changes. Presumably it will lower its target interest rate from the current range of 4.25% to 4.5%, to one of 4% to 4.25% — a quarter-point cut. Potentially, it could lower the interest rate by twice as much — 0.5%.

Either way, and assuming a cut of any size at all, this will be the first interest-rate cut by the Federal Reserve in the past nine months, the Fed having last cut rates (also by 0.25%) back on Dec. 18, 2024.

Image source: Getty Images.

Why might the Federal Reserve cut interest rates?

Economists seem pretty certain a rate cut of some size is in the offing. According to the latest inflation update here at The Motley Fool, inflation is still running hotter (2.9%) than the Fed’s target rate of 2% — which you might think would give the Fed some pause. That said, the jobs market is showing sufficient signs of weakness that the Fed is getting concerned — and inclined to roll the dice and risk a bit of extra inflation in hopes of goosing the jobs numbers higher.

In July, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that only 73,000 net new jobs were created, which was below projections. Then came August’s number, which was an objectively horrible 22,000 net new jobs — less than one-third of what economists had predicted. And all of this came after May and June jobs numbers were revised downward by more than a quarter-million.

So the jobs market doesn’t look great, and that means the Fed probably will cut rates today. Now what does this mean for you, the individual investor?

What it means for investors

Believe it or not, bad news for the jobs market and worrisome trends in inflation are both generally interpreted as good news for the stock market — at least when a Fed interest-rate cut is on the table as a possible solution. This is because when the Fed lowers interest rates, it becomes cheaper to borrow, and cheaper to pay interest on debts, which can be a boon for companies not yet earning profits.

Which kinds of companies? Well, maybe I’m biased because I write a lot about nuclear stocks. But if you ask about companies that might benefit from debt getting a bit cheaper, the first to come to my mind are the handful working to develop a new generation of small modular (and micro) nuclear reactors (SMRs). In order from smallest to largest, these include Nano Nuclear Energy (NNE -2.67%), NuScale Power (SMR -4.70%), and Oklo (OKLO -2.77%).

Investors value these three companies very differently. Nano Nuclear is worth only $1.5 billion in market capitalization, versus NuScale with an implied market cap of $11.1 billion, and Oklo tipping the scales at a weighty $14.1 billion.

But in many respects, these three companies look similar. Neither Nano Nuclear nor Oklo has any revenue to speak of. NuScale, which does have some revenue (from technology licenses, not from actual sales of either reactors or nuclear energy), still did only $56 million in business over the last 12 months — enough to value the stock at nearly 200 times sales.

Lacking revenue, it stands to reason that all three of these nuclear energy stocks are also unprofitable. What worries me more than the losses based on generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), though, is the fact that these companies must continue burning through their cash reserves as they work toward commercializing their technology. Any nuclear stock that runs out of cash before it starts generating positive free cash flow on its own is at risk of needing to sell shares, or take on debt, to raise the cash it needs.

It’s here that lower interest rates from the Fed could lend a helping hand.

Who benefits most from a Fed rate cut?

I expect NuScale Power to benefit more than the others from a rate cut today. With only $420 million in the bank and an annual cash burn rate of $95 million, NuScale’s on course to be the SMR stock that runs out of cash first — potentially before it reaches profitability in 2030 (according to analysts polled by S&P Global Market Intelligence).

In contrast, both Oklo (with $534 million in cash and a burn rate of $53 million per year) and Nano Nuclear (with $210 million and $23 million, respectively) already have enough cash laid up to keep themselves in business for roughly a decade.

Relatively speaking, they’re both in stronger financial positions than NuScale is — but for this very reason, I expect NuScale stock to benefit most from today’s Fed rate decision.

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.

SEOUL, Sept. 15 (UPI) — North Korea said Monday that its status as a nuclear weapons state is “permanently specified” by law and “irreversible” in a statement condemning the United States’ latest call for denuclearization.

The statement came in response to remarks by interim Charge d’Affaires Howard Solomon of the U.S. Mission to International Organizations in Vienna at a meeting at the International Atomic Energy Agency last week.

On Tuesday, Solomon expressed concern over the North’s “destabilizing weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs.”

“We remain committed to the complete denuclearization of North Korea,” Solomon said.

The North’s permanent mission to the U.N. office in Vienna called the remarks a “grave provocation.”

“We strongly denounce and reject the U.S. provocative act of revealing once again its invariable hostile intention against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea … and express serious concern over the negative consequences to be entailed by it,” the mission said in a statement carried by state-run Korean Central News Agency.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is the official name of North Korea.

“The position of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea as a nuclear weapons state which has been permanently specified in the supreme and basic law of the state has become irreversible,” the mission said.

The mission also claimed that the IAEA has “no legal right and moral justification” to interfere in the North’s internal affairs, pointing out that Pyongyang has not had official relations with the nuclear watchdog for over 30 years.

North Korea withdrew from the IAEA in 1994 after a standoff with the United States and the agency over nuclear inspections.

The North passed a law declaring itself a nuclear-armed state in 2022 and later amended its constitution to enshrine the permanent growth of Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal.

In recent years, the country has repeatedly dismissed the notion of restarting dialogue or denuclearization talks with the United States and South Korea.

Last week, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the test of a new solid-fuel engine for intercontinental ballistic missiles and said it “heralds a significant change in expanding and strengthening the nuclear strategic forces of the DPRK.”

Tehran, Iran – Iran’s authorities are discussing what comes next following an agreement with the global nuclear watchdog, as they urge the region to go beyond issuing statements in reaction to Israel’s attack on Qatar.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is heading to an emergency meeting of the parliament’s national security commission on Saturday evening, with hardline lawmakers looking for answers as to whether the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will be allowed to access nuclear sites bombed by the United States and Israel in June.

He is expected to reassure the hardline-dominated parliament that no access will be given to the IAEA without strict permission from the top echelon.

Araghchi had reached an agreement with the IAEA in Cairo, Egypt, on Tuesday, to try to resume cooperation that had been suspended after Tehran accused the nuclear watchdog and its chief, Rafael Grossi, of having paved the way for the strikes.

Grossi told the IAEA Board of Governors on Wednesday that the technical agreement includes “all facilities and installations in Iran” and “contemplates the required reporting on all the attacked facilities, including the nuclear material present”.

But Araghchi told Iranian state television that agency inspectors have no access to Iranian nuclear sites beyond the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant.

He said case-by-case permission would have to be granted by the country’s Supreme National Security Council, which includes the president, parliament and judiciary chiefs, several ministers, military commanders and those appointed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Araghchi also confirmed that Iran’s high-enriched uranium is “under the rubble of bombed facilities”, and said the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran is investigating and assessing whether the sites are accessible or contaminated.

Europe’s ‘snapback’ and Iranian threats

Amir Hayat Moghadam, a hardline member of the parliament’s national security commission, claimed that Araghchi said Iran will leave the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) if United Nations sanctions are reinstated against the country, according to the state-linked Tabnak news website, ahead of the meeting on Saturday.

Araghchi and the foreign ministry have confirmed that legislation is in motion aimed at abandoning the global non-proliferation pact, but that finalising such a move would only potentially come if the “snapback” mechanism of Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers is abused by European countries.

France, Germany and the United Kingdom triggered the snapback mechanism in late August and were slammed by China and Russia, the other signatories to the landmark nuclear accord that the US unilaterally abandoned in 2018.

The European countries, known as the E3, gave Iran one month to reach a new agreement over its nuclear programme or face international sanctions.

Iran maintains that the three would lose legitimacy if they go through with the threat, and will “empower the US and marginalise Europe in future diplomatic engagements”.

Despite the rising tensions, Araghchi announced on Thursday that Iran and France are close to agreeing on a prisoner swap and expressed hope that an exchange would happen “in the coming days”.

Iran’s top diplomat did not detail which French prisoners held in Iran would be released, but said the exchange would include Mahdieh Esfandiari, an Iranian woman arrested in France over posts about Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

Esfandiari, a translator living in the French city of Lyon since 2018, was arrested in February, with French authorities accusing her of incitement to and glorification of “terrorism” and “hate speech” against Jewish people over posts on Telegram.

Tehran calls her a “hostage”, employing the word used by France and other European countries that have accused Iran for decades of holding foreign and dual-national citizens in relation to espionage charges.

‘Joint operation room against Israeli madness’

Fighting off surging pressure from the US and its allies, Iranian authorities have tried to warm ties with China and Russia, and to find common ground with regional players, particularly Arab neighbours, over Israel’s aggressions.

After Israel attacked Qatar for the first time this week in a failed attempt to assassinate the top leadership of Hamas, Iran joined the chorus of regional and international condemnation.

Ali Larijani, who was appointed Iran’s security chief last month, went further on Saturday and issued what he called a “warning to Islamic governments”.

“Holding a conference of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation filled with speeches without any practical outcome (as happens in UN Security Council meetings) in truth amounts to issuing a new order of aggression in favour of the Zionist entity!”, he wrote on X in Arabic, in reference to Israel.

“At the very least, form a ‘joint operations room’ against the madness of this entity,” Larijani said, adding that “you have done nothing for the hungry and oppressed Muslims in Palestine, at least take a modest decision to avert your own annihilation”.

Qatar announced on Saturday that it will host an emergency Arab-Islamic summit on Monday in Doha, preceded by a preparatory meeting of foreign ministers on Sunday.

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed bin Mohammed al-Ansari said in a statement that “the summit will discuss a draft statement” on the Israeli attack.

Iran said President Masoud Pezeshkian will represent the country in the summit.