<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: source-sans-pro, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 600; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: capitalize; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: nowrap; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;" id="isPasted">GENEVA: Iran and the United States began indirect talks in Switzerland on Thursday, a last-ditch bid to avert war following the biggest American military build-up in the Middle East in decades. The Oman-mediated discussions follow repeated threats from Donald Trump to strike Iran, with the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/us-presses-missile-issue-as-new-iran-talks-to-open-in-geneva" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">US president</a>&nbsp;last Thursday giving Tehran 15 days to reach a deal. The US and Iranian delegations arrived at the venue at the Omani ambassador&#39;s residence amid tight security, following a protest by Iranian exiles at their talks last week who threw objects at the Iranian motorcade. Oman&#39;s Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi later confirmed that discussions had begun, saying the two sides had expressed &quot;unprecedented openness to new and creative ideas and solutions&quot;. Iran&#39;s president insisted ahead of the talks that the Islamic republic was not &quot;at all&quot; seeking a nuclear weapon. &quot;Our Supreme Leader has already stated that we will not have nuclear weapons at all,&quot; President Masoud Pezeshkian said, in a reference to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. United Nations nuclear chief Rafael Grossi would likely also attend the discussions in Geneva, Iran&#39;s foreign ministry spokesman said. While Iran has insisted the talks focus solely on its nuclear program, the US wants Tehran&#39;s missile program and its &#39;support&#39; for groups in the region curtailed. As part of the dramatic US build-up, the USS Gerald R Ford, the world&#39;s largest aircraft carrier, sent to the Mediterranean this week, left a naval base in Crete on Thursday, an AFP photographer said. The developments follow massive protests in Iran. &#39;Sinister nuclear ambitions&#39;&nbsp;In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, Trump accused Iran of &quot;pursuing sinister nuclear ambitions&quot;, though Tehran has always insisted its program is for civilian purposes. Trump also claimed Tehran had &quot;already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they&#39;re working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America&quot;. The Iranian foreign ministry called these claims &quot;big lies&quot;. The maximum range of Iran&#39;s missiles is 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) according to what Tehran has publicly disclosed. However, the US Congressional Research Service estimates they top out at about 3,000 kilometers -- less than a third of the distance to the continental United States. Trump&#39;s State of the Union accusations in Congress were delivered in the same forum in which then-president George W Bush laid out the case for the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Ahead of Thursday&#39;s talks, Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that Iran must also negotiate on its missile program, calling Tehran&#39;s refusal to discuss ballistic weapons &quot;a big, big problem.&quot; He followed up by saying, &quot;The president wants diplomatic solutions&quot;. But US Vice President JD Vance told Iran to take Trump&#39;s threats &quot;seriously,&quot; saying the US president had a &quot;right&quot; to use military action. &quot;You can&#39;t let the craziest and worst regime in the world have nuclear weapons,&quot; Vance told &quot;America&#39;s Newsroom&quot; on Fox News. &#39;A historic opportunity&#39;&nbsp;Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who is leading the Iranian delegation at the talks, had called them &quot;a historic opportunity,&quot; adding that a deal was &quot;within reach.&quot; The US will be represented by envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who is married to Trump&#39;s daughter Ivanka. The two countries held talks earlier this month in Oman, then gathered for a second round in Geneva last week. A previous attempt at negotiations collapsed when Israel launched surprise strikes on Iran last June, beginning a 12-day war that Washington briefly joined to bomb Iranian nuclear sites. In Jan., Tehran launched a mass crackdown on nationwide protests. Protests have since resumed around Iranian universities.

Middle East

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian reiterates that Tehran is not seeking nuclear weapons in line with the policy set by the country’s Supreme Leader; on Feb. 19, Trump said Iran had 15 days to make a deal.

Iran-US talks begin in push to avert war

WASHINGTON: US envoy Steve Witkoff said on Saturday that President Donald Trump is questioning why Iran has not &quot;capitulated&quot; in the face of Washington&#39;s military build-up aimed at pressuring them into a nuclear deal. The United States and Iran this week resumed Oman-mediated talks in Geneva aimed at averting the possibility of military action, after Washington dispatched two <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/us-aircraft-carrier-enters-mediterranean-as-trump-mulls-iran-strikes" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">aircraft carriers</a>, jets and weaponry to the region to back its warnings. In a Fox News interview with Trump&#39;s daughter-in-law Lara, Witkoff said the president was &quot;curious&quot; about Iran&#39;s position after he had warned them of severe consequences in the event they failed to strike a deal. &lsquo;He&rsquo;s curious&rsquo;&nbsp;&quot;I don&#39;t want to use the word &#39;frustrated,&#39; because he understands he has plenty of alternatives, but he&#39;s curious as to why they haven&#39;t... I don&#39;t want to use the word &#39;capitulated,&#39; but why they haven&#39;t capitulated,&quot; he said. &quot;Why, under this pressure, with the amount of seapower and naval power over there, why haven&#39;t they come to us and said, &#39;We profess we don&#39;t want a weapon, so here&#39;s what we&#39;re prepared to do&#39;? And yet it&#39;s sort of hard to get them to that place.&quot; Meeting with Reza Pahlavi&nbsp;The US envoy also confirmed in the interview that he had met with Reza Pahlavi, who has not returned to Iran since before the 1979 Islamic Revolution that ousted the monarchy. &quot;I met him at the direction of the president,&quot; he said, without providing further details. US-based Pahlavi last week told a crowd in Munich that he was ready to lead the country to a &quot;secular democratic future&quot; after Trump said regime change would be best for the country. Draft proposal for agreement&nbsp; Witkoff&#39;s comments come after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said a <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/iran-to-submit-draft-nuclear-proposal-as-us-military-presence-grows" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">draft proposal</a> for an agreement with Washington would be ready in a matter of days. Trump said on Thursday that Iran had at most 15 days to make a deal on concerns starting with its nuclear program. As talks between the two nations continued in Geneva, Iran&#39;s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday said that Trump would not succeed in destroying the Islamic republic. Sanctions &nbsp;Western countries accuse the Islamic Republic of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, which Tehran denies, though it insists on its right to enrichment for civilian purposes. Iran, for its part, is seeking to negotiate an end to sanctions that have proven to be a massive drag on its economy, which played a role in sparking anti-government protests in December.

The US and Iran this week resumed Oman-mediated talks in Geneva aimed at averting the possibility of military action, after Washington dispatched two aircraft carriers, jets and weaponry to the region to back its warnings.

US envoy says Trump questioning why Iran has not 'capitulated'

Web Desk/AFP

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump alleged on Sunday that nuclear-armed countries, including Russia and China have conducted underground nuclear tests unknown to the public. &quot;Russia&#39;s testing, and China&#39;s testing, but they don&#39;t talk about it,&quot; he said in an interview with CBS&#39;s &quot;60 Minutes&quot; program, when asked about his surprise order on Thursday for the United States to test nuclear weapons. &quot;You don&#39;t necessarily know where they&#39;re testing... They test way underground where people don&#39;t know exactly what&#39;s happening with the test,&quot; he added. US President&rsquo;s announcement signaling a possible resumption of US nuclear testing after more than three decades has drawn mixed reactions from nuclear policy experts.&nbsp;Trump&rsquo;s decision came after Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow had successfully tested a nuclear-capable, nuclear-powered underwater drone, in defiance of Washington&#39;s warnings.&nbsp; In response to the US president&rsquo;s decision, the Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi last week said that the US announcement was a threat to international peace.&nbsp; Replying to Trump&#39;s claims about China, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Mao Ning denied testing any nuclear weapons.&nbsp; &quot;China has always adhered to the path of peaceful development, pursued a policy of no first use of nuclear weapons, upheld a self-defence nuclear strategy and abided by its commitment to suspend nuclear testing,&quot; she said in a press conference.

Americas

US president’s announcement signaling a possible resumption of US nuclear testing has drawn mixed reactions from nuclear policy experts. Trump’s decision comes after Russian President Putin said Moscow successfully tested a nuclear-capable, nuclear-powered underwater drone, in defiance of Washington's warnings. 



Trump says Russia, China conduct nuclear tests but 'don't talk about it'

Web Desk

ISLAMABAD: The Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, early on Friday, said that the US announcement to resume nuclear testing is a threat to international peace. The Iranian FM called on the international community to unite and hold the United States &ldquo;accountable for normalizing the proliferation&rdquo; of nuclear weapons, a day after US President Donald Trump instructed the Department of War to start testing of atomic weapons. Trump&rsquo;s decision came after Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow had successfully tested a nuclear-capable, nuclear-powered underwater drone, in defiance of Washington&#39;s warnings. &quot;Because of other countries&#39; testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis,&quot; Trump said yesterday in a Truth Social post that specifically referenced Russia and China. In a post on X today, the Iranian FM called out the US and said, &ldquo;Having rebranded its &lsquo;Department of Defense&rsquo; as the &lsquo;Department of War&rsquo;, a nuclear-armed bully is resuming testing of atomic weapons.&rdquo;<div class="fr-embed"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 100%; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><iframe id="twitter-widget-0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" style="position: static; visibility: visible; width: 550px; height: 873px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;" title="X Post" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1983986336920170603&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fmain.d1wrm1qseko1cp.amplifyapp.com%2Farticles%2F&sessionId=decdd5852fd6aeb5a7abbe8591bc170a5e5b3f75&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&width=550px" spellcheck="false" aria-label="To enrich screen reader interactions, please activate Accessibility in Grammarly extension settings">&nbsp;&nbsp;</iframe></div></div> Araghchi said that the &ldquo;same bully,&rdquo; while referring to the US, was &ldquo;demonizing Iran&#39;s peaceful nuclear program and threatening further strikes on our safeguarded nuclear facilities, all in blatant violation of international law.&rdquo;&nbsp; &nbsp;&ldquo;Make no mistake: The US is the world&rsquo;s most dangerous Proliferation risk,&rdquo; he said.&nbsp; The Iranian FM said that the announcement by Trump was a &ldquo;regressive and irresponsible move and a serious threat to international peace and security.&rdquo; &ldquo;The world must unite to hold the US accountable for normalizing the proliferation of such heinous weapons,&rdquo; he said. In mid-June, Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign on Iran. The US briefly joined in, striking key Iranian nuclear facilities. The war took place two days ahead of a planned sixth round of nuclear negotiations between Tehran and Washington, which had begun in April. Nuclear talks have been derailed since Iran said it was open to negotiations only if the US provided guarantees of no military action.

Remarks come a day after Trump instructed the Department of War to start testing of nuclear weapons.

US announcement to resume nuclear testing threat to international peace: Iran FM 

NEW YORK: A senior North Korean diplomat reiterated at the UN Monday that his country won&#39;t give up its nuclear weapons despite numerous demands to do so, calling them crucial to keeping a &ldquo;balance of power&rdquo; with South Korea. &ldquo;We will never walk away from this position,&rdquo; he said. Under the spotlight of the General Assembly&#39;s annual meeting of world leaders, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Son Gyong amplified his country&#39;s longstanding complaints about US-led military exercises with South Korea and Japan. Complaining that the US and its allies are mounting a &ldquo;growing threat of aggression,&rdquo; he portrayed his own country&#39;s arsenal as the reason &ldquo;the balance of power on the Korean Peninsula is ensured.&rdquo; Still, his address was more tempered, especially toward the United States, than many of his country&rsquo;s prior remarks on the world stage and elsewhere. While Kim lambasted &mdash; without naming names &mdash; &ldquo;hegemonic forces&rdquo; and an &ldquo;indiscriminate tariff war,&rdquo; there were no personal insults, and there was more sternness than over-the-top bellicosity. Kim vowed that &ldquo;we will never give up nuclear,&rdquo; noting that North Korea&rsquo;s nuclear program is enshrined in its constitution. He asserted that security on the Korean Peninsula &ldquo;is faced with serious challenges more than ever,&rdquo; saying that the US-Japanese-South Korean exercises &ldquo;are breaking all the previous records in terms of scale, nature, frequency and scope.&rdquo; The North routinely characterizes such war games as preludes to an attack. South Korea says military exercises are necessarySouth Korea, for its part, has said the recent trilateral military exercises were necessary to counter North Korea&rsquo;s growing nuclear and missile threats. Numerous UN Security Council resolutions have demanded that the North stop building nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. Kim&rsquo;s appearance at the United Nations marked the first time since 2018 that North Korea sent a senior diplomat to the General Assembly gathering. The UN, he said, &ldquo;should not feel relieved, nor congratulate ourselves, on the non-occurrence of World War III for the past 80 years. Instead, we should pay due attention to the fact that the inducible threat has persisted and is now becoming more serious, and take measures accordingly. The diplomat&#39;s appearance at the UN comes amid signs of renewed interest in a possible meeting between its leader, Kim Jong Un, and US President Donald Trump. Trump and the North Korean leader met three times in 2018-2019 as Pyongyang was building a nuclear weapons stockpile, which Kim Jong Un views as key to his country&rsquo;s security and his continued authority in the northeast Asian nation. The talks collapsed over US-led sanctions against the North, and its leader has since shunned any diplomacy with the US and South Korea. Since Trump returned to power in January, he has repeatedly expressed hope of restarting talks with Kim. Last Monday, the North Korean leader said he still has &ldquo;good memories&rdquo; of Trump but urged the United States to drop its demand that the North surrender its nuclear arms as a precondition for resuming diplomacy. South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said in an Associated Press interview on Friday that President Lee Jae Myung has asked Trump to become &ldquo;a peacemaker&rdquo; and use his leadership to get North Korea to talks to reduce military tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Cho said Trump &ldquo;expressed his willingness to be engaged with North Korea again.&rdquo; Trump has an Asia visit upcomingTrump is expected to visit South Korea next month to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Trump is also scheduled to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during that meeting. North Korea has always had close ties to neighboring China, but in recent years has focused on expanding cooperation with Russia, another neighbor, by supplying combat troops and ammunition to support its war against Ukraine. The leaders of North Korea and China recently held their first summit in over six years, pledging mutual support and enhanced cooperation. The meeting followed a first-ever joint appearance by the DPRK&rsquo;s Kim, China&rsquo;s President Xi Jinping, and Russian leader Vladimir Putin at a massive Beijing military parade marking the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. At a follow-up meeting in Beijing on Sunday, the foreign ministers of North Korea and China agreed to deepen their bilateral ties and resist &ldquo;hegemonism,&rdquo; an apparent reference to their pushback against the United States.

Asia

North Korean diplomat insists his country won't give up nukes at the UN

SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un says he still has good memories of U.S. President Donald Trump and urged Washington to drop its demand the North surrender its nukes as a precondition for resuming long-stalled diplomacy. Speaking to Pyongyang&rsquo;s rubber-stamp parliament on Sunday, Kim stressed that he has no intention of ever resuming dialogue with rival South Korea, a key U.S. ally that helped broker Kim&rsquo;s previous summits with Trump during the American president&rsquo;s first term, according to a speech published by state media on Monday. Kim suspended virtually all cooperation with the South following the collapse of his second summit with Trump in 2019 over disagreements about U.S.-led sanctions against the North. Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have worsened in recent years as Kim has accelerated his weapons buildup and aligned with Russia over the war in Ukraine. Kim&rsquo;s comments came as South Korean President Lee Jae Myung prepares to depart for New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly, where he is expected to address nuclear tensions on the Korean Peninsula and call on North Korea to return to talks. Trump is also expected to visit South Korea next month to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, prompting media speculation that he may try to meet Kim at the inter-Korean border, as they did during their third meeting in 2019, which ultimately failed to salvage their nuclear diplomacy. During his latest speech at the Supreme People&rsquo;s Assembly, Kim reiterated that he would never give up his nuclear weapons program, which experts say he sees as his strongest guarantee of survival and the extension of his family&rsquo;s dynastic rule. &ldquo;The world already knows well what the United States does after forcing other countries to give up their nuclear weapons and disarm,&rdquo; Kim said. &ldquo;We will never lay down our nuclear weapons &hellip; There will be no negotiations, now or never, about trading anything with hostile countries in exchange for lifting sanctions.&rdquo; He said he still holds &ldquo;good personal memories&rdquo; of Trump from their first meetings and that there is &ldquo;no reason not to&rdquo; resume talks with the United States if Washington &ldquo;abandons its delusional obsession with denuclearization.&rdquo; Kim has stepped up testing activities in recent years, demonstrating weapons of various ranges designed to strike U.S. allies in Asia and the U.S. mainland. Analysts say Kim&rsquo;s nuclear push is aimed at eventually pressuring Washington to accept the idea of the North as a nuclear power and to negotiate economic and security concessions from a position of strength. Kim is also trying to bolster his leverage by strengthening cooperation with traditional allies Russia and China, in an emerging partnership aimed at undercutting U.S. influence. He has sent thousands of troops and huge supplies of military equipment to Russia to help support President Vladimir Putin&rsquo;s war in Ukraine. He visited Beijing earlier this month, sharing the spotlight with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Putin at a massive military parade. Experts say Kim&rsquo;s rare foreign trip was likely intended to boost his leverage ahead of a potential resumption of talks with the United States. There&rsquo;s growing concern in Seoul that it could lose its voice in future efforts to defuse the nuclear standoff on the peninsula, as the North seeks to negotiate directly with the United States. Such fears were amplified last year when Kim declared that he was abandoning North Korea&rsquo;s long-standing goal of peaceful unification with South Korea and ordered a rewriting of the North&rsquo;s constitution to cement the South as a permanent enemy.

Kim Jong Un recalls “good memories” of Trump, rejects denuclearization demands, vows to keep nukes, and deepens ties with Russia, China.

Articles tagged with "Nuclear Weapons"

Iran-US talks begin in push to avert war

US envoy says Trump questioning why Iran has not 'capitulated'

Trump says Russia, China conduct nuclear tests but 'don't talk about it'

US announcement to resume nuclear testing threat to international peace: Iran FM

North Korean diplomat insists his country won't give up nukes at the UN

North Korean leader recalls 'good memories' of Trump, urges US to drop denuclearization demands

Iran-US talks begin in push to avert war