Tag: Nuclear

US ‘prepared to engage’ with N. Korea in nuclear talks: envoy

  SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — The United States is ready to sit down with North Korea to resume long-awaited working-level nuclear talks, a US envoy said Wednesday. Nuclear discussions between Washington and Pyongyang have stalled since a second summit in Hanoi in February ended without an agreement over differences on the extent of denuclearization and a sanctions relief in return. But anticipation for renewed dialogue has been on the rise after the US and […]

Demise of US-Russia nuclear treaty fuels fears of new arms race

  by Sebastian Smith / with Anna Smolchenko in Moscow and Francesco Fontemaggi in Bangkok Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The United States vowed to upgrade its cruise and ballistic missile capability as the collapse Friday of a Cold War nuclear pact with Russia triggered fears of a new arms race. As Washington placed the blame firmly on Moscow over the demise of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, President Donald Trump […]

US plans Gulf naval escorts after Iranians menace UK oil tanker

by Paul HANDLEY WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The Pentagon said Thursday it was discussing military escorts for vessels in the Gulf one day after armed Iranian boats threatened a British oil tanker. The White House’s nominee to become chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, said Washington was attempting to put together a coalition “in terms of providing military escort, naval escort to commercial shipping.” “I think that that will be […]

Iran passes uranium enrichment cap set by endangered deal

by Kay Armin Serjoie TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — Iran on Monday breached a uranium enrichment cap set by a troubled 2015 nuclear deal and warned Europe against taking retaliatory measures, as France decided to send an envoy to Tehran to try to calm tensions. The move came more than a year after Washington pulled out of the landmark accord between world powers and Tehran, which says it has lost patience with perceived inaction by the […]

Iran to face more ‘isolation, sanctions’: Pompeo

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Iran will face further sanctions in response to its expected breach Sunday of a uranium enrichment cap, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said. “Iran’s latest expansion of its nuclear program will lead to further isolation and sanctions,” the top US diplomat said on Twitter. Iran said earlier it was hours away from breaching the cap set by an endangered nuclear deal reached with international powers but from which the […]

US President Trump to visit Seoul after letters with Kim

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — US President Donald Trump will visit South Korea at the weekend after the G20 summit to discuss deadlocked nuclear talks with the North with President Moon Jae-in, Seoul’s presidential office said Monday. Trump will fly to the South Korean capital on Saturday after attending the G20 summit in Japan, officials said, prompting speculation he could try to visit the Demilitarized Zone that divides the peninsula. The visit comes after Trump […]

Iran rejects negotiation with the US as Gulf tensions soar

by Paul Handley with Kyoko Hasegawa in Tokyo WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Amid rising tensions in the Gulf, Iran on Thursday rejected negotiations with the US and said it was showing “maximum restraint” after Washington sent extra military forces to the region against what it claimed was an imminent threat from Tehran. US officials meanwhile said the deployment of an aircraft carrier strike group and B-52 bombers to the Gulf, one of the world’s […]

N.Korea’s Kim ordered ‘long-range strike’ drill: state media

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw a “long-range strike” drill, the state news agency reported Friday, a day after South Korea said the weapons fired were short-range missiles. “At the command post, Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un learned about a plan of the strike drill of various long-range strike means and gave an order of start of the drill,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. Thursday’s launch was […]

Trump moves to strangle Iran economy as nuclear deal withers

by Shaun Tandon with Amir Havasi in Tehran WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Donald Trump on Wednesday tightened the screws further on Iran with sanctions on its mining industry after a frustrated Tehran said it would suspend some promises it made under a nuclear deal rejected by Washington. On the anniversary of Trump’s withdrawal from the accord he denounced as “horrible,” tensions were soaring after the United States deployed an aircraft carrier strike […]

US sending B-52s to Middle East against Iran ‘threat’

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The US Air Force is deploying massive B-52 Stratofortress bombers to the Gulf in response to an alleged possible plan by Iran to attack American forces in the region, the Pentagon said Tuesday. Several nuclear-capable B-52s are heading to the region along with an aircraft carrier task force following what the Defense Department called “recent and clear indications that Iranian and Iranian proxy forces were making preparations to possibly attack […]

Iran to reduce nuclear commitments: state media

TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — Iran will reduce some of its commitments to the nuclear deal in response to the United States’ decision to withdraw from the accord, state news agency IRNA said on Tuesday. “This will be communicated to the ambassadors of the five countries” still party to the deal — Britain, China, France, Germany, and Russia — at a meeting on Wednesday with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi, IRNA reported. A foreign […]

Kim, Putin vow to seek closer ties at first talks

  by Maria Panina  VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (AFP) — Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un met face-to-face for the first time on Thursday, vowing to seek closer ties as they look to counter US influence. The summit in Russia’s Far Eastern city of Vladivostok came with Kim locked in a nuclear stand-off with Washington and Putin keen to put Moscow forward as a player in another global flashpoint. The two leaders shook hands […]