Regional
Badakhshan Police Chief killed in a blast
Badakhshan Police Chief Mawlavi Abdulhaq Abu Omar was killed on Monday, in an explosion targeting his vehicle outside his office in north-eastern region of Afghanistan.
“Mawlawi Abdulhaq Abu Omar, and two of his guards were killed killed in an explosion near the provincial police command headquarters in the city of Faizabad on Monday morning,” Ministry of Interior confirmed.
According to the ministry spokesman Abdul Nafi Takor, two others were also wounded in the explosion.
“Four suspects have been arrested in connection,” Takor said.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.
Regional
Illegal mine collapses in China, killing five just days after Shanxi disaster
A mine shaft collapse during an illegal mining operation in China’s southwestern Yunnan province killed five people and injured one, state media reported, days after the country’s deadliest mining accident since 2009 left at least 82 dead.
The incident occurred around 4:30 a.m. on Sunday (2030 GMT on Saturday) in Yunnan’s Huize County, state news agency Xinhua reported, citing local authorities. The report did not specify what mineral was being mined.
There was only one survivor out of six people rescued from the site and sent to hospital, Xinhua said, and the person was in stable condition.
Authorities have launched an investigation into the cause of the incident, which follows the May 22 deadly gas explosion at a coal mine in the northern Shanxi province. Apart from the 82 people killed, two remain missing and 128 were injured.
Chinese authorities have vowed a thorough investigation into the Shanxi disaster, as preliminary findings uncovered unmarked tunnels, missing trackers and fake doors at the mining site.
Regional
Iran’s strongest card in nuclear talks: its highly enriched uranium
Uranium is highly enriched when it has reached 20% purity, and weapons-grade as of around 90%.
Iran and the United States are in discussions to extend their ceasefire so as to start negotiations on issues including Tehran’s nuclear program, where Washington insists Iran must not be able to make a nuclear weapon, Reuters reported.
While much of Iran’s uranium enrichment infrastructure was destroyed or badly damaged when Israel and the U.S. bombed it in June, a large part of the highly enriched uranium it amassed is thought to have survived. That is the biggest U.S. concern ahead of nuclear talks.
On Friday Trump said in a social media post that Iran must agree that the enriched uranium buried underground after earlier U.S. strikes be “unearthed” and destroyed in coordination with Iran and the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
WHAT IS HIGHLY ENRICHED URANIUM?
One of two fissile materials, along with plutonium, with which one can make the core of a nuclear bomb.
While plutonium is usually extracted from the spent fuel of a nuclear reactor, requiring large and highly visible infrastructure, uranium can be enriched using centrifuges that have a much smaller footprint.
Two of Iran’s three enrichment sites that are known to have been operating when Israel and the U.S. attacked in June were underground. The above-ground one was clearly destroyed.
Uranium is highly enriched when it has reached 20% purity, and weapons-grade as of around 90%.
Modern reactors generally use fuel enriched to up to 5%, but some use fuel enriched to higher levels. The ones that power U.S. nuclear submarines reportedly use fuel enriched beyond 90%.
HOW MUCH DOES IRAN HAVE?
Iran has not informed the U.N. nuclear watchdog of the fate of its enriched uranium since the June attacks or let its inspectors return to the sites where it was stored.
The International Atomic Energy Agency estimates Iran had these amounts when the first Israeli bombs fell on June 13:
– 440.9 kg enriched to up to 60%
– 184.1 kg enriched to up to 20%
– 6,024.4 kg enriched to up to 5%
– 2,391.1 kg enriched to up to 2%
According to an IAEA yardstick, the amount at 60% is enough, if enriched further, for 10 nuclear weapons. The 20% stock would be enough for one and the 5% could produce 12, read the report.
How much has survived is unclear. IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has said his agency believes “a bit more than 200 kg” of the 60% stock is stored at a tunnel complex in Isfahan that appears to have been largely unharmed by the June attacks. Some was also at the Natanz nuclear site, he said.
WHY THE CONCERN?
U.S. concern has been focused on the 60% material because that would be easiest and thus quickest to make a bomb with. Washington wants it gone. Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons.
As the enrichment level of uranium increases, it becomes exponentially easier to enrich further. Getting from 60% to 90% is easier than getting from unenriched to 5%.
President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of a nuclear deal between Iran and major powers that kept Tehran at a far greater distance from being able to produce an atom bomb than it is at now. The U.S. withdrawal in 2018 caused the deal to unravel, and Iran quickly expanded its atomic program.
Under that 2015 deal, Iran did not enrich beyond 3.67%.
Even at 90%, however, it takes more steps to produce the core of a bomb. When it is enriched, the uranium is in gas form. It must then be turned into metal for use in a weapon.
CAN YOU MOVE IT?
Yes. Iran moved enriched material between sites under IAEA monitoring before the June attacks.
Under the 2015 deal and a precursor to it, Iran’s stocks of uranium enriched to up to 20% were diluted or turned into reactor fuel plates and shipped out of the country.
Moving nuclear material like highly enriched uranium internationally is a sensitive but relatively routine procedure.
“It requires some precaution but it can be moved,” Grossi told PBS in March when asked about the 60% material.
WILL IRAN GIVE IT UP?
Iran’s supreme leader has issued a directive that the 60% material should not be sent abroad, two senior Iranian sources said last week.
Iranian sources say Tehran might agree to send half of it to a third country, receiving uranium enriched to 5% in return, and dilute the other half inside Iran, Reuters reported.
Regional
Pakistani FM arrives in Washington to meet US Secretary of State
Mohammad Ishaq Dar, Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, has arrived in Washington on an official visit.
During the trip, Ishaq Dar is expected to meet and hold talks with U.S. Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Marco Rubio on bilateral and regional issues.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said that after concluding his meetings and official engagements, Dar will return to Islamabad later the same day.
Pakistan is playing a mediating role in the negotiations between Iran and the United States.
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