Iran Tells Kerry It Is Dismantling, Destroying A Key Nuclear Component

Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday the core of the reactor had been removed.

Thirteen senators sent a letter to Kerry saying they are “gravely concerned” about a letter he sent to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif suggesting that the limits included in an end-of-the-year spending bill on people who travel to Iran or have dual citizenship with a Visa Waiver Program country could be lifted. Most of the nuclear restrictions last 10 or 15 years.

Kerry has credited Zarif with helping bridge the deep mistrust between the USA and Iranian governments after decades of estrangement and has remained in contact by phone with him in the months since the nuclear deal was negotiated.

The U.S. and Iran have avoided what could have been a major worldwide incident. Kerry and President Barack Obama engage with Zarif’s faction of the Iranian government and look past the provocations of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, which has been testing Obama’s resolve since Zarif agreed to the nuclear deal in July. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani attended the sessions, one Iranian official told Reuters.

At the same time, Iran will apply the Additional Protocol of its safeguards agreement (subject to ratification by its parliament, the Majlis) with the International Atomic Energy Agency, a measure which gives the agency’s inspectors access to materials and sites beyond declared nuclear facilities.

According to a senior U.S. defence official, the images have raised concerns, for instance, that Iran could have pilfered some personal information from the captives.

The Iranian official said Tehran planned to revive supply deals with European partners in order to ramp up exports. There is now a video circulating online that appears to show one of the sailors apologizing to a reporter. Kerry and other Cabinet members involved in the Iranian incident attended the president’s State of the Union address. The ships – including the U.S.S. Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier – were moving from the Arabian Sea into the Persian Gulf to assist an air campaign against Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq.

NEW YORK, Jan 14 Oil rebounded on Thursday, snapping an eight-day rout, as investors covered short positions but the market settled not far from 12-year lows on worries Iran may add barrels to a glutted global market sooner than expected. But in Iran, the firefighter and the arsonist work for the same supreme leader. In fact, it is clear that today, this kind of issue is able to be peacefully resolved, and officially resolved, and that is a testament to the critical role diplomacy plays in keeping out country safe, secure and strong.

The U.S. has modestly expanded sanctions on Hezbollah, but hasn’t followed through on pledges to impose penalties after a recent ballistic missile test by Iran that violated a U.N. Security Council ban.

On December 30, Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani announced that Tehran would acquire a new generation of centrifuges in the future that can enhance the “quality of Iran’s peaceful nuclear program structure”.

Critics pointed out that with Iran set to get around $100 billion in sanctions relief with the implementation of the nuclear deal, Tehran had plenty of incentives other than succumbing to American diplomatic pressure to bring the standoff to a quick resolution.