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Iran Asks Watchdog Not to Publish 'Unnecessary' Nuke Details

FILE: This Monday, Oct. 26, 2020, satellite image from Planet Labs Inc. that has been annotated by experts at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at Middlebury Institute of International Studies shows construction at Iran's Natanz uranium-enrichment facility that experts believe may be a new, underground centrifuge assembly plant. (Planet Labs Inc. via AP)
FILE: This Monday, Oct. 26, 2020, satellite image from Planet Labs Inc. that has been annotated by experts at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at Middlebury Institute of International Studies shows construction at Iran's Natanz uranium-enrichment facility that experts believe may be a new, underground centrifuge assembly plant. (Planet Labs Inc. via AP)
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Iran Asks Watchdog Not to Publish 'Unnecessary' Nuke Details

FILE: This Monday, Oct. 26, 2020, satellite image from Planet Labs Inc. that has been annotated by experts at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at Middlebury Institute of International Studies shows construction at Iran's Natanz uranium-enrichment facility that experts believe may be a new, underground centrifuge assembly plant. (Planet Labs Inc. via AP)
FILE: This Monday, Oct. 26, 2020, satellite image from Planet Labs Inc. that has been annotated by experts at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at Middlebury Institute of International Studies shows construction at Iran's Natanz uranium-enrichment facility that experts believe may be a new, underground centrifuge assembly plant. (Planet Labs Inc. via AP)

Iran urged the United Nations' nuclear watchdog to avoid publishing “unnecessary” details on Tehran’s nuclear program, state TV reported Sunday, a day after Germany, France and Britain said Tehran has “no credible civilian use” for its development of uranium metal.

The report quoted a statement from Iran’s nuclear department that asked the International Atomic Energy Agency to avoid publishing details on Iran’s nuclear program that may cause confusion.

“It is expected the international atomic energy agency avoid providing unnecessary details and prevent paving ground for misunderstanding” in the international community, the statement said. It did not elaborate.

On Saturday, Germany, France and Britain pressed Iran to back off its plan to develop uranium metal, calling it “the latest planned violation” of its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

The goal of the deal is to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb, something Iran insists it does not want to do, The Associated Press reported.

“Iran has no credible civilian use for uranium metal,” they said in a joint statement.

“The production of uranium metal has potentially grave military implications.”

On Thursday, the IAEA said Iran had informed it that it had begun installing equipment for the production of uranium metal. It said Tehran maintains its plans to conduct research and development on uranium metal production are part of its “declared aim to design an improved type of fuel.”

Iran reacted to the European statement Sunday saying Iran informed the UN nuclear watchdog nearly two decades ago of its plans for the “peaceful and conventional” production of uranium metal. It also said it provided updated information to the agency two years ago about its plans to produce silicide advanced fuel.

The statement said uranium metal is an “intermediate product” in the manufacture of uranium silicide, a fuel used in nuclear reactors that is safer and has more power capability than uranium oxide-based fuel, which Iran currently produces.

The three European nations alongside the US, Russia and China signed the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran that prohibited research and production of uranium metal.

President Donald Trump in 2018 unilaterally withdrew the US from Iran’s nuclear deal, in which Tehran had agreed to limit its uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. After the US then ramped up sanctions, Iran gradually and publicly abandoned the deal’s limits on its nuclear development.

President-elect Joe Biden, who was vice president when the deal was signed during the Obama administration, has said he hopes to return the US to the deal.

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Trump Fires NSA Director, Intelligence Officials

FILE PHOTO: Commander of US Cyber Command Air Force Gen. Timothy Haugh testifies at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on worldwide threats to American security, on Capitol Hill in Washington, US, March 11, 2024. REUTERS/Julia Nikhinson/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Commander of US Cyber Command Air Force Gen. Timothy Haugh testifies at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on worldwide threats to American security, on Capitol Hill in Washington, US, March 11, 2024. REUTERS/Julia Nikhinson/File Photo
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Trump Fires NSA Director, Intelligence Officials

FILE PHOTO: Commander of US Cyber Command Air Force Gen. Timothy Haugh testifies at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on worldwide threats to American security, on Capitol Hill in Washington, US, March 11, 2024. REUTERS/Julia Nikhinson/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Commander of US Cyber Command Air Force Gen. Timothy Haugh testifies at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on worldwide threats to American security, on Capitol Hill in Washington, US, March 11, 2024. REUTERS/Julia Nikhinson/File Photo

US President Donald Trump fired General Timothy Haugh as director of the National Security Agency, in a national security purge that sources said on Friday included more than a dozen staff at the White House national security council.

The move came a day after far-right activist Laura Loomer visited the Oval Office and urged Trump to remove certain people whose views she deemed disloyal.

Loomer advocated for the firings during a meeting with Trump on Wednesday, she confirmed to The Washington Post on Thursday evening.

In the meeting, Loomer, a fervent Trump supporter, pressed for the dismissals of a number of officials besides Haugh and his civilian deputy at the NSA, Wendy Noble,— in particular, National Security Council staff whose views she saw as disloyal to the president.

“NSA Director Tim Haugh and his deputy Wendy Noble have been disloyal to President Trump,” Loomer said in a post on X early Friday. “That is why they have been fired.”

Loomer told The Washington Post that she urged Trump to dismiss Haugh because he was “handpicked” by Gen. Mark A. Milley, who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 2023 when Haugh was nominated to lead Cyber Command and the NSA.

A senior US official revealed that Trump had ordered Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to fire Haugh.

Last January, Hegseth revoked the security detail and security clearance for Milley, according to Pentagon spokesman John Ullyot, an unprecedented move against the former top US general who became a frequent target of Trump.

Democrats Oppose Trump’s Decision

Media outlets including The Washington Post had reported Haugh's firing on Thursday night, citing current and former US officials, who said they did not know the reason for Haugh’s dismissal or Noble’s reassignment.

The named acting NSA director is Lt. Gen. William J. Hartman, who was the Cyber Command deputy, one of the officials said. Sheila Thomas, who was the executive director at the NSA, was named acting deputy, according to two officials.

Haugh is a cyber professional with more than 30 years of military service, including as head of Cyber Command’s Cyber National Mission Force, which led offensive cyber military operations overseas, and as commander of the 16th Air Force in San Antonio.

He ran Cyber Command’s half of the “Russia Small Group,” a joint effort with the NSA to defend the 2018 midterm elections from Russian interference. The NSA portion was led by Anne Neuberger, who went on to serve in the Biden administration as a deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technologies.

During the election defense effort in 2018, Haugh led offensive operations against Russian trolls and launched initiatives to disclose publicly Russian spy agency malware and to conduct “Hunt Forward” missions to boot Russian intelligence from Eastern European government networks, recalled Jason Kikta, who was at the time lead defensive cyber operations planner for Cyber Command.

Reaction from the Democratic leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees was swift.

Sen. Mark R. Warner of Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said Haugh served with distinction.

“At a time when the United States is facing unprecedented cyberthreats, as the Salt Typhoon cyberattack from China has so clearly underscored, how does firing him make Americans any safer?” Warner said in a statement.

“I am deeply disturbed by the decision” to remove Haugh, Rep. Jim Himes (D-Connecticut), Warner’s counterpart in the House, said in a statement.

Himes described Haugh as an “honest and forthright leader who followed the law and put national security first. I fear those are precisely the qualities that could lead to his firing in this administration.”

Additional Firings

Trump, a Republican, has fired multiple nonpartisan top officials at US agencies and installed loyalists since beginning his second term on Jan. 20.

In February, he fired Air Force General C.Q. Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who was dismissed along with five other admirals and generals in an unprecedented shake-up of US military leadership.

Meanwhile, The New York Times said Loomer, who has floated the baseless conspiracy theory that the Sept. 11 attacks were an “inside job” and is viewed as extreme by even some of Trump’s far-right allies, was apparently wielding more influence over the staff of the National Security Council than Waltz, who runs the agency.

The Times said that flying to Florida aboard Air Force One late Thursday, Trump called Loomer a “great patriot” and denied that she had anything to do with the firings.