US Warns it Will ‘React’ to Any Iranian Nuclear Escalation

Advanced centrifuges on display in Tehran during its National Nuclear Technology Day. (Reuters)
Advanced centrifuges on display in Tehran during its National Nuclear Technology Day. (Reuters)
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US Warns it Will ‘React’ to Any Iranian Nuclear Escalation

Advanced centrifuges on display in Tehran during its National Nuclear Technology Day. (Reuters)
Advanced centrifuges on display in Tehran during its National Nuclear Technology Day. (Reuters)

The United States would not expect a special meeting of the UN nuclear watchdog's board this year if the agency's deal with Iran on replacing its surveillance cameras at a centrifuge-parts workshop is carried out, a US official said on Wednesday.

"If implemented as agreed with the (International Atomic Energy Agency) Director General, we would not foresee needing a special Board of Governors (meeting) on this set of issues before the end of the year," said the official on condition of anonymity.

"Of course, if there are any new nuclear escalations, we would react accordingly,” Reuters quoted the official as saying.

Iran and the IAEA have earlier announced reaching an agreement on replacing surveillance cameras at the workshop in the TESA Karaj complex that had been removed after an apparent attack, removing one potential obstacle to wider nuclear talks.

One of the IAEA's four cameras at the workshop was destroyed in June in apparent sabotage that Iran blamed on Israel.

Iran then removed the cameras and did not let the IAEA return to replace them, angering the US and its allies.

Iran said Wednesday that it “voluntarily” agreed to grant access to the nuclear watchdog in an effort to prevent misunderstandings, according to a report by Nournews, an outlet close to Iran’s security forces.

The IAEA will soon install new surveillance cameras at Iran’s Karaj centrifuge component manufacturing workshop under an agreement reached by Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi and the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Mohammad Eslami, the Vienna-based watchdog stated.

On November 23, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi visited Tehran and said he wanted to deepen cooperation with Iran, days before the resumption of negotiations between Tehran and world powers to revive a 2015 nuclear deal.

“I sincerely hope that we can continue our constructive discussions to address and resolve all outstanding safeguards issues in Iran,” Grossi said in a statement.



Biden Is Laying Low at the White House on Election Day

US President Joe Biden points a finger as he delivers remarks on the administration's continued drawdown efforts in Afghanistan in a speech from the East Room at the White House in Washington US, July 8, 2021. (Reuters)
US President Joe Biden points a finger as he delivers remarks on the administration's continued drawdown efforts in Afghanistan in a speech from the East Room at the White House in Washington US, July 8, 2021. (Reuters)
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Biden Is Laying Low at the White House on Election Day

US President Joe Biden points a finger as he delivers remarks on the administration's continued drawdown efforts in Afghanistan in a speech from the East Room at the White House in Washington US, July 8, 2021. (Reuters)
US President Joe Biden points a finger as he delivers remarks on the administration's continued drawdown efforts in Afghanistan in a speech from the East Room at the White House in Washington US, July 8, 2021. (Reuters)

US President Joe Biden has no public appearances on his schedule and his press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, won’t be holding her typical daily briefing on Tuesday.

Biden made his final campaign appearance on Saturday when he delivered a speech to laborers on behalf of the Harris-Walz campaign in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

He hasn’t taken a question from reporters since gaggling at an event in Baltimore last Tuesday.

Later that same day, Biden created an uproar in remarks to Latino activists when he responded to racist comments at a Trump rally made by the comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who referred to the US island territory of Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”

Biden, according to a transcript prepared by the official White House stenographers, told the Latino group on a Tuesday evening video call, “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.”

The dizzying presidential contest between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris hurtled toward an uncertain finish on Tuesday as millions of Americans headed to the polls to choose between two sharply different visions for the country.

A race churned by unprecedented events – two assassination attempts against Trump, Biden's surprise withdrawal and Harris' rapid rise – remained neck and neck as Election Day dawned, even after billions of dollars in spending and months of frenetic campaigning.