Washington Watches with ‘Deep Concern’ Iran’s Nuclear Progress 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken attends a news conference in Doha, Qatar, November 22, 2022. REUTERS/Ibraheem Al Omari
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken attends a news conference in Doha, Qatar, November 22, 2022. REUTERS/Ibraheem Al Omari
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Washington Watches with ‘Deep Concern’ Iran’s Nuclear Progress 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken attends a news conference in Doha, Qatar, November 22, 2022. REUTERS/Ibraheem Al Omari
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken attends a news conference in Doha, Qatar, November 22, 2022. REUTERS/Ibraheem Al Omari

The United States expressed “deep concern” Tuesday over progress Iran is making on its nuclear program and ballistic missile capability, after Tehran said it has begun enriching uranium to 60 percent at a second facility.

“We are continuing to watch, not only their nuclear progress with deep concern, but also their continually improving ballistic missile capability,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby told a briefing in Washington. 

Reiterating a commitment made by US President Joe Biden that Iran would never be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon, Kirby said “all options” were being made available to the American president. 

“We certainly have not changed our view that we will not allow Iran to achieve a nuclear weapons capability.” 

“We’re not close to getting a diplomatic path here. We still would vastly prefer that. But we are just too far apart,” Kirby said, in reference to efforts to revive the nuclear deal with Tehran. 

Iran in the meantime publicized that it had moved ahead on uranium enrichment that Western governments worry is part of a covert nuclear weapons program. 

“Iran has started producing uranium enriched to 60 percent at the Fordow plant for the first time,” Iran’s ISNA news agency reported, a development then confirmed by Atomic Energy Organization of Iran chief Mohammad Eslami. 

An atomic bomb requires uranium enriched to 90 percent, so 60 percent is a significant step towards weapons-grade enrichment. 
Previously on Tuesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he can’t confirm any reports about Iran’s activities.  

In remarks during a visit to Doha to hold a strategic dialogue between the US and Qatar, Blinken said Iran has chosen to insert extraneous issues into the effort to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.  

US special envoy for Iran Robert Malley, for his part, said on Monday that Iran’s crackdown on anti-government protests sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death in custody and the sale of drones to Russia have turned the US focus away from reviving the nuclear deal. 



Multiple Quakes Leave Casualties in Guatemala, Cause Landslides

Debris lays on the street after dozens of earthquakes and aftershocks were recorded in a matter of hours in Palin, Guatemala, early Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
Debris lays on the street after dozens of earthquakes and aftershocks were recorded in a matter of hours in Palin, Guatemala, early Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
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Multiple Quakes Leave Casualties in Guatemala, Cause Landslides

Debris lays on the street after dozens of earthquakes and aftershocks were recorded in a matter of hours in Palin, Guatemala, early Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
Debris lays on the street after dozens of earthquakes and aftershocks were recorded in a matter of hours in Palin, Guatemala, early Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

A series of dozens of earthquakes were recorded in the span of hours in Guatemala, leaving two dead when rocks fell on their vehicle, authorities said. Landslides left several others buried.

More than 37 earthquakes and aftershocks with magnitudes ranging from 3.0 to 5.6 were reported in Guatemala Tuesday afternoon, said Edwin Rodas, director of the National Institute for Seismology, Vulcanology, Meteorology and Hydrology.

The tremors resulted in the evacuation of buildings, landslides, and minor property damage, officials said, adding they were felt as far away as El Salvador.
The two men killed were traveling in a pickup truck on a local road in the department of Escuintla when the rocks fell from a hillside onto the vehicle, firefighters said, according to The Associated Press.

Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo said at a press conference Tuesday that the main epicenter of the quakes was in the department of Sacatepéquez, with aftershocks in the regions of Escuintla and Guatemala department.

At least five people were buried by landslides, but emergency responders were able to rescue two, he added.

The National Coordinator for Disaster Reduction declared an orange alert, the second-highest on the emergency scale.

The US Geological Survey reported a 4.8 magnitude earthquake at 3:11 p.m. local time, 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) southwest of the town of Amatitlán, south of Guatemala City, with a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles). It then reported another 5.7 magnitude quake 3 kilometers (2 miles) northwest of San Vicente Pacaya, a municipality in Escuintla, in the south-central region of the country.

Another 4.8 magnitude quake was reported 6 kilometers (4 miles) northwest of Palín, also in Escuintla.