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Iran Produces Uranium Metal, IAEA Says, in Latest Breach of Deal

This photo released Nov. 5, 2019, by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran shows centrifuge machines at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran. (AP)
This photo released Nov. 5, 2019, by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran shows centrifuge machines at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran. (AP)
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Iran Produces Uranium Metal, IAEA Says, in Latest Breach of Deal

This photo released Nov. 5, 2019, by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran shows centrifuge machines at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran. (AP)
This photo released Nov. 5, 2019, by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran shows centrifuge machines at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran. (AP)

Iran has carried out its plan to produce uranium metal, the UN atomic watchdog confirmed on Wednesday, despite Western powers having warned Iran that would breach their 2015 nuclear deal as uranium metal can be used to make the core of an atom bomb.

Iran began breaching its nuclear deal with major powers step by step in 2019 in response to US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the deal the previous year and Washington’s reimposition of sanctions on Tehran.

Iran has in recent months accelerated those breaches of the deal’s restrictions on its atomic activities, potentially complicating efforts to bring the United States back into the deal under President Joe Biden.

A law passed in response to the killing of its top nuclear scientist in November, which Tehran blames on its foe Israel, called for steps including opening a uranium metal plant. Iran told the International Atomic Energy Agency in December it planned to produce uranium metal fuel for a research reactor.

“Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi today informed IAEA Member States about recent developments regarding Iran’s R&D activities on uranium metal production as part of its stated aim to produce fuel for the Tehran Research Reactor,” the IAEA said in a statement.

Wednesday’s report, seen by Reuters, and a previous one said that Iran planned to carry out research on uranium metal using natural uranium before moving on to uranium metal enriched to 20%, the level it is enriching uranium to now, short of the 90% that is weapons grade.

“The Agency on 8 February verified 3.6 gram of uranium metal at Iran’s Fuel Plate Fabrication Plant (FPFP) in Esfahan,” the IAEA statement added.

France, Britain and Germany, all parties to the deal, last month said they were “deeply concerned” and that Iran’s uranium metal production had no civilian credibility but potentially serious military implications.

The 2015 deal’s central aim was to extend the time Iran would need to produce enough fissile material for a nuclear bomb to at least a year from roughly 2-3 months. Iran, however, denies ever pursuing nuclear weapons and says it only wants to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

US intelligence agencies and the IAEA believe Iran had a secret, coordinated nuclear weapons program that it halted in 2003.

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Israeli Army Says Struck Tehran University Run by Iran Guards

A photograph shows the damage during the visit of a car service center in eastern Tehran that was hit by a missile strike, on March 28, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
A photograph shows the damage during the visit of a car service center in eastern Tehran that was hit by a missile strike, on March 28, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
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Israeli Army Says Struck Tehran University Run by Iran Guards

A photograph shows the damage during the visit of a car service center in eastern Tehran that was hit by a missile strike, on March 28, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
A photograph shows the damage during the visit of a car service center in eastern Tehran that was hit by a missile strike, on March 28, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)

Israel's military said Monday that it had struck a university in Tehran run by Iran's Revolutionary Guards, claiming the institution was used for advanced weapons research.

"In recent days, one of the IRGC's central military infrastructure sites was recently struck, located within the compound of Imam Hossein University -- the IRGC's primary military academic institution, which also serves as an emergency asset for the regime's military bodies," a statement by the Israeli military said, AFP reported.

Senior Iranian officials, including former supreme leader Ali Khamenei, had previously visited the university.

"During the operation, the army struck military infrastructure within the university multiple times in order to inflict significant damage to the regime's weapons production and development capabilities," the Israeli military said.

It added that it had destroyed wind tunnels beneath the university, its chemistry center, and a technology and engineering center of its mechanics and development group -- which the Israelis said were all used for the development of weapons.

World

Unknown Gunmen Kill More Than 70 in South Sudan after a Dispute at a Gold Mine

A gold mine in the Sudanese desert on 3 October 2011 (ASHRAF SHAZLY/AFP/Getty Images)
A gold mine in the Sudanese desert on 3 October 2011 (ASHRAF SHAZLY/AFP/Getty Images)
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Unknown Gunmen Kill More Than 70 in South Sudan after a Dispute at a Gold Mine

A gold mine in the Sudanese desert on 3 October 2011 (ASHRAF SHAZLY/AFP/Getty Images)
A gold mine in the Sudanese desert on 3 October 2011 (ASHRAF SHAZLY/AFP/Getty Images)

Gunmen killed more than 70 people in South Sudan over a gold mining row on the outskirts of the capital over the weekend, a police spokesperson confirmed on Monday.

A video of dozens of bodies at an open ground was shared online, and a local journalist said many other victims are believed to have fled to the bushes, The Associated Press said.

The gold mining site at Jebel Iraq in Central Equatoria State has in the past been the site of violent clashes between illegal miners and mining companies.

Police spokesperson Kwacijwok Dominic Amondoc said he would share more information about the attack once he gets more details.

“All I know is that unknown gunmen attacked Jebel Iraq at a gold mine. There are more than 70 dead and many more injured,” he said.

The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army – In Opposition, or SPLM/A-IO, condemned the attack on Monday and blamed government forces.

World

France Probes Possible Iran Link after Bomb Attack Foiled Outside Bank of America

Police stand outside the Bank of America building in Paris, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Nicolas Garriga)
Police stand outside the Bank of America building in Paris, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Nicolas Garriga)
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France Probes Possible Iran Link after Bomb Attack Foiled Outside Bank of America

Police stand outside the Bank of America building in Paris, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Nicolas Garriga)
Police stand outside the Bank of America building in Paris, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Nicolas Garriga)

French authorities are investigating a suspected link to Iran after thwarting a bomb attack outside a Bank of American building in Paris on the weekend, the interior minister said Monday.

The authorities suspect there could be a link to Iran due to similarities to other recent attempted attacks in Europe which a pro-Iran group claimed credit for, French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said.

On Saturday morning, Paris police officers spotted two suspects carrying a shopping bag near the premises of the Bank of America in the 8th arrondissement of the French capital. Three suspects have since been arrested and the national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office opened an investigation into alleged terrorism-related offenses.

Authorities are making a “direct link” with Iran because the “modus operandi is in every respect similar to actions that have been carried out in the Netherlands and in Belgium,” Nuñez said on French radio RTL on Monday morning.

In those cases there were claims by a pro-Iranian group that “linked them to the conflict” in the Middle-East, The Associated Press quoted him as saying.

The group, known on Telegram under the name Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia, which translates as the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right, also claimed responsibility for an attack last week in London, where four ambulances belonging to a Jewish charity were set on fire.

“Typically, intelligence services of this country (Iran) operate in this way: they use proxies, a series of subcontractors, often common criminals, to carry out highly targeted actions aimed at US interests, the interests of the Jewish community, or Iranian opposition figures,” Nuñez said.

Nuñez said French authorities have stepped up security around key personalities and sites since the United States and Israel launched their war against Iran on Feb. 28, including the personal protection of some figures from the Iranian opposition.