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Lavrov, Arab Delegation Discuss Ukraine Crisis

Kremlin building in Moscow - File Photo/AFP
Kremlin building in Moscow - File Photo/AFP
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Lavrov, Arab Delegation Discuss Ukraine Crisis

Kremlin building in Moscow - File Photo/AFP
Kremlin building in Moscow - File Photo/AFP

The Arab League said a delegation of the Contact Group on Ukraine held on Monday talks in Moscow with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and other officials to offer mediation between Russia and Ukraine for a solution to the ongoing conflict.

The delegation included Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit and the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, Algeria, Iraq, and Sudan.

Their visit is part of the Arab League mission to diffuse tension between Moscow and Kyiv and find a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

On Tuesday, the delegation plans to head to Warsaw where it will hold talks with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, an AL official said.

Arab diplomatic sources confirmed that the Arab ministers’ visit aims to listen to the positions and concerns of the two parties in the light of the latest security and political developments of the Ukrainian crisis.

The sources said that the group should discuss prospects and ways to contribute to efforts for calming down and reducing tension between the two sides and for reaching a political solution.

During the 157th session of the Council of the Arab League meeting held on March 9 in Cairo, participants recommended establishing an Arab Contact Group on Ukraine at the ministerial level to tackle the impact of the crisis on Arab countries.

The Group was also assigned with contacting the concerned parties hoping to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

AL officials and member states maintain contact with both Russia and Ukraine.

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Iran Is ‘Pressing the Gas Pedal’ on Uranium Enrichment, IAEA Chief Says 

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi speaks at the Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP)
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi speaks at the Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP)
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Iran Is ‘Pressing the Gas Pedal’ on Uranium Enrichment, IAEA Chief Says 

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi speaks at the Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP)
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi speaks at the Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP)

Iran is "pressing the gas pedal" on its enrichment of uranium to near weapons grade, UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said on Wednesday, adding that Iran's recently announced acceleration in enrichment was starting to take effect.

Grossi said last month that Iran had informed the International Atomic Energy Agency that it would "dramatically" accelerate enrichment of uranium to up to 60% purity, closer to the roughly 90% of weapons grade.

Western powers called the step a serious escalation and said there was no civil justification for enriching to that level and that no other country had done so without producing nuclear weapons. Iran has said its program is entirely peaceful and it has the right to enrich uranium to any level it wants.

"Before it was (producing) more or less seven kilograms (of uranium enriched to up to 60%) per month, now it's above 30 or more than that. So I think this is a clear indication of an acceleration. They are pressing the gas pedal," Grossi told reporters at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

According to an International Atomic Energy Agency yardstick, about 42 kg of uranium enriched to that level is enough in principle, if enriched further, for one nuclear bomb. Grossi said Iran currently had about 200 kg of uranium enriched to up to 60%.

Still, he said it would take time to install and bring online the extra centrifuges - machines that enrich uranium - but that the acceleration was starting to happen.

"We are going to start seeing steady increases from now," he said.

Grossi has called for diplomacy between Iran and the administration of new US President Donald Trump, who in his first term, pulled the United States out of a nuclear deal between Iran and major powers that had imposed strict limits on Iran's atomic activities. That deal has since unraveled.

"One can gather from the first statements from President Trump and some others in the new administration that there is a disposition, so to speak, to have a conversation and perhaps move into some form of an agreement," he said.

Separately, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at Davos that Iran must make a first step towards improving relations with countries in the region and the United States by making it clear it does not aim to develop nuclear weapons.