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UN Security Council Condemns Myanmar Executions

FILE - Phyo Zeya Thaw arrives at the Myanmar parliament in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, on Aug. 19, 2015. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - Phyo Zeya Thaw arrives at the Myanmar parliament in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, on Aug. 19, 2015. (AP Photo, File)
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UN Security Council Condemns Myanmar Executions

FILE - Phyo Zeya Thaw arrives at the Myanmar parliament in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, on Aug. 19, 2015. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - Phyo Zeya Thaw arrives at the Myanmar parliament in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, on Aug. 19, 2015. (AP Photo, File)

The UN Security Council has condemned the Myanmar junta's execution of four prisoners, drawing praise Thursday from a shadow government of ousted Myanmar lawmakers.

In a rare consensus on the post-coup crisis, the Security Council on Wednesday released a statement condemning the executions -- Myanmar's first in decades -- and calling for the immediate release of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi, AFP said.

"The members of the Security Council condemned the Myanmar military’s execution of opposition activists over the weekend," the Council said.

"They recalled the Secretary-General's statement of 25 July 2022 and echoed his call for the immediate release of all arbitrarily detained prisoners."

The statement was endorsed by Russia and China -- the junta's two major allies that have previously shielded it at the UN -- as well as neighboring India.

"Welcome UN Security Council condemning execution of democracy activists", said the "National Unity Government" (NUG) on a verified Twitter account.

It was time for the council to "take concrete actions against the junta, it added.

The NUG -- dominated by lawmakers from Aung San Suu Kyi's ousted party -- has been working to topple the coup and been declared a "terrorist" organization by the junta.

The executions announced Monday sparked condemnation from around the globe, heightened fears that more will follow and prompted calls for sterner international measures against the already-isolated junta.

Among the four executed were Phyo Zeya Thaw, a former lawmaker from Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) and veteran democracy activist Kyaw Min Yu -- better known as "Jimmy".

Both were sentenced to death under anti-terrorism laws.

The junta is increasingly isolated on the world stage, with Cambodian leader Hun Sen the only head of state to have visited since the coup that plunged the country into turmoil.

The Cambodian PM had also made a personal request to junta chief Min Aung Hlaing not to go ahead with the executions.

Myanmar's junta has lashed out against international condemnation of its use of capital punishment, saying the four executed prisoners "deserved many death sentences".

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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.