Iran Complains to UN Nuclear Watchdog about Israeli Threats against Its Nuclear Sites

People walk through the old main bazaar of Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (AP)
People walk through the old main bazaar of Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (AP)
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Iran Complains to UN Nuclear Watchdog about Israeli Threats against Its Nuclear Sites

People walk through the old main bazaar of Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (AP)
People walk through the old main bazaar of Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (AP)

Iran has written to the UN nuclear watchdog to complain about Israeli threats to strike its atomic energy sites, its foreign ministry spokesman said at a weekly news conference on Monday.

Israel has vowed to attack Iran in retaliation for a volley of Iranian missiles on Oct. 1, stirring widespread speculation that Iranian nuclear sites could be among the targets.

"Threats to attack nuclear sites are against UN resolutions.... and are condemned ... We have sent a letter about it to ... the UN nuclear watchdog," ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei told the televised news conference.

Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Israel would listen to key ally the United States regarding a response to Iran's missile attack but would decide its actions according to its own national interest.

His statement was attached to a Washington Post article which said Netanyahu had told President Joe Biden's administration that Israel would strike Iranian military targets, not nuclear or oil sites.

Baghaei, responding to a question about the possibility of Iran changing its official nuclear doctrine, said "weapons of mass destruction have no place in our policy". Tehran would decide on how and when to respond to any Israeli attack.

Iran has repeatedly denied Western accusations that it has covertly sought to develop nuclear bombs in violation of its commitment to the global Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Iran fired scores of missiles at Israel in retaliation for Israeli strikes on its allies Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip - the second Iranian missile attack on Israel this year. Israel responded to the first missile volley in April with an airstrike on an air defense site in central Iran.



Turkish Prosecutor Charges 47 People over Deaths of Newborns

Turkish police seen in Istanbul - File/AFP
Turkish police seen in Istanbul - File/AFP
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Turkish Prosecutor Charges 47 People over Deaths of Newborns

Turkish police seen in Istanbul - File/AFP
Turkish police seen in Istanbul - File/AFP

An Istanbul prosecutor has indicted 47 people, including doctors and nurses, over the inappropriate treatment of babies for profit, causing the death of at least 10 newborns in one of Türkiye's biggest health scandals in recent years.

The Health Ministry has shut down nine private hospitals as a result of the investigation, with a total 19 health institutions deemed to bear responsibility, the indictment said.

The suspects are accused of creating a criminal group to put newborns in certain private hospitals and receive payments from Türkiye's social security body for inappropriate and sometimes fake treatments, the indictment obtained by Reuters said.

The main opposition CHP party has sought a parliamentary inquiry into the affair and called for the resignation of Health Minister Kemal Memisoglu. He has said his ministry's inspections of hospitals will now be carried out "more strictly than ever".

Two of the suspects, working on an emergency phone line, had sought newborns that could be sent to these hospitals for intensive care treatment, according to the 1,399-page indictment, filed in an Istanbul court last week.

It said newborns then became the victims of malpractice or inadequate medical care, with medicine meant for them sold to others and some dying due to infections contracted in the units.

The goal of the criminal gang was "to obtain financial gain, rather than improving the health conditions of the patients," it added.

The suspects, including two doctors and 11 nurses, denied the charges, saying they had not intentionally sent the newborns to particular hospitals and that the babies had received the necessary treatment, the indictment said.

The charges the suspects face include forming a criminal group, fraud, forgery of official documents and murder by negligence. Some defendants could be sentenced to as many as 589 years in jail if found guilty.

Twenty-two suspects have been jailed pending trial.