Tehran Rejects Cooperation with IAEA Beyond Scope of Safeguards Agreement

A picture distributed by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran of the sixth-generation centrifuges at an exhibition of the nuclear industry last week 
A picture distributed by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran of the sixth-generation centrifuges at an exhibition of the nuclear industry last week 
TT

Tehran Rejects Cooperation with IAEA Beyond Scope of Safeguards Agreement

A picture distributed by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran of the sixth-generation centrifuges at an exhibition of the nuclear industry last week 
A picture distributed by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran of the sixth-generation centrifuges at an exhibition of the nuclear industry last week 

Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Mohammad Eslami said that his country’s cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) falls under the IAEA safeguards.

Eslami dismissed comments that as many as 100 new cameras have been set up at a nuclear power plant in Isfahan.

“The AEOI will act based on the Strategic Action Plan,” he said.

The Strategic Action Plan to Counter Sanctions was approved by the Iranian parliament in December 2020. It required the Iranian administration to restrict the IAEA inspections.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said last week that the country's nuclear authorities should continue working with the UN nuclear watchdog "under the framework of safeguards."

Khamenei called on Iranian authorities not to yield to the IAEA's "excessive and false demands".

"There is nothing wrong with the agreement (with the West), but the infrastructure of our nuclear industry should not be touched," Khamenei said, according to state media.

"This is a good law ... which must be respected and not violated in providing access and information (to the IAEA)," added Khamenei

Having failed to revive the deal in indirect talks that have stalled since September, Iranian and Western officials have met repeatedly in recent weeks to sketch out steps that could curb Iran's fast-advancing nuclear work, free some US and European detainees held in Iran, and unfreeze some Iranian assets abroad.

Both sides are discussing more Iranian cooperation with the IAEA, Reuters quoted a Western official as saying, and could include Iran committing to pause enriching uranium by 60%.

Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri-Kani said in a tweet on Wednesday that he "had a serious and constructive" meeting with European Union foreign policy official Enrique Mora in Doha.

"We exchanged views and discussed a range of issues including negotiations on sanctions lifting,” he added.

For his part, Mora tweeted saying: “Intense talks yesterday and today with Vice Minister Bagheri Kani in Doha on a range of difficult bilateral, regional and international issues, including the way forward on the JCPOA.”

Kani said last week that he had met diplomats from the European Troika in the UAE to discuss "a range of issues and mutual concerns".

EU spokesperson Peter Stano said the bloc was "keeping diplomatic channels open, including through this meeting in Doha, to address all issues of concern with Iran".



Sri Lanka Train Memorial Honors Tsunami Tragedy

A train “Queen of the Sea” arrives with family members of the victims on-board at a special memorial monument to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 2004 tsunami, in Peraliya on December 26, 2024. (AFP)
A train “Queen of the Sea” arrives with family members of the victims on-board at a special memorial monument to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 2004 tsunami, in Peraliya on December 26, 2024. (AFP)
TT

Sri Lanka Train Memorial Honors Tsunami Tragedy

A train “Queen of the Sea” arrives with family members of the victims on-board at a special memorial monument to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 2004 tsunami, in Peraliya on December 26, 2024. (AFP)
A train “Queen of the Sea” arrives with family members of the victims on-board at a special memorial monument to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 2004 tsunami, in Peraliya on December 26, 2024. (AFP)

Just inland from the crashing waves on Sri Lanka's palm-fringed shores, the train slowly came to a stop on Thursday -- marking the moment a deadly tsunami hit 20 years ago.

Sri Lanka's Ocean Queen Express became a symbol of the biggest natural disaster to hit the South Asian nation in living memory, when the train was struck by the giant waves of December 26, 2004.

About 1,000 people were killed -- both passengers and local residents, who had clambered inside desperately seeking shelter after the first wave hit.

After they boarded, two bigger waves smashed into the train, ripping it from the tracks and tumbling it onto its side more than 100 meters (330 feet) from the shoreline.

Each year since then, the Ocean Queen has stopped on the tsunami anniversary at the spot in Peraliya, a sleepy village some 90 kilometers (55 miles) south of the capital Colombo, to commemorate those killed.

"To me, it all brings back the very hard memories," said Tekla Jesenthu, whose two-year-old daughter died as the waves hit the area. "I don't want to think about or talk about it -- it hurts that much."

"Monuments won't bring them back," she added.

- Climbing for survival -

Survivors and relatives of the dead boarded the train in Colombo early in the morning before it headed south with national flags fluttering on its front and then slowed to a creaking halt in commemoration.

Villagers came out, the line was closed and a few moments of quiet settled.

Mourners offered flowers and lit incense at a beachside memorial for 1,270 people buried in mass graves, with Buddhist, Hindu, Christian and Muslim ceremonies held.

"When I saw the first wave, I started running away from the waves," said U. A. Kulawathi, 73, a mother whose daughter was killed, her body swept out to sea.

"The water reached the roof levels and people climbed the roofs to save themselves."

The 9.1-magnitude earthquake off the western coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island triggered huge waves that swept into coastal areas of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and nine other nations around the Indian Ocean basin.

A total of 226,408 people died as a result of the tsunami according to EM-DAT, a recognized global disaster database. Of those, 35,399 were in Sri Lanka.

Sarani Sudeshika, 36, a baker whose mother-in-law was among those killed, recalled how "animals started making strange noises and people started shouting, saying, 'Sea water is coming'".