Raisi Says Iran Not Seeking Nuclear Weapons

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi arrives at Bandaranaike International Airport in Katunayake near Colombo on April 24, 2024. (AFP)
Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi arrives at Bandaranaike International Airport in Katunayake near Colombo on April 24, 2024. (AFP)
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Raisi Says Iran Not Seeking Nuclear Weapons

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi arrives at Bandaranaike International Airport in Katunayake near Colombo on April 24, 2024. (AFP)
Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi arrives at Bandaranaike International Airport in Katunayake near Colombo on April 24, 2024. (AFP)

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said on Saturday his country was not seeking to develop nuclear weapons despite assertions from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it was close to acquiring enough material to develop a bomb.

“Iran is not planning on acquiring nuclear weapons because Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had issued a fatwa against them,” said Raisi according to the Arab World Press.

IAEA chief Rafael Grossi had recently stated that Iran was weeks rather than months away from obtaining enough enriched uranium to develop a nuclear bomb.

“This does not mean that Iran possesses or will possess a nuclear weapon in that period of time,” he added in a report earlier this week.

Raisi, meanwhile, claimed that Tehran’s “nuclear ideology” does not at all include the development of nuclear arms.

He stressed that Iran was seeking to use nuclear technology for peaceful means.

He called for lifting the sanctions imposed on his country, declaring that they will not yield their desired results.

Vienna has hosted numerous rounds of talks between Iran and western powers with the aim of reviving Tehran’s 2015 nuclear agreement that the United States withdrew from in 2018.

An informed source denied claims that Iran was pursuing direct negotiations with the US to restore the deal, reported Iran’s IRNA news agency last week.

It said Tehran and Washington were still exchanging messages “within specific frameworks” and that top Iranian negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani was following up on the negotiations.

Iran is enriching uranium to up to 60%, close to the roughly 90% that is weapons grade, at its Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant (PFEP) in its sprawling Natanz complex and at its Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP), which is dug into a mountain.



Bullets Purchase from Israel Rattles Spain’s Leftist Coalition

 Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez leaves after a press conference after a cabinet meeting held at Moncloa Palace in Madrid, Spain, 22 April 2025. (EPA)
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez leaves after a press conference after a cabinet meeting held at Moncloa Palace in Madrid, Spain, 22 April 2025. (EPA)
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Bullets Purchase from Israel Rattles Spain’s Leftist Coalition

 Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez leaves after a press conference after a cabinet meeting held at Moncloa Palace in Madrid, Spain, 22 April 2025. (EPA)
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez leaves after a press conference after a cabinet meeting held at Moncloa Palace in Madrid, Spain, 22 April 2025. (EPA)

A decision by Spain's Socialist government to backtrack on a promise to cancel a contract to buy bullets from an Israeli firm drew a rebuke on Wednesday from its junior coalition partners, with some allies threatening to withdraw support.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's minority government has struggled to pass legislation since securing a new term by cobbling together an alliance of left-wing and regional separatist parties in 2023.

On Tuesday, Sanchez angered far-left junior partner Sumar after unveiling a plan to boost defense spending.

Spain, a long-time critic of Israel's policies in the Palestinian territories, pledged in October 2023 to stop selling weapons to Israel over its war with Hamas in Gaza and last year widened that commitment to include weapons purchases.

Sumar, a platform of left-wing parties that controls five ministries led by deputy premier Yolanda Diaz, said on Wednesday the ammunition purchase was "a flagrant violation" of the agreement it had made with the Socialists to form a coalition.

"We demand the immediate rectification of this contract," it said in a statement.

The Interior Ministry said last October it was canceling a contract worth 6.6 million euros ($7.53 million) to buy more than 15 million 9-mm rounds from Guardian LTD Israel.

On Wednesday it said it been advised by the state attorney that breaking the contract would have meant paying the full amount without receiving the shipment.

Guardian LTD Israel did not immediately comment on the decision.

Izquierda Unida (United Left) lawmaker Enrique Santiago, whose party is part of Sumar, suggested there were legal grounds to cancel the contract without paying but that even "a breach of contract of only about six million (euros) will be applauded by the whole country".

Asked if IU could abandon the coalition government, he told reporters: "We are currently considering all scenarios."

Before the news of the ammunition contract broke, Diaz had said her group disagreed with the increase in defense spending, particularly a plan to procure more weapons, but that the coalition was in good health and would see out the legislative term ending in 2027.