SA will support the IAEA newly appointed director general Yukiya Amano’s dedication to the elimination of nuclear weapons, Abdul Minty said on Friday.
The nuclear watchdog chief on Thursday angrily rejected Israeli accusations of bias in a probe by his agency into allegations of a Syrian atomic site.
Governors of the UN nuclear watchdog failed to agree on a successor to Mohamed ElBaradei on Friday, opening the field to new candidates.
The UN atomic watchdog was to hold a crunch ballot on Friday to elect its new chief, a day after the candidates failed to win a clear lead.
The United States on Monday promised strong diplomacy with Iran, Syria and North Korea to help the United Nations nuclear watchdog.
The United Nations atomic watchdog will take its first look at Iran’s nuclear programme since the change of president in the United States.
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/ 26 November 2008
Iran now has 5 000 working uranium-enrichment centrifuges, a senior official was quoted as saying on Wednesday.
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/ 13 October 2008
Pyongyang has announced plans to allow US and international monitors to resume inspections of nuclear facilities.
North Korea barred United Nations monitoring throughout its Yongbyon nuclear complex on Thursday.
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/ 24 September 2008
North Korea has removed UN nuclear watchdog monitors, seals and cameras from its shutdown atomic bomb-producing complex.
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/ 21 September 2008
SA and Japan have both set their sights on the top job at the International Atomic Energy Agency, when the current chief Mohamed ElBaradei steps down.
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/ 15 September 2008
A UN inquiry into intelligence allegations of secret atom-bomb research in Iran has reached a standstill, an IAEA report said on Monday.
Israel carried out a large-scale military exercise earlier this month as a warning to Iran, Pentagon sources confirmed on Friday.
A United Nations nuclear watchdog team will visit Syria on June 22 to 24 to pursue an investigation into United States intelligence alleging that Damascus secretly built an atomic reactor, the agency’s chief said on Monday. The alleged reactor site was destroyed in an Israeli air raid last September and Washington handed over intelligence to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The five major nuclear-armed powers said on Friday the Non-Proliferation Treaty was under threat and cited Iran’s uranium enrichment campaign in a rare joint call for action to shore up the NPT. Iran says it wants only electricity from enrichment, which can also produce atom bomb fuel if the process is adjusted.
The United Nations nuclear watchdog chief said on Friday United States allegations that Syria secretly built a nuclear reactor with North Korean help would be investigated. ”The agency will treat this information with the seriousness it deserves and will investigate the veracity of the information,” said Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
South Africa was not swayed by any major power to vote in favour of a new United Nations Security Council resolution imposing further sanctions on Iran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday. The resolution was approved on Monday by a vote of 14-0, with Indonesia abstaining.
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/ 14 February 2008
Malaria continues to cut a swathe through Africa, which accounts for most cases of the disease and of malaria-related deaths. A study by Burkina Faso’s Health Sciences Research Institute may point the way to reducing malaria’s toll on children, however.
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/ 31 January 2008
A one-month delay to consider a new United Nations Security Council draft resolution that would punish Iran for moving ahead with its nuclear programme would not be a disaster, a South African official said on Thursday. The Security Council’s five permanent members, along with Germany, have circulated a draft that would toughen existing sanctions on Iran.
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/ 22 January 2008
World powers said they would have to overcome key differences on Tuesday to agree on a new sanctions resolution against Iran that aims to ratchet up pressure on Tehran to curb sensitive nuclear work. The West has been engaged in a diplomatic showdown with Iran over its nuclear programme since 2002.
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/ 11 January 2008
Doubts intensified on Thursday night over the nature of an alleged aggressive confrontation by Iranian patrol boats and American warships in the Persian Gulf on Sunday, after Pentagon officials admitted that they could not confirm that a threat to blow up the US ships had been made directly by the Iranian crews involved in the incident.
Scotland Yard strengthened its team aiding the probe into the assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto on Wednesday as concerns for the country’s nuclear security grew. Three more detectives arrived from London, including an expert in the type of explosives used in the gun and suicide-bomb attack that killed Bhutto.
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/ 8 December 2007
The intelligence came from an exotic variety of sources: there was the so-called Laptop of Death; there was the Iranian commander who mysteriously disappeared in Turkey. But pivotal to the United States investigation into Iran’s suspect nuclear-weapons programme was the work of a little-known intelligence specialist, Thomas Fingar.
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/ 5 December 2007
Jubilant Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Wednesday said the United States report confirming his country had abandoned its nuclear weapons programme was a ”declaration of victory”. ”This was a final shot to those who, in the past several years, spread a sense of threat and concern in the world through lies of nuclear weapons.” Ahmadinejad said.
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/ 5 December 2007
A jubilant Iranian leadership called on Tuesday for plans for new United Nations sanctions against the country to be dropped in the face of the United States report confirming it had abandoned its nuclear weapons programme. The report has forced America’s European allies to re-evaluate policy towards Iran on Tuesday.
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/ 1 December 2007
Iran was not to blame for the disappointment expressed by European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana after key talks in London on the nuclear crisis failed, chief negotiator Saeed Jalili said on Saturday. Solana said on Friday he was ”disappointed” after the last-ditch talks in London failed to produce a breakthrough.
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/ 27 November 2007
The trial of the Swiss design engineer Daniel Geiges, who was allegedly part of an international nuclear smuggling ring, was postponed on Tuesday because he was too ill to stand trial. The Pretoria High Court was earlier told that Geiges (69) had been diagnosed with cancer of the rectum and was undergoing ”severe treatment”.
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/ 12 November 2007
The leaders of Germany and France meet on Monday to compare notes on dealing with Iran’s nuclear programme, fresh from discussing tougher sanctions during separate visits to United States President George Bush last week. German Chancellor Angela Merkel will host French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Berlin for the talks a week before an expected meeting of world powers.
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/ 10 November 2007
A government official in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) suspected of ordering up to 17 tonnes of radioactive waste dumped in a river in the south-east of the country has been arrested, authorities said on Friday. Environment Minister Didace Pembe declined to identify the person who was arrested.
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/ 7 November 2007
Iran has achieved a landmark in its controversial uranium-enrichment programme, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday, suggesting that the country now has 3 000 centrifuges fully operating. ”We have now reached 3 000 machines,” Ahmadinejad told thousands of Iranians gathered in Birjand, eastern Iran.
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/ 2 November 2007
Six world powers meet on Friday to discuss imposing a third round of sanctions on Iran because of its refusal to stop enriching uranium, which they suspect could be used to build nuclear weapons. Talks among top officials from the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany were due to start in the morning and last several hours.
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/ 31 October 2007
Major powers plan to meet in London this week to discuss new sanctions on Iran amid a spat between Washington and the United Nations over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, United States officials said on Tuesday. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a speech on Tuesday that Iran would not retreat in the dispute.