The three countries, known as the E3, had met with Iranian officials on Tuesday in a final attempt to revive stalled nuclear talks.

At a previous meeting in Istanbul in July, their foreign ministers had signalled a willingness to extend a UN sanctions deadline if Tehran resumed cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and restarted indirect talks with Washington before the end of August.

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Source: https://euobserver.com/eu-and-the-world/ar28f73993

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The post France, Germany, Britain to reimpose Iran sanctions after talks falter first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Everyone’s mind is on the war in the Middle East. Civilians have been killed as Iran fires off rockets indiscriminately into civilian enclaves. They apparently are firing rockets toward Tel Aviv not knowing where they’ll land, and you hear the reports, civilians killed.

Donald Trump is talking tough, like the U. S. may enter the war against Iran. We might already have. Nobody rightly knows the situation with the Ayatollah. Apparently they’ve hit places where they thought he was hiding. At this writing who knows whether we’ll be hearing any more from him? It looks like sheer defiance, and there are concerns about the other Arab states. They’ve all been talking behind the scenes and we don’t know what’s being said.  

The other Gulf states will be seen to be complicit if they don’t do something. We’ve been watching videos that reveal that some of the leaders in the Arab world have the highest regard for our President. Whether that means they can sit on their hands and do nothing…  You can only imagine the urgency assuming they’re still in touch with Iran.

Over the decades it’s been shown that the Iranians’ top leadership will engage in deceit. I’m not calling them liars, but deceiving the enemy has a long history. It’s not uncommon in times of war. These guys are acting like they can blow up the world. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. Trump has extended the olive branch. His only demand is they not enrich uranium, and put up with the humiliation of having inspectors reporting on facilities. The maintenance of pride is a big deal in that part of the world. Go figure.  

If Israel comes out of this intact and is seen to have won the war it might not sit well with the other Islamic nations. None of those kingdoms want to see a victorious Israel over a Muslim nation. Hopefully this thing doesn’t spread. Trump is hoping for a deal, but when he says it’s too late, it is.

The militant groups Iran was sponsoring have already been dealt huge blows ever since October 7, 2023. What those imbeciles did is unspeakable, and you can only imagine the outrage that swept Israel. The Arab countries don’t want Israel seen as triumphant over their ally.  

Trump says the U. S. could get involved. The media is already speculating that the bunker busting bombs that are being deployed against the Ayatollah’s hiding places are U. S. bombs. Trump is non-committal when asked if the U. S. will enter the war. Maybe next week, we’ll still be saying maybe. Let’s hope his strategy succeeds and some nuclear bombs don’t start wrecking everything. The FBI is currently monitoring the potential for Iranian sleeper cells in the U. S.

Against this backdrop, the war in Ukraine has almost slipped our consciousness. We’ve got that on the side burner, and are trying to get it stopped. The President is trying everything, but it may have gone too far. Once one side gets a taste of victory, all bets are off.   

Mark

The post Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – June 20, 2025 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

A view of the heavy-water production plant in the central Iranian town of Arak, August 26, 2006. (AP/ ISNA, Arash Khamoushi)

Iran will on Sunday announce an increase in uranium enrichment to five percent, in a breach of its commitments to the 2015 nuclear deal, further stoking tensions with Washington and putting more pressure on the European states that support the accord.

“The main announcement tomorrow will be the increase of the level of enrichment to 5% percent from 3.67% that we agreed under the deal,” an Iranian official told the Reuters news agency on condition of anonymity.

Ali Akbar Velayati, international affairs adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said earlier that the uranium enrichment “will increase as much as needed for our peaceful activities.”

“For Bushehr nuclear reactor we need five percent enrichment and it is a completely peaceful goal,” he said in an interview published Friday on the leader’s official website.

Iranian presidential candidate Ali Akbar Velayati, a former foreign minister, walks past a portrait of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the conclusion of his press conference in Tehran, Iran, Monday, June 3, 2013. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

He also accused the US and European states of violating the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as the nuclear accord is known.

Iran breached a uranium stockpile limit set by the deal last week.

Under the atomic accord, Iran agreed to enrich uranium to no more than 3.67%, which is enough for peaceful pursuits but is far below weapons-grade levels of 90%. However, the closer it gets to 20% the less time it will need to break out to a bomb.

Iran denies it seeks nuclear weapons, but the nuclear deal sought to prevent that as a possibility by limiting enrichment and Iran’s stockpile of uranium to 300 kilograms (661 pounds).

Iran said Saturday that it would officially announce the steps cutting its commitments to the 2015 nuclear deal on Sunday morning, the day is set for Europe to offer new terms for the accord after the US withdrew and put punishing economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

Iran’s senior nuclear negotiator, Abbas Araqchi, will announce the cuts in a news conference Sunday at 10:30 a.m. local time, the semi-official Fars news agency said.

The UK, France, and Germany have yet to offer a way for Iran to avoid the sweeping economic sanctions imposed by US President Donald Trump since he pulled the United States out of the JCPOA a year ago, especially those targeting its crucial oil sales.

In response to the spiraling tensions and war of words with Iran, the US has rushed thousands of troops, an aircraft carrier, nuclear-capable B-52 bombers and advanced fighter jets to the Mideast. Mysterious oil tanker attacks near the Strait of Hormuz, strikes by Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen on Saudi Arabia, and Iran shooting down a US military drone have raised fears of a wider conflict engulfing the region.

A US military helicopters take part in an air power demonstration next to the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea, July 4, 2019. (US Navy/Jeff Sherman)

On Wednesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Tehran would increase its enrichment of uranium to “any amount that we want” beginning Sunday.

On Monday, Iran and United Nations inspectors acknowledged it had broken the stockpile limit. Combining that with increasing its enrichment levels narrows the one-year window experts believe Iran would need to have enough material to build a nuclear weapon if it chose to do so.

The UN’s nuclear watchdog said Friday that it would hold an emergency meeting on Iran’s nuclear program on July 10.

The meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s board of governors was announced following a US request.

Iran insists that it is not violating the JCPOA, citing terms of the agreement allowing one side to temporarily abandon some of the commitments if it deems the other side is not respecting its part of the accord.

President Hassan Rouhani speaks in a cabinet meeting in Tehran, Iran, July 3, 2019. (Iranian Presidency Office via AP)

Rouhani stressed that Iran’s breach of the stockpile limit would be reversed if the other parties to the nuclear deal made good on their side of the bargain — relief from sanctions.

Rouhani said Iran will also deliver on its threat to resume construction of a heavy water reactor after July 7 and will bring it to the condition that “according to you, is dangerous and can produce plutonium.”

Trump had warned Monday that Iran is “playing with fire” after Tehran said it had exceeded the limit set on its enriched uranium stockpile.

But Rouhani said it was the US that started the fire and Washington has to “put it out” by returning to the nuclear deal.

Source: https://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-to-announce-it-is-increasing-nuclear-enrichment-to-5-sunday/

The post Iran to announce it is increasing nuclear enrichment to 5% Sunday first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The modest steps announced Tuesday appeared to be mainly aimed at signaling that Iran could resume its drive toward industrial-scale enrichment if the nuclear accord comes unraveled.

Behrouz Kamalvandi, the spokesman for Iran’s nuclear agency, was quoted by state TV as saying a letter was submitted to the International Atomic Energy Agency detailing the move.

Kamalvandi said Iran is “providing infrastructure and arrangements for high-speed and capacity in production of UF4 and UF6 gases as well as rotor of centrifuges.”

Spinning centrifuges convert the gases into enriched uranium that can be used for reactor fuel and medical isotopes. If enriched to higher levels, the material can be used for weapons.

“It is important to note that Iran will remain far from having the fissile material necessary for a nuclear weapon even if they increase their enrichment efforts as described,” The Washington-based Arms Control Association said in a statement.

The head of Iran’s nuclear agency, Ali Akbar Salehi, said Iran is prepared to resume work on advanced centrifuges that would dramatically increase its capacity for enrichment. But he said that so far the work is limited to building a new facility for assembling the centrifuges.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had ordered the increase in capacity in a speech Monday, in which he vowed that Iran would preserve its nuclear program despite the U.S. withdrawal from the landmark 2015 accord.

The agreement set strict limits on Iran’s uranium enrichment in return for the lifting of U.S. and international sanctions.

When the Trump administration withdrew from the accord, it announced that it would resume sanctions and impose new penalties unless Iran dramatically changes its policies on other issues not covered by the deal, including its ballistic missile program and support for regional militant groups.

Iran currently is using nearly 5,000 centrifuges and enriching uranium at 3.5 percent. It says it needs more enriched uranium for its only nuclear power plant. Iran denies it has ever sought nuclear weapons, which require uranium enriched to 90 percent.

Source: https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/iran-informs-increase-nuclear-enrichment-capacity-55653003

The post Iran informs UN of increase in nuclear enrichment capacity first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.