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Iran nearly triples stockpile of enriched uranium - UN

Kiyoko Metzler, David Rising
ABC
Tue, 03 Mar 2020 19:18 UTC
iran nuclear
© AP Photo / Hamid Foroutan
Iran has nearly tripled its stockpile of enriched uranium since November in violation of its deal with world powers, U.N. atomic watchdog agency said Tuesday, while raising new questions about possible nuclear-related activities and undeclared nuclear material at three locations.

The International Atomic Energy Agency made the statement in a confidential report distributed to member countries that was seen by The Associated Press. The agency said as of Feb. 19, Iran's total stockpile of low-enriched uranium amounted to 1,020.9 kilograms (1.1 tons), compared to 372.3 kilograms on Nov. 3, 2019, noted in its November report.

The current stockpile puts Iran within reach of the amount needed to produce a nuclear weapon, which it insists it doesn't want to do.

Comment: Sputnik reports that the IAEA is considering whether to issue a report berating Iran for refusing it access to certain facilities:
The sources referred to the IAEA's drive to visit one or more sites mentioned in a trove of data seized by Israeli intelligence agents, which were in turn singled out by Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his speech to the UN General Assembly in 2018.

Uranium Conversion Facility
© AP Photo / VAHID SALEMI
An Iranian security official, dressed in protective clothing, walks inside the Uranium Conversion Facility, just outside the city of Isfahan, 410 kilometers, (255 miles), south of the Iranian capital Tehran in this Wednesday, March 30, 2005
At the time, Netanyahu claimed that Iran had a secret warehouse in Tehran where it stored large amounts of materials and equipment that were used to pursue a clandestine nuclear programme. The Islamic Republic has vehemently denied the allegations.

"The second report will be on Safeguards issues linked to sites that the IAEA did not get access to. We know of two cases, but we don't know whether the IAEA will put both in (the report)," one of the sources said.

The UN nuclear watchdog typically releases quarterly reports on what they describe as Iran's nuclear weapons programme, but on Tuesday the IAEA is expected to issue a special survey in which it will slam Iran's reluctance to give the go-ahead for IAEA inspectors to visit the sites of interest. Iran has repeatedly underscored that it would never seek to obtain a nuclear weapon, adding that its nuclear programme is purely peaceful.

This time, the source went on, "the general message is: there's a new sheriff in town", an apparent nod to the UN nuclear watchdog's new chief Rafael Grossi, who was appointed in October 2019 after former IAEA Director Yukiya Amano died earlier that year.

It was under Amano that IAEA inspectors visited one site mentioned by Netanyahu, obtaining environmental samples that reportedly showed traces of uranium.

Iran Takes No Further Steps to Violate JCPOA Since January Pledge - IAEA Chief

As for the latest developments, these come after Grossi stated last month that Tehran had taken no further steps toward violating the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), following its pledge in early January to do so.

"After the fifth step, there hasn't been any follow-up," he told the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC, adding, "of course, they continue to enrich".

Following the 3 January assassination of Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps General Qasem Soleimani by a US airstrike in Iraq, Tehran announced that it would take further measures to rescind its commitments under the JCPOA. The deal lowered economic sanctions against Iran in exchange for its acceptance of very strict limits on nuclear material production and stockpiling.
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Stop

DNC elites will stop Sanders winning Democratic nomination because, unlike Trump, he represents DIRECT THREAT to their status and livelihood

Aaron Maté
The Grayzone
Sun, 01 Mar 2020 00:00 UTC
Super Tuesday
With Bernie Sanders poised for a big Super Tuesday, Krystal Ball discusses the Democratic establishment's panic, Elizabeth Warren's attacks on Sanders, and whether DNC elites are once again alienating the working class voters they lost in 2016.

Guest: Krystal Ball, co-host of Rising and co-author of the best-selling new book, The Populist's Guide to 2020.


Comment: As the video makes abundantly clear, election interference is quite ok to the Democrats - when it's the Democrats who perpetrate it.

This, by the way, is precisely the motivation behind British MPs - of all parties - being so anti-Brexit for so long, dragging the process out through parliament and the courts; it represented a direct threat to their status and their livelihood. Only when the Conservative Party took control of the issue did they feel it safe to 'accept Brexit', although it remains to be seen what exactly constitutes Brexit-in-reality as opposed to Brexit-on-paper.

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Newspaper

Washington Post: 'Elites should choose president', quietly edits headline after public outrage

Tyler Durden
Zerohedge
Thu, 20 Feb 2020 04:22 UTC

Comment: Democracy has already died, and the Washington Post helped kill it.

Keep this in mind as you watch the establishment select Joe Biden - a man who is showing signs of literal senility - to run against Trump this November...


Elites Should Run Elections
The Washington Post is taking heat over a Tuesday op-ed authored by Marquette University political science professor Julia Azari, titled "It's time to give the elites a bigger say in choosing the president."

Azari argues that the Democratic party's primary process is overly-complicated and convoluted, and the process of choosing the nominee should instead be placed in the hands of politicians instead.

After outrage ensued, the Post changed the headline to the far less inflammatory "It's time to switch to preference primaries."


Comment: The author of the WaPo article is clearly in the pocket of DNC political machine. That or she's ideologically possessed and spreading her poison where she can in service to a totally bankrupt political perspective.

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Better Earth

Putin's constitutional changes: Proposals include minimum living wage, ban on same-sex marriage & special place for God

Bryan MacDonald
RT
Tue, 03 Mar 2020 16:20 UTC
Russian Constitution
© Sputnik / Evgeny Biyatov
FILE PHOTO Soldiers of the Presidential Regiment bring in the Special Copy of the Russian Constitution during the inaugural ceremony of Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin
Vladimir Putin stunned Russians in January when he began the countdown to his departure from the Kremlin by proposing changes to Russia's 1993 constitution. Adding to the drama, Prime Minister Medvedev resigned on the same day.

According to possible amendments now released ahead of a national vote scheduled for April 22, nationalists and the religious are likely to be the most satisfied with the process. However, gay rights campaigners and public officials with assets abroad are sure to despair.

The main talking points in the package include:

- The need to mention God in the document.

- Civil servants being prohibited from holding foreign bank accounts and citizenship.

- A ban on giving away any Russian territory.

Comment: See also:

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Bizarro Earth

299 Syrian soldiers "neutralized" in retaliation for 1 dead Turkish soldier in Idlib - Turkish Defence Ministry


Sputnik
Tue, 03 Mar 2020 20:16 UTC
turkey syria
© AFP 2020 / BAKR ALKASEM
One Turkish soldier was killed in an attack by Syrian government forces in Idlib province, while nine others were injured, the Turkish Defence Ministry said on Tuesday, adding that response fire followed.

"As a result of fire against our forces by the Syrian regime, in the area of Operation Spring Shield, one of our fellow soldiers was killed and nine were injured. Response fire on 82 regime targets, located in this area, continues", the Turkish Defence Ministry said in a statement.

As the Turkish military retaliated, nine tanks, two howitzers, two military vehicles, and six RMs were destroyed, while 299 Syrian soldiers were "neutralized," the Defence Ministry added.

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Arrow Down

Historic Taliban deal unraveling after US uses conflicting wording on agreements affecting two key issues


RFE/RL
Tue, 03 Mar 2020 17:36 UTC
Taliban

U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad (left) shakes hands with Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar after signing the peace agreement during a ceremony in the Qatari capital, Doha, on February 29.
The historic U.S.-Taliban agreement aimed at ending the long war in Afghanistan is only a few days old, but the deal is already threatening to unravel over disputes about key issues.

The United States and the Taliban signed a deal on February 29 that will trigger the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan in exchange for security commitments from the extremist militant group.

Part of the deal is the launch of direct negotiations between Afghans and the Taliban over a permanent cease-fire and a power-sharing arrangement. But those intra-Afghan talks have been thrown into doubt because of disagreement over two key tenets of the deal.

The Taliban has demanded that the Afghan government free 5,000 of its captured fighters, a claim rejected by Kabul.

Comment: Using different wording on separate agreements seems to be a surefire way of creating problems amidst an already troubled situation:

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Broom

Libyan Peoples Army (LNA) Controls 99% of Libya

JoanneM
Libyan War The Truth
Tue, 03 Mar 2020 03:26 UTC
Libyan national army LNA Tripoli
I am posting this map of Libya today to show how far the LNA has come in their work to clean out the Muslim Brotherhood extremist UNELECTED GNA regime in Libya. The Libyan peoples army (LNA) is the RED part of the map.

The question anyone would ask when looking at this map is: Why would the Libyan People or their army (LNA) ever negotiate with the Muslim Brotherhood regime that controls less than 1% of Libya and was never elected??? They would NOT - those perpetrating the so called negotiations are attempting to save their criminal puppet in Tripoli

The Libyan people's army (LNA) that is fully supported by all the great tribes of Libya (who represent all the Libyan people) has been fighting extremists, terrorists, mercenaries and gangs of criminals for a few years now. They are working to clean out the mess that was left behind by Clinton, Obama and their NATO illegal attack/invasion of Libya in 2011. The LNA is working to return Libya to the legitimate Libyan people; restore security and peace in their great country.

The LNA started into Tripoli (the biggest nest of vipers) last April and have made steady progress in cleaning the city. The problems they face are the terrorist mercenaries who support the GNA unelected Muslim Brotherhood terrorist regime in Tripoli. This regime has been receiving support illegally from Turkey and Qatar in order to maintain its foothold in Libya and to continue its theft from the Libyan people. The GNA has never been a legitimate government, they were never accepted into Libya by the duly elected government and did not come into Libya legally but sneaked in by the dark of night. Their terrorist mercenaries continue to use civilians to hide behind in order to thwart the army from finishing its stated task and taking back the sovereignty of Libya.

Comment: Joanne Moriarty: Turkey proceeds with invasion of Libya, tribes respond

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Jet3

The Turkish Sultan: Lessons on how Turks fight and taxi their proxy jihadi gangs to the front lines against Syria

John Helmer
Dance with Bears
Mon, 02 Mar 2020 00:00 UTC
Erdogan
Everything, including artillery fire, infantry movements, launch of drones, rockets and refugees, even losses of territory and men, is planned by three Turks - President Tayyip Recep Erdogan (lead images); Defence Minister and former head of the Turkish General Staff, Hulusi Akar; and Hakan Fidan, head of the National Intelligence Organization (in Turkish, MIT). Call them the Sultan and the Ugly Viziers (SUV).

An SUV is never as serious as it would like to appear. This Turkish SUV also planned the July 2016 coup in Istanbul and Ankara. Nothing they do, including the sacrifice of large numbers of their own people, will result in a military coup to remove them, no matter how costly their mistakes. Those Turks who can calculate their mistakes are in jail or dead.

The SUV has decided to fight for Syria outside the lines of the Sochi agreement. With artillery firing from the Turkish side of the Syrian border, they decided to fight a new battle for Saraqib, east of Idlib, and succeeded. In the battle they lost up to 60 regulars; the Syrian Army lost more than a thousand. The Syrians have gained in the south of Idlib; they have lost Saraqib. They must retake it and hold it; they will; they have done so.

Comment: Syria is a Sovereign Nation - Turkey Should Get Out

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Russian Flag

Russia 'strongly rejects' UN Commission allegations of war crimes in Syria, slams inquiry as 'one-sided'


RT
Wed, 04 Mar 2020 01:31 UTC
Russia military Syria
© Agence France-Presse / Delil Souleiman
The Kremlin has dismissed allegations by the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria that the Russian military may have carried out war crimes in Syria last year, accusing the investigation of not being objective.

Russia rejects any accusations of war crimes, because they were made immediately after terrorists started their offensive against Syrian troops in Idlib, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.
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Monkey Wrench

Ukrainian court orders investigation, may toss wrench into Joe Biden's 2020 election plans

John Solomon
JusttheNews
Mon, 02 Mar 2020 01:11 UTC
Hunter Biden Joe Biden
© Getty Images
Hunter Biden with father Joe Biden
A Ukrainian court has ordered an investigation into whether Joe Biden violated any laws when he forced the March 2016 firing of the country's chief prosecutor.

The ruling could revive scrutiny of Hunter Biden's lucrative relationship with an energy firm in that corruption-plagued country just as the former vice president's campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination is surging after a lackluster start.

Former Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, who has long alleged he was fired because he would not stop investigating the Burisma Holdings firm that employed Hunter Biden, secured the ruling last month. Ukrainian officials confirmed the State Bureau of Investigation has since complied and initiated the probe.

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