© Reuters/Adrees LatifIran's President Hassan Rouhani takes questions from journalists during a news conference in New York September 27, 2013.
Since Hassan Rouhani became president,
Iran has stopped expanding its uranium enrichment capacity, a U.N. inspection report showed on Thursday, in a potential boost for diplomacy to end Tehran's nuclear dispute with the West.
The quarterly report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also said that since August no further major components had been added to a potential plutonium-producing reactor that worries the United States and its allies.
The marked slowdown in the growth of activities of possible use in developing nuclear bombs may be intended to back up Rouhani's warmer tone towards the West after years of worsening confrontation, and strengthen Tehran's hand in talks with world powers due to resume on November 20.
The six powers - the United States, France, Germany, Britain, Russia and
China - are pressing
Iran to curb its nuclear program to ease fears that it may be seeking to develop nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies.
Iran halted a previously rapid increase in its capacity to refine uranium - which can fuel nuclear power plants but also bombs if processed much more - "when their team changed" in August, a senior diplomat familiar with the IAEA report said, referring to Rouhani and his administration.
Comment: Join us on SOTT Talk Radio this Sunday 17th of November, from 2-4pm EST (11am-1pm PST, 8-10pm CET) as we as we look at the life and legacy of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy - JFK Assassination - 50 Years Later.
November 22nd 2013 will mark 50 years since the Day America Died. A tragic event for most Americans and for ordinary people the world over who choose peace over war, equality over injustice, and happiness over greed, the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy was pivotal in setting the United States on its current path towards doom.
This week on SOTT Talk Radio we're going to reflect on the life of a man who dreamed of a better world, and was making that dream a reality until assassins' bullets killed the American Dream that sunny November day in Dallas, Texas.
Half a century later, it's common knowledge in the U.S. that JFK's murder was ordered by a powerful cabal. And yet, successive U.S. administrations have refused to release documents that would fill in the remaining gaps. Who exactly carried it out? And on behalf of whom? How did they organise it? And why did they do it?
Despite the passing of time, the 'suiciding' of key witnesses, the barrage of misinformation and disinformation, and the 'loss' of crucial documentation, excellent research has enabled others to form a cohesive and reasonably objective narrative that counters the official propaganda and places the assassination in proper historical context.