Iran To Draw 50-Year Roadmap For Nuclear Program
Iran’s atomic chief says members of parliament are seeking to legislate a 50-year nuclear roadmap so change of administrations cannot influence the program.
Iran’s atomic chief says members of parliament are seeking to legislate a 50-year nuclear roadmap so change of administrations cannot influence the program.
Following a meeting with the members of parliament's energy committee on Sunday, Mohammad Eslami, vice president and the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), said that the parliamentarians are pushing to turn the so-called comprehensive roadmap for nuclear industry into law in such a way that the nuclear development process is not damaged by the change of administrations.
The document, which was unveiled on April 9 this year by the AEOI, includes the country’s plans for nuclear activities such as power generation, increasing nuclear radiation applications, radiopharmaceuticals, protection against radiation, and developing nuclear infrastructures.
He added that the AEOI wants people to feel the tangible effects of nuclear technology in their lives.
During the past weeks, many Iranian observers including commentators and lawmakers criticized President Ebrahim Raisi for claiming that the people wish to resist rather than reach an agreement that would lift US sanctions and bring about a breakthrough in Iran's economy.
Some former Iranian diplomats suggested that Raisi and other ultraconservatives take advantage of the current foreign policy impasse over the revival of the JCPOA for their own personal or factional political gains to strengthen their foothold in Iran's domestic politics.
Diplomats negotiating to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, JCPOA, have repeatedly said that an agreement has almost been completed in 11 months of talks in Vienna, but Tehran demands more sanctions be lifted than Washington is willing to waive.
The 23-year-old Khalid Mehdiyev, reportedly from the Republic of Azerbaijan, was observed loitering outside the home of Masih Alinejad, a well-known Iranian journalist and women’s rights activist on July 27 and 28.
A sealed complaint filed by a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent at the Southern District of New York on July 29 and seen by Iran International says that the suspect was loitering outside a Brooklyn home, without naming Alinejad, and even tried to enter the residence and looked through the windows. Other reliable information received confirms that the incident happened at Alinejad’s address.
On July 28, as the man left the location after sitting in a Subaru SUV for hours and walking around the building, he was stopped by New York City police (NYPD) for a traffic violation.
The complaint filed does not say if the NYPD was tipped off by federal agents about the vehicle, or the traffic stop was a coincidence.
As the man was detained at a NYPD precinct and questioned, police found a Chinese-made AK-47 assault rifle in a suitcase on the back seat of the car and $1,100 in cash. Mehdiyev first denied that the suitcase and the gun were his, but then changed his story and admitted that the weapon was his, and he was “in Brooklyn because he was looking for someone.”
“At that point, MEHDIYEV invoked his right to counsel and stated that he would not discuss the matter further at that time,” the complaint filed at court says.
The gun with a round in the chamber, two magazines with more than 60 rounds, had its serial number erased. The police also found two other license plates in the car with different numbers and issued by different states, than the Illinois plate on the vehicle.
Alinejad, who campaigns against mandatory hijab and other rights issues was the target of an international kidnapping plot orchestrated by Iran’s intelligence network last year. She has a considerable following in Iran especially among women with over 7 million followers on Instagram and 373,000 on Twitter.
The clerical regime in Iran does not hide its disdain about the female activist and has banned women from sharing any information or videos with her. State-controlled media routinely castigate her and use labels such as CIA agent to discredit her activism.
Her most recent campaign that elicited the wrath of the Islamic Republic was a call to women to in Iran remove their headscarves on July 12. Many women did and sent their videos to Alinejad or shared it on social media. Regime officials reacted by saying that hijab was their “red line”.
At this point it is not confirmed that Mehdiyev’s target was Alinejad, or if he has any links with Iranian spy networks. In the coming days more revelations might follow. Alinejad also has not yet publicly reacted to the news.
