Nuclear energy in Iran

The United States is facing a new and "serious" national security threat, top officials warned Wednesday, with two media outlets reporting it involves a Russian attempt to build a space-based nuclear capability.

ABC News and The New York Times quoted unidentified officials saying that Russia was developing a nuclear, space-based anti-satellite weapon.

Iran has further increased its stockpile of uranium enriched to nearly weapons-grade levels, according to a report by the United Nations' nuclear watchdog seen by The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The UN nuclear watchdog said Monday it regretted that "no progress" had been made by Iran on outstanding issues, including reinstalling cameras to monitor Tehran's nuclear programme and explaining uranium traces.

Israel's Mossad spy service announced on Thursday that its agents inside Iran seized the head of an alleged Iranian hit squad that planned to kill Israeli businesspeople in Greek Cyprus.

Iran's state-run Nour News said on Friday Israel's report that it had foiled an attack in Cyprus by capturing an Iranian agent was an effort to cover up its own domestic crisis.

Israel said on Thursday its Mossad intelligence service carried out an operation in Iran to capture the suspected leader of an Iranian plot to attack Israeli businesspeople in Cyprus.

The US confiscated Iranian oil on a tanker at sea in recent days in a sanctions enforcement operation, three sources said, and days later Iran seized another oil-laden tanker in retaliation, according to a maritime security firm.

The vessel is managed by Greece-based Empire Navigation.

Countries that receive uranium (nuclear fuel) from Russia for their nuclear power plants should face sanctions, German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said on his return from a two-day visit to Kyiv, DPA reported. During his talks in Ukraine, the main issue, he said, was "the supply of uranium for nuclear fuel rods to Europe from Russia."

Last year saw escalation of the Russia-Ukraine war.  However, it is expected that the biggest crisis the world will face this year will arise in the Middle East. 

Late last month, as part of its monitoring of Iran's nuclear program, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported trace amounts of uranium at 84% enrichment. That's important, because 90% enrichment is required to produce a nuclear weapon.

A top Iranian diplomat insisted Wednesday that the Islamic republic was willing to cooperate over its atomic programme, even as western powers slammed a "dangerous nuclear escalation".