Nuclear program of Iran

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.

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. 

Armed militias in eastern Libya said they had found about two and a half tonnes of uranium ore that had been declared missing by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the BBC reported on Friday.

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".

Iranian officials said drones struck a munitions manufacturing facility in the central Iranian city of Isfahan overnight in what U.S. officials on Sunday said was an Israeli operation, the Wall Street Journal reported.