Mark Hibbs | World Politics Review
In the aftermath of the Israel-Iran war last month, political and media attention has focused on the conflict’s impact on Iran’s nuclear program, particularly with regard to the U.S. airstrikes targeting key Iranian nuclear installations that preceded the ceasefire. Key questions include how much damage the attacks caused to Iran’s nuclear facilities; how long it may take Iran to rebuild and regenerate capacities it may have lost; and the condition and whereabouts of Iran’s inventory of enriched uranium… But the IAEA’s longer-term prospects for success in assessing nuclear threats from Iran are far less certain.
Amelia Nierenberg and Sanam Mahoozi | The New York Times
Iran will hold nuclear talks with Britain, France and Germany, Iranian state media reported on Monday, days after they threatened to reimpose U.N. sanctions on the country by the end of August unless there was progress on a deal to limit its nuclear program. The talks will take place in Istanbul on Friday, but Iranian officials played down the prospect of restarting direct negotiations with the United States, after President Trump joined Israel in launching airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities last month.
Steven Swinford and George Grylls | The Times
The US has stationed nuclear weapons in Britain for the first time in nearly 20 years for potential deployment on a new squadron of British jets, analysts have said. A transport plane was tracked on Thursday during a ten-hour flight from Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, the US Air Force’s main nuclear storage site, to RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk. Analysts said that the route taken by the C-17 transport looked like a “one-way drop-off” and meant that it was likely that the UK was hosting US nuclear weapons for the first time since 2008.
Kanishka Singh | Reuters
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Fox News that Tehran cannot give up on its uranium enrichment program which was severely damaged during the Israel-Iran war last month… "It is stopped because, yes, damages are serious and severe. But obviously we cannot give up (on) enrichment because it is an achievement of our own scientists. And now, more than that, it is a question of national pride," the foreign minister told the Fox News show "Special Report with Bret Baier" on Monday.
Anthony Capaccio | Bloomberg
The Navy raised the estimated price tag for the first of its next-generation nuclear-missile submarines by $1.7 billion, another black eye for a program that’s the centerpiece of the service’s modernization plans. The USS District of Columbia is now expected to cost at least $16.1 billion, 12% more than forecast when Congress first authorized construction funds in 2021, the Naval Sea Systems Command said in a statement... The program is already 17 months behind schedule from its contracted October 2027 date, a delay the service is “desperately” trying to reduce, the Navy’s acting top admiral told a Senate panel last month.
David Brunnstrom | Reuters
Australia's ambassador to Washington said on Friday his country is working with the Pentagon on the U.S. Defense Department's review of the AUKUS submarine project and is confident that all issues raised will be resolved… Kevin Rudd made the comment at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado and stressed the longstanding U.S.-Australia alliance and his close relationship with Elbridge Colby, the U.S. undersecretary of defense for policy, who initiated the review.