Trump Flirts With $15 Billion Bailout for Iran, Sources Say
Erin Banco and Asawin Suebsaeng | Daily Beast
President Donald Trump has left the impression with foreign officials, members of his administration, and others involved in Iranian negotiations that he is actively considering a French plan to extend a $15 billion credit line to the Iranians if Tehran comes back into compliance with the Obama-era nuclear deal. Trump has in recent weeks shown openness to entertaining President Emmanuel Macron’s plan, according to four sources with knowledge of Trump’s conversations with the French leader. Two of those sources said that State Department officials, including Secretary Mike Pompeo, are also open to weighing the French proposal, in which the Paris government would effectively ease the economic sanctions regime that the Trump administration has applied on Tehran for more than a year. When asked if he would ease sanctions against Iran in order to get a meeting with Iran Trump simply said: “We’ll see what happens. I think Iran has a tremendous, tremendous potential.”
Pakistan: Risk of ‘Accidental War’ With India Over Kashmir
Jamey Keaton | AP
Pakistan’s foreign minister warned Tuesday that India’s “illegal occupation” of Muslim-majority Kashmir could drive the nuclear-armed countries “into an accidental war.” Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi accused India at a session of the U.N.-backed Human Rights Council of turning Kashmir “into the largest prison on this planet.” Tensions between Pakistan and its southeastern neighbor have been heightened since Aug. 5, when India’s government changed the status of Indian-administered Kashmir. “India is acting irresponsibly. They’re being belligerent,” Qureshi said. “And if there is a false-flag operation, which we fear, and they use it as a pretext and carry out some misadventure against Pakistan, we will respond.” “We will respond with force,” he added. “And, you never know, we could be into an accidental war.”
Working-level Nuclear Talks Aimed at Drafting Summit Agreement: Pro-Pyongyang Paper
Yonhap News Agency
Working-level talks expected to take place between the United States and North Korea late this month are part of a process to draft an agreement to be signed at the next summit of the two countries, a pro-Pyongyang newspaper in Japan said Thursday. Earlier this week, the North expressed a willingness to hold working-level talks with the U.S. in late September in what would mark a resumption of the negotiating process that reached a deadlock with February's no-deal summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The Choson Sinbo newspaper said the upcoming talks are a "process to discuss and fine-tune the content to be included in an agreement to be signed at a summit" and therefore, the negotiating teams bear a heavy responsibility.
Japan Should Scrap Nuclear Reactors, Says New Environment Minister
Justin McCurry | Guardian
Japan’s new environment minister has called for the country’s nuclear reactors to be scrapped to prevent a repeat of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Shinjiro Koizumi’s comments, made hours after he became Japan’s third-youngest cabinet minister since the war, could set him on a collision course with Japan’s pro-nuclear prime minister, Shinzo Abe. “I would like to study how we will scrap them, not how to retain them,” Koizumi, 38, said. “We will be doomed if we allow another nuclear accident to occur. We never know when we’ll have an earthquake.” Koizumi faced an immediate challenge from the new trade and industry minister, who said that ridding Japan of nuclear power was “unrealistic”. Japan’s government wants nuclear power to comprise 20% to 22% of the overall energy mix by 2030, drawing criticism from campaigners who say nuclear plants will always pose a danger given the country’s vulnerability to large earthquakes and tsunamis. All of Japan’s 54 reactors were shut down after a giant tsunami caused a triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in March 2011.
Taking a Closer Look at the Abadeh Site
Fabian Hinz | Arms Control Wonk
On September 8, Benyamin Netanyahu revealed yet another site that he alleged to be associated with Iran’s nuclear weapons effort. He claimed Iran ‘conducted experiments to develop nuclear weapons’ at the facility without mentioning what those experiments were. Satellite imagery alone can neither confirm nor falsify Israel’s recent claims about the nature of the Abadeh site. Given that the site was described in the nuclear archive and the lack of apparent activity, the site seems to be yet another artifact of Iran’s pre-2003 nuclear weapons program. The revelation of the site does, however, point to a challenge raised by how Israel has handled the release of information from the nuclear archive.
Russian Nuclear Missile With ‘Unlimited Range’ to be Ready by 2025, U.S. Intelligence Says
Amanda Macias | CNBC
Despite a slew of unsuccessful tests, Russia’s nuclear-powered missile with so-called unlimited range will be ready for war within the next six years, a slightly accelerated timeline than previously reported, according to a U.S. intelligence assessment. The revelation of the new, more ambitious timeline for the missile comes even though the Kremlin has yet to secure a successful test over multiple attempts, according to sources with knowledge of a U.S. intelligence report. It also comes on the heels of a mysterious explosion off Russia’s northern coast that killed five scientists and sparked fears Moscow had tested the missile in question, called Burevestnik. Burevestnik, also known as Skyfall, has been tested once earlier this year and prior to that, the weapon was tested four times between November 2017 and February 2018, each resulting in a crash.