Cairo — Amid tensions with the United States over drastic sanctions imposed after Washington withdrew from the Islamic Republic’s nuclear deal with world powers, Iran on Saturday began construction of a new nuclear power plant in the country’s southwest. Iranian state television said.
The announcement comes as Iran is rocked by nationwide protests challenging the theocratic government that began after the death of a young woman detained by police on suspicion of violating Islamic dress codes. In a move believed to be related, Iran’s semi-official news agency IRNA late Saturday quoted the top public prosecutor as saying that authorities had “closed” the morality police, which is responsible for enforcing the dress code. Said. It didn’t give details.
The new 300-megawatt power plant, known as Karoon, will take eight years to build and cost about $2 billion, state television and radio stations reported. The plant will be located in Iran’s oil-rich Khuzestan province, near the western border with Iraq, the company said.
The construction site dedication ceremony was attended by Mohammed Eslami, head of Iran’s Civil Atomic Energy Agency, who first announced plans to build Karoon in April.
Iran has one nuclear power plant at the port of Bushehr in the south, which began operation in 2011 with the help of Russia, but also has several underground nuclear facilities.
Karoon’s construction announcement came less than two weeks after Iran announced it had begun producing 60% pure enriched uranium at its underground Fordo nuclear facility. The move is seen as a significant addition to the country’s nuclear program.
Enrichment to 60% purity is a short technological step away from weapons grade 90%. Non-proliferation experts have warned in recent months that Iran has enough of her 60% enriched uranium to reprocess into fuel for at least one of her nuclear bombs.
The move was condemned by Germany, France and the UK, the three Western European countries remaining in the Iranian nuclear deal. Recent attempts to revive the have stalled.
Since September, Iran has been plagued by nationwide protests that have come to represent one of the greatest challenges to Iran’s theocracy since the chaotic years following the 1979 Islamic Revolution. I was. She was arrested by Moral Police for violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code for women three days later during protests when her Amini, 22, died in her custody on Sept. 16. was set on fire. The Iranian government claims Amini was not abused, but her family says her body showed bruises and other signs of beatings after she was detained.
In a statement released Saturday by the state-run IRNA news agency, the country’s National Security Council said about 200 people had died during the protests. Last week, Iranian General Amir Ali Hajizadeh tallied the death toll above 300.
The conflicting toll is lower than that reported by Iranian human rights activists, a US-based organization that has been closely monitoring the protests since the outbreak. said 469 people were killed and 18,210 detained in the protests and subsequent violent security force crackdown.
Iranian state media announced on Saturday that the family home of Ernaz Rekabi, an Iranian female rock climber who competed abroad without her hair tied up, had been demolished. Mizan, Iran’s official judicial news agency, said the demolition of his brother’s house was due to “unauthorized construction and land use” and that the demolition took place months before Rekhabi came out. Government activists claim it was a targeted demolition.
Rekhabi became a symbol of the anti-government movement in October after competing in a rock climbing competition in South Korea without wearing the headscarf required for female athletes in the Islamic Republic. explained that it was “unintentional” not to wear a hijab, but it remains unclear whether she wrote the post or what state she was in at the time.
Since September, the number of moral police officers has reportedly declined across Iranian cities. The group was founded by him in 2005 with the mandate to arrest those who violate the country’s Islamic dress code.
In a report released by IRNA late Saturday, Iran’s Prosecutor General Mohamed Jafar Montazeri said the moral police had been “closed”. No further details were provided as to whether there were any.
“The judiciary continues to monitor behavior at the community level,” added Montazeri.
Separately, the U.S. Navy said Saturday it intercepted a fishing vessel in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday attempting to smuggle 50 tons of ammunition and key parts for a missile from Iran to Yemen.
Experts have accused the Iranian government of continuing illegal arms smuggling operations to supply Houthi rebels in Yemen. Shipments include rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, and missiles. Last month, the United States seized 70 tons of missile fuel components hidden in fertilizer bags on a ship bound for Yemen from Iran.
Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of the U.S. Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain, said in a statement, “This significant ban (Thursday) is intended to curb Iran’s illicit lethal aid transfers and destabilizing actions. It clearly shows that it continues,” he said.
There was no immediate comment from Iran on the seizure.
Iran has been a major supporter of the Houthis since 2014, when rebels overran Yemen’s northern mountainous region, seized the capital Sanaa, and forced the internationally recognized government into exile. The following year, a Saudi-led coalition armed with US arms and intelligence services intervened in an attempt to restore the internationally recognized government to power. Since 2014, the United Nations has implemented an arms embargo prohibiting the transfer of arms to the Houthis.
The United States unilaterally withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in 2018 under then-President Donald Trump. It reimposed sanctions on Iran and prompted Tehran to back down from the terms of the deal. Iran has long denied seeking nuclear weapons and claims its nuclear program is peaceful.
