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IRAN

France slams Iran nuclear plans

 

France denounced on Wednesday Iran's announcement that it plans to triple its capacity for enriching uranium as a "provocation", accusing Tehran of repeated violations of international law.

 

France slams Iran nuclear plans

“Iran must immediately end this constant violation of resolutions by the United Nations Security Council and the IAEA governors, rather than showing its contempt for international law,” a foreign ministry spokesman said.

Earlier, Iranian nuclear chief Fereydoon Abbasi Davanihad told state media the country’s efforts to enrich uranium to the 20 percent level needed for nuclear fuel would shift to a plant in Fordo and be ramped up.

Western capitals fear Iran will eventually make the leap to enrich uranium at the much higher level needed to create a nuclear weapon. They oppose any moves to improve the Islamic republic’s enrichment capacity.

“The announcement is a provocation. It heightens the existing concerns of the international community over the intransigence of the Iranian regime and its constant breaches of international law,” said the spokesman, Bernard Valero.

In 2009 the shock revelation of the formerly secret Fordo plant, near the Shiite holy city of Qom around 150 kilometres (94 miles) southwest of Tehran, prompted the United Nations to strengthen sanctions against Iran.   

Iran warned the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in February that Fordo was ready to host centrifuges – machines which enrich uranium – and that it would become operational around the middle of the year.

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TRIAL

Danish terror trial begins against Iranian separatists

Three leaders of an Iranian Arab separatist group pleaded not guilty to financing and promoting terrorism in Iran with Saudi Arabia's backing, as their trial opened in Denmark on Thursday.

Danish terror trial begins against Iranian separatists
File photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix

The three risk 12 years in prison if found guilty.

Aged 39 to 50, the trio are members of the separatist organisation ASMLA (Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz), which is based in Denmark and the Netherlands and which Iran considers a terrorist group.

The three, one of whom is a Danish citizen, have been held in custody in Denmark since February 2020.

Gert Dyrn, lawyer for the eldest of the three, told AFP that in his client’s opinion “what they are charged with is legitimate resistance towards an oppressive regime.”

“They are not denying receiving money from multiple sources, including Saudi Arabia, to help the movement and help them accomplish their political aim,” Dyrn said. 

His client has lived as a refugee in Denmark since 2006. 

According to the charge sheet seen by AFP, the three received around 30 million kroner (four million euros, $4.9 million) for ASMLA and its armed branch, through bank accounts in Austria and the United Arab Emirates.

The trio is also accused of spying on people and organisations in Denmark between 2012 and 2020 for Saudi intelligence.

Finally, they are also accused of promoting terrorism and “encouraging the activities of the terrorist movement Jaish Al-Adl, which has activities in Iran, by supporting them with advice, promotion, and coordinating attacks.”

The case dates back to 2018 when one of the three was the target of a foiled attack on Danish soil believed to be sponsored by the Iranian regime in retaliation for the killing of 24 people in Ahvaz, southwestern Iran, in September 2018.

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Tehran formally denied the attack plan in Denmark, but a Danish court last year jailed a Norwegian-Iranian for seven years for his role in the plot. 

That attack put Danish authorities on the trail of the trio’s ASMLA activities.

Sunni Saudi Arabia is the main rival in the Middle East of Shia Iran, and Tehran regularly accuses it, along with Israel and the United States, of supporting separatist groups.

Lawyer Gert Dyrn said this was “the first case in Denmark within terror law where you have to consider who is a terrorist and who is a freedom fighter.”

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