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U.S. President Biden says he will not lift economic sanctions against Iran unless Tehran first cuts its uranium enrichment back to the level it agreed to in the 2015 international treaty aimed at restraining its development of nuclear weapons. Biden said on CBS in an interview that aired Sunday that he wants the U.S. to rejoin the nuclear treaty with Iran that former President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from, but when asked whether the United States would lift sanctions first to get Iran to return to negotiations, Biden replied simply, "No." Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on state TV that if the United States wants, quote, "Iran to return to its commitments, the U.S. must lift all sanctions in practice, then we will do verification and see if the sanctions were lifted correctly, and then we will return to our commitments," end quote. The pact had allowed Iran to enrich uranium at a 3.67 percent concentration level. But since mid-2019 after the U.S. withdrew from the pact, Iran has pushed enrichment levels back up to 20 percent. That's a level it had achieved before the accord. Experts say Tehran now has enough low-enriched uranium stockpiled for at least two nuclear weapons. But Iranian officials, to the long skepticism of Western governments, has long maintained that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.
The European Union's top diplomat on Sunday said Russia is rejecting constructive dialogue with the EU and that Europe must draw the consequences, including the possibility of new sanctions. In a blog post, Josep Borrell said the shock expulsion of three EU diplomats from Poland, Germany and Sweden during his two-day visit to Moscow showed that Russia, quote, "did not want to seize this opportunity to have a more constructive dialogue with the EU." Borrell's trip, which ended on Saturday, has been a controversial journey that divided the EU's 27 member states. France and Germany want dialogue with the Kremlin while other countries in the EU want to take a harder line against Russia.
Indian officials say more than 140 people are missing and feared dead after a large piece of a Himalayan glacier in northern India broke off and slammed into a dam early Sunday, causing a flood that forced the evacuation of downstream villages. Authorities say at least nine bodies have been recovered in the unfolding incident. Via remote, I'm Marissa Melton. You're listening to VOA news.
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