More in ‘nuclear bomb’

The U.N. Security Council, with President Obama acting as chairman, unanimously passed a resolution yesterday intended to bolster nuclear deterrents, such as the Non-Proliferation Treaty, and lower the chances that civilian nuclear programs can be used for military purposes. The chief targets of the resolution are North Korea and Iran, although some Western leaders think ...

• Israel formally filed a complaint with the United Nations over this morning’s rocket attack, arguing that it violated a U.N.-mandated ceasefire and that the Lebanese government should be held responsible. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has already condemned the attack. [Ynet]
• Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said that his country opposes further sanctions against Iran because ...

Three hundred Jewish community leaders are set to meet today with congressmen from both parties as well as an Obama staffer to discuss U.S. policy vis-a-vis Iran’s nuclear weapons program and to lobby for stricter sanctions against Iran. This confab, which is part of the National Jewish Leadership Advocacy Day on Iran, comes after nine ...

• A Russian newspaper confirmed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Moscow Monday. It went on to speculate that the secret visit indicated an imminent Israeli attack on Iran. [JPost]
• The Spanish Foreign Minister—his country hosted the original talks that led to the Oslo accord—reported that Syrian President Bashar Assad wants to talk peace. ...

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went to an undisclosed location for a few hours Monday, and a new report has it that he was in Russia engaging in secret talks over Iranian arms deals. His office says he didn’t leave the country. [ynet]
• Speaking of covert diplomacy, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s current trip to ...

• In an Al Jazeera interview, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates advised Arab governments to “strengthen their security capabilities” as a deterrent to Iran. [AFP]
• But when asked about America’s “double standard” toward Israel’s nuclear capability, Gates defended the U.S. posture. [JPost]
• A federal judge ruled free-speech protections did not prevent New York City from ...

In advance of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s forthcoming report on Iran’s nuclear program, Iranian ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, has drafted an 8-page letter to the agency’s outgoing head, Mohammed ElBaradei. In it, Soltanieh accuses the United States of relying on “fabricated, baseless and false” evidence to support its claim that Iran, ...

Is the International Atomic Energy Agency hiding evidence of Iran’s nuclear weapons project? According to “senior Western diplomats and Israeli officials” who spoke to Haaretz, the answer is yes. The sources told Haaretz that IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei was the one concealing the goods, withholding information compiled from data his inspectors collected in the ...

• A 92-year-old homeless Holocaust survivor passed away, leaving $100,000 to Hebrew University, and another $100,000 to a man who employed her to move his car around Manhattan, avoiding parking tickets, in exchange for food and shelter. [JPost]
• Recently declassified documents reveal Richard Nixon’s role in creating Israel’s “nuclear ambiguity.” [Haaretz]
• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ...

In contrast to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meetings in Jerusalem earlier this week with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Special Envoy George Mitchell, his chat yesterday with President Obama’s National Security Advisor, Gen. James Jones, was decidedly low-key and “private,” raising the question of whether more frank words were exchanged. Jones’s mission in Israel ...