Iran possesses enough highly enriched uranium to create several nuclear warheads, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), reported Bloomberg on Jan. 18.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 12-9 to advance the nomination of Jack Lew to be the US ambassador to Israel, according to a person in the room during the vote, despite Republican opposition over Lew’s involvement with the nuclear deal with Iran when he served in the Obama administration.
When $6 billion of unfrozen Iranian funds are wired to banks in Qatar as early as next week, it will trigger a carefully choreographed sequence that will see as many as five detained U.S. dual nationals leave Iran and a similar number of Iranian prisoners held in the U.S. fly home, according to eight Iranian and other sources familiar with the negotiations who spoke to Reuters. As a first step, Iran on Aug. 10 released four U.S. citizens from Tehran’s Evin prison into house arrest, where they joined a fifth, who was already under house arrest. Later that day U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the move the first step of a process that would lead to their return home.
The Biden administration is in active negotiations with Iran to bring home five jailed Americans released to house arrest in anticipation of a reported prisoner exchange and the release of $6 billion in oil revenue for the purchase of critical life goods. White House National Security Spokesperson John Kirby on Friday cautioned that “the deal…