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TEHRAN, Iran Iran announced on Monday its latest violations of the nuclear deal with world powers, saying that it now operates twice as many advanced centrifuges banned by the 2015 accord and is working on a prototype thats 50 times faster than those allowed by the deal.

The announcement came as the country marks the 40th anniversary of the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover that started a 444-day hostage crisis.

By starting up these advanced centrifuges, Iran further cuts into the one year that experts estimate Tehran would need to have enough material for building a nuclear weapon if it chose to pursue one.

The comments by Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, came ahead of an expected announcement by Tehran of the new ways it would break the accord.

Already, Iran has broken through its stockpile and enrichment limitations, trying to pressure Europe to offer it a new deal, more than a year since President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the accord.

Speaking to state TV, Salehi said Tehran is now operating 60 IR-6 advanced centrifuges twice as many as before. Such a centrifuge, an IR-6, can produce enriched uranium 10 times as fast as the first-generation IR-1s allowed under the accord.

The nuclear deal limited Iran to using only 5,060 first-generation IR-1 centrifuges to enrich uranium by rapidly spinning uranium hexafluoride gas.

Salehi also announced that scientists were working on a prototype he called the IR-9, which worked 50-times faster than the IR-1.

Meanwhile, demonstrators gathered in front of the former U.S. Embassy in downtown Tehran on Monday as state television aired footage from other cities across the country making the anniversary.

Thanks to God, today the revolutions seedlings have evolved into a fruitful and huge tree that its shadow has covered the entire Middle East, said Gen. Abdolrahim Mousavi, the commander of the Iranian army.

However, this years commemoration of the embassy seizure comes as Irans regional allies in Iraq and Lebanon face widespread protests. The Iranian Consulate in Karbala, Iraq, a holy city for Shiites, saw a mob attack it overnight. Three protesters were killed during the attack and 19 were wounded, along with seven policemen, Iraqi officials said.

Trump retweeted posts by Saudi-linked media showing the chaos outside the consulate. The violence comes after the hard-line Keyhan newspaper in Iran reiterated a call for demonstrators to seize U.S. and Saudi diplomatic posts in Iraq in response to the unrest.

The collapse of the nuclear deal coincided with a tense summer of mysterious attacks on oil tankers and Saudi oil facilities that the U.S. blamed on Iran. Tehran denied the allegation, though it did seize oil tankers and shoot down a U.S. military surveillance drone.

The U.S. has increased its military presence across the Mideast, including basing troops in Saudi Arabia for the first time since the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. Both Saudi Arabia and the neighboring United Arab Emirates are believed to be talking to Tehran through back channels to ease tensions.

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Iran boasts about nuclear capabilities on anniversary of ...

Exactly 40 years ago today, a group of Iranian militants seized 98 people at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran marking the start of what is known as the Iran hostage crisis.

While the hostages were released from captivity 444 days later, an unsuccessful, covert mission known as Eagle Claw to try to rescue the hostages months afterwards is what served as a catalyst for changing special operations forces.

Just ask retired Command Sgt. Maj. Richard Lamb, who was a corporal with the Hard Rock Charlie Company that was responsible for conducting the airfield seizure mission inside Iran for Eagle Claw.

Eagle Claw was the mission that gave birth to the United States Special Operations Command, Lamb told Military Times in an email.

The foundation established in the aftermath of Eagle Claw enabled the development of the modern day Special Operations Forces that are the envy of the free world and a threat to any adversary, Lamb said.

The Iran hostage crisis began on Nov. 4, 1979 after Iranian protesters, outraged that the U.S. had allowed the deposed and pro-American Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to receive medical treatment in the U.S., stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking a total of 98 people hostage.

Iran intermittently released some of the hostages in the following weeks, all women and minorities. Nearly five months after the embassy was stormed, then-President Jimmy Carter signed off on a clandestine Eagle Claw mission to try and rescue the remaining 52 hostages.

The April 24, 1980 mission, which required aspects of the Navy, Army, Air Force and Marines, called for eight Navy RH-53D helicopters from the USS Nimitz and several C-130 aircraft to meet at Desert One, a salt flat roughly 200 miles from Tehran.

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But the mission was plagued with a series of blows, and was ultimately aborted.

First, two of the eight helicopters were forced to turn back and never made it to Desert One, due to a dust storm. Another helicopter suffered complications upon arrival at the salt flat, leaving only five functioning helicopters available for the mission.

The mission was then aborted because six helicopters were necessary for Eagle Claw.

Even still, calamity ensued. While aircraft were exiting Desert One, a helicopter crashed into a C-130 aircraft and resulted in the deaths of eight U.S. service members.

"That crushing failure at Desert One and its consequences told everyone, despite the enormous talent we had, we hadn't put it together right and something had to be done," retired Lt. Gen. Sam Wilson, a former Special Forces group commander, said in a SOCOM news release in 2017.

Days later on April 26, Iran announced that the hostages would be dispersed throughout Tehran and other areas of Iran to prevent the U.S. from conducting another mission to extract the hostages.

Additionally, Iran found the remains of the eight deceased service members and propped them up at the U.S. Embassy compound in Tehran.

Although the mission was unsuccessful, retired Army Capt. Wade Ishimoto, who served as Delta Forces intelligence officer for Eagle Claw, said it played a pivotal role shaping the future of special operations in the latter portion of the 20th and now 21st century.

We didnt have the capabilities, and the world was changing, the threats were changing, Ishimoto said, citing smaller conflicts and terrorism as new threats emerging to the forefront.

According to Ishimoto, a substantial increase in air capability like the U.S. has today would have dramatically helped those involved in Eagle Claw. While there were only 20 Air Force special operations aircraft in 1980, there are now over 30 AC-130 gunships alone, Ishimoto said.

The second major increase has been in our intelligence capabilities, Ishimoto said. And that is something from a preparatory standpoint that absolutely is crucial.

Although Ishimoto said that there was fairly adequate intelligence on Iran in 1980, signals intelligence capabilities, human intelligence capabilities and technical intelligence capabilities have all evolved considerably since then.

Today we have robust intelligence that can be brought to bear against any given area in the world or any given potential problem, Ishimoto said.

Months after Eagle Claw, the first proactive step taken was establishing the Joint Special Operations Command in 1980, which is designed to study special Operations techniques, interoperability, and plan and conduct special operations exercises and training.

Lamb also noted that the mission was a key factor in establishing U.S. Special Operations Command, which is now based at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla.

He cited Adm. J.L. Holloways investigation on the mission, which called for a special operations headquarters and to develop joint doctrine and standardized training.

There was also a pressing need to establish a special operations budget and an acquisition and logistics entity for procurement of Special Operations unique equipment, Lamb added.

Thanks to an amendment included in the 1987 National Defense Authorization Bill, SOCOM was formed nearly seven years after Eagle Claw on April 16, 1987. The command was specifically designed to organize and train U.S. special operations forces across the various services.

Now, SOCOM boasts an organization of approximately 70,000 people, according to the command.

That might not always be the case though. Lamb predicted that there will be a push to slash resources for special operations forces in the future as the U.S. starts to disengage in areas like Syria and Afghanistan, in order to free up resources for tanks and other equipment for conventional warfare against China or Russia.

But just as Eagle Claw shed light on areas where the U.S. was unprepared to tackle threats, Lamb cautioned against only beefing up conventional warfare resources. Rather, he said it is critical the military is poised to identify what the future holds when we face peer and near peer adversaries with comparable technologies outside the boundaries of conventional warfare.

The enemy will not fight us conventionally, theyve told us as much, Lamb said.

We must always maintain a professional military, trained and equipped for future threats; and recognize the requirement for continued vigilance, Lamb said.

Although lives were lost during Eagle Claw, Ishimoto says that the mission paved the way for a major reformation and now service members are better trained, better equipped, and better prepared to conduct those kinds of missions.

We paid the price, Ishimoto said. We lost eight on that mission, but the loss of their lives were not in vain because of where were at today.

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40 years later: How the Iran hostage crisis shaped the future ...

Rohollah Faghihis recent article in Foreign PolicyIs Irans Information Minister the Islamic Republics Emmanuel Macron?depicts Irans information and communications technology (ICT) minister, Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, as an advocate of internet freedom, especially when it comes to accessing social media networks.

The article suggests that when Azari Jahromi is not able to counter hard-liners demands for censorshipfor example, when the popular Telegram messaging app was bannedit was only because he faced powers greater than himself. This characterization overlooks Azari Jahromis record in office and contains significant omissions (all of which are in the public record) regarding his role advancing repressive internet censorship and surveillance in Iran.

The author states, From 2002 to 2009, Azari Jahromi served in the Intelligence Ministrys technical department, where he focused on cybersecurity and protecting digital infrastructure. This is misleading; the author fails to mention the fact that during this period, cybersecurity in Iran consisted largely of the monitoring and tracking journalists, activists, and other citizens in order to identify and suppress dissentand that this technical department developed domestic surveillance infrastructure in order to aid the Intelligence Ministry in this pursuit.

This period in Iran was characterized by violent state repression, which was facilitated by the states surveillance capabilities. In 2009, masssurveillance operations during the crackdown against Iranians who protested the disputed results of that years presidential election significantly aided the authorities ability to identify, track, arrest, and imprison peaceful protesters. Azari Jahromis own characterization of his activities during this period are in fact more accurate than the authors. The semi-official Fars News Agency reported in August 2017 that during a session of the parliamentary Social Affairs Committee just prior to his confirmation, Azari Jahromi stated, During my activities, I was not in charge of wiretapping but in charge of building the technical infrastructure industry for this purpose, and Im proud of it.

Moreover, Azari Jahromis role as an interrogator of arrested protesters during that 2009 crackdown, many of whom were sent to prison, is well documented. The Center for Human Rights in Iran interviewed some of the ex-prisoners who were personally interrogated by Azari Jahromi, and these interrogations have been confirmed by other journalists. In light of this history, during Azari Jahromis 2017 confirmation in parliament as ICT minister, the lawmaker Mohammad Ali Pourmokhtarwarned, My concern is we will turn the ICT Ministry into the Intelligence Ministry.

The profile depicts Azari Jahromi as a champion of internet freedom, yet under the ICT minister, Iran has accelerated development of its now fully operational national internet (or National Information Network), which gives the government an expanded ability to block content, spread false information, access Iranian users online communications for covert surveillance, block access in Iran to the international internet, and facilitate state cyberattacks through the states information technology infrastructure. In particular, the scope and sophistication of state-sponsored cyberattacks against Iranian journalists, activists, and other members of civil society have significantly increased during Azari Jahromis time in office.

Internet censorship has also intensified under Azari Jahromi. It now targets not only content but also access to circumvention tools and encrypted apps, and Irans Telecommunication Infrastructure Company, which is under the control of Azari Jahromis ICT Ministry, is developing anew method of internetcensorshipthat prevents access to blocked websites even withcircumvention tools.

Azari Jahromis promotion of national tools and services such as messaging apps to replace foreign ones has increased Iranians vulnerability to covert state surveillance. For example, Azari Jahromi has promotedTelegram Talaeii, an Iranian version of the messaging app developed after the official Telegram app was banned in Iran. This app is hostedon the ICT Ministrys infrastructure and is under the control of the ministry; as such, it is accessible to the authorities and easy to place under surveillance. This poses a great risk: The Iranian states online surveillance activities are well documented and proudly defended by the authorities, and they have sent Iranians to prison for posting online content critical of state policy. In2018, Telegramissueda warning to users that the app was unsafe.

Intentional disruptions to the global internet for the purpose of repression have also taken place on Azari Jahromis watch. The widespread street protests in Iran between December 2017 and January 2018 were met with state-engineered internet disruptions, even as domestic services remained untouched.

During these events, the United Nations issued a statement by four U.N. special rapporteurs: We are also very concerned at reports that the Government has blocked the internet on mobile networks, and that social media services like Instagram and messaging services like Telegram have been shut down in an attempt to quell the protests. In some regions, internet access has been blocked altogether.

In June 2019, 90 percent of Irans internet service providers were again disrupted for unknown reasons. Azari Jahromi claimed these disruptions were caused by events outside Iran, but technical analysis by multiple experts and organizations suggested otherwise. The advocacy group Article 19 reported on the mass outages, noting that the disruptions were also documented by NetBlocks,ArvanCloud,Oracle Internet Intelligence, RIPE andOpenDNS data even as reports indicated access to local platforms were generally easily available.

Overall, internet freedom has not fared well under Azari Jahromi. The respected Freedom on the Net 2018 report labeled Irans internet not free due to obstacles to access, limitations on content, and violations of users rights and ranked it 85, second only to China in online repression (with 100 being the worst score)the same ranking the country received in 2017, when Azari Jahromi first assumed his position in August of that year.

While Irans ranking reflects many factors, a number of which Azari Jahromi does not control (for example, the arrest of Iranians for online content disapproved of by the government), Azari Jahromis record does not support the articles depiction of him as an official who has expanded internet freedom in Iran. Under his watch, the countrys repressive online censorship and surveillance capabilities have increased.

Azari Jahromi has not been a passive bystander to these developments; he has contributed to them through the active promotion and implementation of measures and products that compromise internet access and security. Indeed, as the profile correctly notes the [ICT] ministry has transformed into a serious economic, political, and technological force. As such, Azari Jahromi and his ICT Ministry must share in responsibility for the significant and growing threat to internet freedom in Iran.

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An Iranian flag flutters in front the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquarters in Vienna, Austria, March 4, 2019. Photo: Reuters / Leonhard Foeger / File.

Iran said on Monday it would take another step away from the 2015 nuclear deal by developing centrifuges to speed up its uranium enrichment, its nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi said.

Today, we are witnessing the launch of the array of 30 IR-6 centrifuges, Salehi, who heads Irans Atomic Energy Organization, told state television. Iran now is operating 60 IR-6 advanced centrifuges. It shows our capacity and determination.

Under the agreement between Iran and world powers, Tehran is only allowed to enrich uranium with just over 5,000 of its first-generation IR-1 centrifuges. An IR-6 centrifuge can enrich uranium 10 times faster than the IR-1s.

Our scientists are working on a prototype called the IR-9, that works 50 times faster than the IR-1s, Salehi said.

November 4, 2019 4:18 pm

The deal was aimed at extending the time Iran would need to obtain enough fissile material for a nuclear bomb, if it sought one something sometimes referred to as breakout time to about a year from 2-3 months. Iran denies ever having sought to build a nuclear bomb.

The UN nuclear watchdog said in September that Iran had informed the agency about making modifications to accommodate cascades or interconnected clusters of 164 of the IR-2m and IR-4 centrifuge. Cascades of the same size and type were scrapped under the deal.

Tensions have risen between Tehran and Washington since last year when US President Donald Trump withdrew from the accord under which Iran had agreed to rein in its nuclear program in exchange for relief from economic sanctions.

The United States has since renewed and intensified its sanctions, slashing Irans crude oil sales by more than 80 percent.

Responding to Washingtons maximum pressure, Iran has breached the restrictions of the deal step-by-step and has rejected the United States demand that a far-reaching deal should be negotiated.

Tehran, however, has left room for diplomacy by saying that talks are possible if Washington lifts all the sanctions and returns to the nuclear deal.

Iran has said it might take further steps in November if European parties to the pact fail to shield its economy from US penalties.

While steps taken by Iran so far do not make a big difference to that breakout time for now, it further complicates the prospects of saving the accord by the European parties to the deal, who have criticized Trump for exiting it.

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Iran Develops Advanced Machines to Speed Up Enrichment ...

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei makes a speech regarding Trump's withdrawal decision from Iran nuclear deal during a press conference in Tehran, Iran on May 09, 2018.

Iranian Leader's Press Office | Handout | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

The United States imposed sanctions on nine people with ties to Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, including his chief of staff, one of his sons and the head of Iran's judiciary, the U.S. Treasury Department said on Monday.

The United States also sanctioned Iran's Armed Forces General Staff, the department said in the statement, which came 40 years after Iran seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking more than 50 Americans hostage.

"Today the Treasury Department is targeting the unelected officials who surround Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, and implement his destabilizing policies," U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.

"These individuals are linked to a wide range of malign behaviors by the regime, including bombings of the U.S. Marine Barracks in Beirut in 1983 and the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association in 1994, as well as torture, extrajudicial killings, and repression of civilians," Mnuchin added.

Those targeted by the U.S. sanctions include Khamenei's chief of staff Mohammad Mohammadi Golpayegani as well as Vahid Haghanian, who the department said "has been referred to as the supreme leader's right hand."

Ebrahim Raisi, who Khamenei appointed in March 2019 to lead Iran's judiciary, and Mojtaba Khamenei, Ali Khamenei's second son, were also sanctioned, Treasury said.

U.S. sanctions block any U.S.-controlled property or interests held by those targeted and prohibit anyone or any entities in the United States from dealing with those sanctioned.

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US sanctions 9 people with ties to Iran's top leader