TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards have launched a second reconnaissance satellite into space, state media reported on Tuesday, just as world powers were waiting for Tehran’s decision in talks on the country’s tattered nuclear deal.
State television said the launch took place in the northeastern Shahrud Desert, but did not specify when. However, this comes as Iran’s top diplomat, who has been involved in months-long talks, suddenly flew home late Monday for consultations, a sign of growing pressure on Tehran as talks appear to be drawing to a close.
The Guard said the Noor-2 satellite entered a low orbit 500 kilometers (310 miles) above the Earth’s surface on the Qased satellite carrier, the state news agency IRNA reported. It described Qased, or “Messenger” in Farsi, as a three-phase mixed-fuel satellite carrier.
“It is a great achievement that we can once again raise our eyes to the sky and look at the Earth from space,” General of the Guard Hossein Salami said, IRNA reported.
State television footage shows the rocket taking off from a cargo launcher on a concrete pad in the desert. The site features shown in footage analyzed by the Associated Press and compared with regional satellite photos are consistent with the launch site nearly 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of the city of Shahrud in Iran’s rural province of Semnan.
The authorities have already started receiving signals from a satellite that orbits the Earth every 90 minutes, IRNA reported, citing Iranian Information and Communications Technology Minister Isa Zarepur.
US officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and the US-backed catalog of space objects did not list a new Iranian launch this month. The launch comes days after satellite imagery showed that Iran’s civilian program had suffered another failed launch.
Nur means “light” in Farsi. The Guard launched its first Nur satellite in 2020, showing the world its own space program.
The head of the US Space Command later called the satellite “a tumbling webcam in space” that would not provide Iran with vital intelligence data, although it demonstrated Tehran’s ability to successfully enter orbit after a series of failures.
The US said Iran’s satellite launch violated a UN Security Council resolution and urged Tehran not to take any action related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons. The U.S. intelligence community’s 2022 threat assessment released Tuesday claims that such a satellite launcher “shortens the timeline” to an ICBM for Iran because it uses “similar technologies.”
Iran, which has long said it is not seeking nuclear weapons, has previously argued that its satellite launches and missile tests have no military component. US intelligence agencies and the International Atomic Energy Agency say Iran abandoned its organized military nuclear program in 2003.
“We continue to believe that Iran is not currently engaged in key nuclear weapons development activities that we believe would be necessary to produce a nuclear device,” the 2022 U.S. Intelligence Threat Assessment said.
Meanwhile, IRNA described negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani’s trip home as “as part of normal consultations during negotiations.” However, the chief negotiator for the European Union seemed to suggest that the success of the negotiations now depended on the Islamic Republic.
“There are no more ‘expert-level conversations’. No “official meetings,” Enrique Mora wrote on Twitter, responding to comments from an Iranian analyst. “In the coming days, it is time for political decisions to put an end to (the hashtag) ViennaTalks. The rest is noise.”
Mohr’s comments reflect those of British and French negotiators at the Vienna talks who were trying to find a way to bring America back into the deal it unilaterally withdrew from in 2018 under then-President Donald Trump. He also hopes that Iran will once again agree to the measures that abruptly curtailed its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.
They also seem to object to Iran’s constant refrains in the final weeks of the talks, which have tried to blame any delay on America, which has not been in the talks since Trump’s departure. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on Sunday that he believes “we are close” to reaching an agreement, although there remain “a few very difficult issues.”
The latest hitch, however, was Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s demand Saturday that Blinken provide written guarantees of Moscow’s ability to continue trading with Iran as it faces sanctions over its war with Ukraine.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahyan spoke on the phone with Lavrov on Monday, and the threat of sanctions appeared to be discussed, according to a statement from his office.
“We are against war and the imposition of sanctions, and it is clear that cooperation between the Islamic Republic of Iran and any country, including Russia, should not be affected by the sanctions atmosphere,” Amirabdollahyan said in a statement.
Hardline President Ebrahim Raisi, a protégé of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, apparently responded on Tuesday to concerns that Iran is leaning too far towards Russia and China amid standoffs over the nuclear deal.
“Some accuse us of looking to the East one-dimensionally and say that today, as in the past, the government is looking to the East,” Raisi said, according to the president’s website. “This is not true, and the government seeks to develop relations with all countries and create a balance in the country’s foreign policy.”
Under the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran placed advanced centrifuges under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency, while maintaining an enrichment rate of 3.67% and a stockpile of just 300 kg (661 lb) of uranium.
As of February 19, the IAEA reported that Iran’s total enriched uranium stock was almost 3,200 kg (7,055 pounds). Some of them have been fortified to 60% purity, a small technical step up from 90% weapon quality.
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Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.