IAEA chief says inspectors on way to Iran in case nuclear deal with E3 struck

"Of course, countries that want to produce nuclear weapons enrich up to 90 percent purity," Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday.

"Since we have no need for weapons and have decided against nuclear arms, we have not taken it that far; we have raised it to 60 percent, which is a very high level, a very good figure, and necessary for some of the domestic needs in our country."

Israel and the United States accused Iran of racing toward a bomb when they launched surprise attacks on Iranian nuclear sites in June - a campaign which ended two months of US-Iranian talks over Tehran's disputed activities.

The official US intelligence assessment in the run-up to the war was that Iran's leadership had not decided to pursue a weapon.

"The other side has threatened to bomb Iran if we do not negotiate," Khamenei added. "Accepting such negotiations would signal the Islamic Republic’s susceptibility to threats, and if it happens, there will be no end: first they demand the nuclear program, then the missiles, and then they move on to every issue."

"Iran lacked the technology to enrich uranium, and our enemies did not want us to have it. Our scientists managed to achieve the know-how," he added.

He said enriched uranium is very valuable for Iran as it has applications in various aspects of people's lives.

"People benefit from enriched uranium in agriculture, industry, nutrition, environment, education and research, power generation, and many other areas."

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Tuesday doubled down on a key sticking point in a diplomatic standoff with the United States, insisting again that Iran would not renounce domestic enrichment of uranium.

"Negotiating with the United States under the current conditions carries harms for Iran, some of which are irreparable, because the American side has predetermined the outcome of the negotiations, meaning they have stated they will only accept talks whose result is the shutdown of Iran’s nuclear activities and enrichment," he said.

"This is not negotiation, this is dictation," Khamenei declared in a speech hours after Trump had belittled him in a speech before the United Nations as Iran's "so-called" Supreme Leader.

Khamenei blasted Trump for calling on Iran to end domestic enrichment, saying, “it is clear that the Iranian people give a slap in the face to the person saying this and will not accept it.”

Tehran does not need and seek to develop nuclear weapons, so it enriches uranium to up to 60% purity, unlike nuclear-armed countries that enrich it up to 90% purity, Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said in a speech on Tuesday.

"Iran lacked the technology to enrich uranium, and our enemies did not want us to have it. Our scientists managed to achieve the know-how," he added.

He said enriched uranium is very valuable for Iran as it has applications in various aspects of people's lives.

"People benefit from enriched uranium in agriculture, industry, nutrition, environment, education and research, power generation, and many other areas."

“This is the highest number of recorded executions in more than 30 years,” IHR said in a statement. Iran executed at least 5,000 political prisoners in 1988, according to Amnesty International.

From Jan. 1 to Sept. 23, IHR said it had verified 1,000 executions, including 64 in the past week alone — an average of more than nine a day.

The group said the figures represented a minimum, as many cases went unreported.

“In recent months the Islamic Republic has begun a mass killing campaign in Iran’s prisons, the dimensions of which, in the absence of serious international reactions, are expanding every day,” IHR Director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said in a statement.

“The widespread, arbitrary executions of prisoners without due process and fair trial rights amount to crimes against humanity and must be placed at the top of the international community’s agenda.”

IHR said most executions were for drug-related and other non-lethal offences, which do not meet the “most serious crimes” threshold under international law.

According to its data, 50% were for drug charges, 43% for murder, 3% for security-related charges such as baghy (armed rebellion) and moharebeh (waging war against God), 3% for rape and 1% for espionage for Israel.

Only 11% of executions were announced by official sources, with none of the drug-related cases disclosed publicly, the group added.

The organization urged the UN Human Rights Council’s Fact-Finding Mission on Iran to investigate the executions, citing their “scale, systematic nature and political function to intimidate and create societal fear.”

At least 975 people were executed in Iran in 2024, a 17% increase from the previous year, making it one of the world’s leading users of the death penalty, according to rights monitors.

In the meeting between Iranian and European top diplomats in New York, "some ideas and proposals for continuing diplomacy were raised, and it was decided that consultations with all involved parties would continue," according to Iran's Foreign Ministry.

"The course of discussions over the past month aimed at finding diplomatic solutions regarding Iran’s nuclear issue and preventing an escalation of tensions was reviewed in the meeting," the Foreign Ministry statement said.