“Iran U.N. Inspectors Find Radioactive Traces, Raising Fresh Concerns,” Lawrence Norman, Wall Street Journal, February 5, 2019. “United Nations inspectors have found new evidence of undeclared nuclear activities in Iran, according to three diplomats briefed on the discovery, raising new questions about the scope of the country’s atomic ambitions. Samples taken from two sites during inspections in the fall by the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency contained traces of radioactive material, the diplomats said, that could indicate Iran has undertaken work on nuclear weapons, based on where it was found. The diplomats said they didn’t know the exact nature of what was found. Last year, Iran blocked IAEA inspectors from checking the sites involved for seven months, leading to a standoff. Tehran has long denied that it has sought to make an atomic bomb and said all of its nuclear work is for peaceful purposes such as power generation and health care. … The IAEA listed in a report in June questions it was asking Iran to clarify on a range of work that could be used for nuclear weapons. One suspicion was Iranian drilling of a uranium metal disc that could be used to create material for a neutron initiator, experts say, a key component of a nuclear weapon. A second suspicion was that nuclear material had been introduced at a site where Iran may have tested high explosives that can be used to detonate a nuclear weapon. … All the suspected activities took place in the early 2000s or earlier, according to the agency. Two of the sites were razed years ago. Another site was sanitized by Iran in 2019, the IAEA reported. The IAEA said it has not ruled out that materials from this nuclear work have been used more recently. “The discovery of radioactive material at these sites would indicate that Iran does indeed have undeclared nuclear material, despite its denials,” said David Albright, a former weapons inspector and president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington. “It would indicate that Iran did have a nuclear weapons program in the past, likely leading the IAEA to call for access to more sites and more explanations from Iran.”

This criminal procedure followed is odd as the public was excluded from sentencing arguments.  “California millionaires sentenced for violating Iranian sanctions with auto parts manufacturing business,” Nate Gartrell, The Mercury News, February 5, 2021.

“Iran Is Rich, So Why Are People Selling Their Organs to Survive?,” Pejman Amiri, Iran News Update, February 5, 2021.

“Iran arrests journalist Reza Taleshian Jelodarzadeh,” Committee to Protect Journalists, February 5, 2021.

And in Sudan.  “Report: Ethiopia arrests 16 in an Iranian cell planning attack on UAE embassy,” Times of Israel, February 5, 2021.

Uh oh.  This is why security services are on alert for violent retribution from Iran.  “Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh issued a statement on Thursday saying that Iran strongly condemns the 20-year jail term issued by a court in the Belgian city of Antwerp against the Iranian diplomat. “As we have repeatedly announced earlier, all the procedures that have so far been taken against the diplomat, including his arrest, the case brought against him or the conviction, were all unlawful and amounted to blatant violation of international law, especially the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, and the Islamic Republic of Iran will never recognize it,” Khatibzadeh asserted.”  See “Iran ‘strongly’ condemns Belgian court’s ruling against Iranian diplomat,” Tehran Times, February 5, 2021.