Iran Begins Construction on Nuclear Plant

In the midst of tensions with the United States over broad sanctions imposed after Washington withdrew from Iran's nuclear agreement with international powers, Iranian state TV reported on Saturday that building on a new nuclear power station has begun in the country's southwest.

The announcement also comes at a time when national anti-government demonstrations in Iran have shaken the theocratic administration. The demonstrations started after a young woman died while in the custody of the police.

The country's state television and radio agency reported that the new 300-megawatt plant, known as Karoon, will be constructed over the course of eight years and cost roughly $2 billion. According to the statement, the plant will be situated close to Iran's western border with Iraq in the oil-rich Khuzestan province.

Mohammed Eslami, the president of Iran's civilian nuclear organisation, who first presented the development plans for Karoon in April, attended the opening ceremony for the construction site.

Iran has many underground nuclear facilities in addition to one nuclear power plant at Bushehr, its southern port, which was put online in 2011 with assistance from Russia.

Less than two weeks prior to the announcement of Karoon's construction, Iran declared that its underground Fordo nuclear facility had started producing enriched uranium with a 60% purity. The action is considered to be a significant advancement for the nation's nuclear program.

One little, technological step separates enrichment to 60% purity from weapons-grade levels of 90%. It has recently come to the attention of non-proliferation specialists that Iran currently possesses enough 60% enriched uranium to power at least one nuclear bomb.

The three Western European countries that are still parties to the Iran nuclear agreement, Germany, France, and Britain, all denounced the action. Recent attempts to resurrect the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers, which reduced sanctions in return for limits on Iran's nuclear programme, have failed.

Iran has been rocked by widespread protests since September, which have come to represent one of the most significant challenges to theocracy since the tumultuous years following the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

When Mahsa Amini, 22, passed away in detention on September 16—three days after being detained by Iran's morality police for breaking the country's severe dress code for women—the demonstrations were launched. Iran's government maintains that Amini was not abused, but according to her family, when she was held, her body exhibited bruises and other symptoms of violence.

The national security council of Iran revealed that 200 people had died during the protests in a statement published by the country's state-run IRNA news agency on Saturday. This was the body's first official comment on the fatalities. General Amir Ali Hajizadeh of Iran estimated the death toll at above 300 last week.

The conflicting death estimates are lower than the one given by Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group located in the United States that has been closely following the demonstration since it began. According to the group's most current update, 469 individuals have died in the protests and the harsh security force response that followed, while 18,210 more have been arrested.

Additionally, Elnaz Rekabi, an Iranian female rock climber who competed overseas with her hair undone, had her family house demolished, according to Iranian state television on Saturday. According to Iran's official judicial news service, Mizan, her brother's house was demolished months before Rekabi competed because it was "unauthorizedly constructed and used land." Activists against the government claim it was a targeted demolition.

After competing in a rock climbing competition in South Korea without donning the customary headscarf for female athletes from the Islamic Republic, Rekabi became a symbol of the anti-government movement in October. The next day, Rekabi apologised for not wearing a hijab in an Instagram post; however, it is unknown whether she made the post or what state of mind she was in at the time.

Separately, the U.S. Navy reported on Saturday that on Thursday it stopped a fishing boat in the Gulf of Oman from attempting to smuggle 50 tonnes of ammunition and a crucial part for missiles from Iran to Yemen.

According to experts, the Iranian government regularly engages in illegal arms smuggling to equip Yemen's Houthi forces. Rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, and missiles have all been shipped. On a ship from Iran headed for Yemen, the United States discovered 70 tonnes of a rocket fuel component concealed among sacks of fertiliser.

Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of the U.S. 5th Fleet based in Bahrain, said in a statement that "this significant interdiction (on Thursday) clearly shows that Iran's unlawful transfer of lethal aid and destabilising behaviour continues."

Iran did not immediately respond to a question about the seizure.

Since the rebel army came down from Yemen's northern mountains in 2014 and took control of the capital, Sanaa, sending the internationally recognised government into exile, Iran has been the Houthis' main supporter. The coalition commanded by Saudi Arabia and armed with American weapons and intelligence intervened the following year in an effort to reinstate the internationally recognised government. The UN has been enforcing an arms embargo that forbids the transfer of weapons to the Houthis since 2014.

Under then-President Donald Trump, the United States unilaterally withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, in 2018.

It reinstated sanctions against Iran, which caused Tehran to start breaking the terms of the agreement. Iran has long denied ever wanting to develop nuclear weapons and maintains that its nuclear programme is non-militaristic.