A man on his scooter passes next to an Iranian flag placed in front of a destroyed building, following a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel, in Dahiyeh, Beirut’s southern suburbs, Lebanon, on April 20, 2026.
| Photo Credit: AP

Cargo ships in the Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from northern Ras al-Khaimah.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

“Whatever they’re alleging in regards to Iran’s nuclear programme, Iran’s ballistic missiles, and the number of casualties during January’s unrest, is simply the repetition of ‘big lies’,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Iran’s top security official said Saturday (January 31, 2026) that progress had been made towards negotiations with the United States, even as the Islamic republic’s army chief warned Washington against launching military strikes.

U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed the two sides were talking, while keeping the threat of an attack in the foreground.

Washington has deployed warships led by the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier off Iran’s shores, after Mr. Trump threatened to intervene in the wake of Tehran’s deadly crackdown on anti-government protests.

“Contrary to the hype of the contrived media war, structural arrangements for negotiations are progressing,” said Ali Larijani, head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.

He was speaking a day after the Kremlin said he held talks in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Saturday (January 31, 2026) a broader conflict would hurt both Iran and the United States.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran has never sought, and in no way seeks, war and it is firmly convinced that a war would be in the interest of neither Iran, nor the United States, nor the region,” he said in a call with Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, according to the Iranian presidency.

Later Saturday (January 31, 2026), Mr. Trump confirmed that there was a dialogue between Washington and Tehran.

“(Iran is) talking to us, and we’ll see if we can do something, otherwise we’ll see what happens…We have a big fleet heading out there,” he told Fox News.

“They are negotiating,” he added.

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said its premier Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who also serves as Foreign Minister, held talks in Tehran with Mr. Larijani on Saturday (January 31, 2026) to try to “de-escalate tensions in the region”.

Fears of conflict

The arrival of the U.S. flotilla has raised fears of a direct confrontation with Iran, which has warned it would respond with missile strikes on U.S. bases, ships and allies — notably Israel — in the event of an attack.

Mr. Trump has said he believes Iran will make a deal over its nuclear and missile programmes rather than face American military action.

Tehran has said it is ready for nuclear talks if its missiles and defence capabilities are not on the agenda.

Iranian army chief Amir Hatami has warned the U.S. and Israel against any attack, saying his forces were “at full defensive and military readiness”.

“If the enemy makes a mistake, without a doubt it will endanger its own security, the security of the region, and the security of the Zionist regime,” Mr. Hatami said, official news agency IRNA reported.

Iran’s nuclear technology and expertise “cannot be eliminated”, he added.

With tensions heightened, Iranian authorities rushed to deny that several incidents on Saturday (January 31, 2026) were linked to any attack or sabotage.

They included an explosion in the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas that local firefighters said was caused by a gas leak.

Naval exercise

On Friday (January 30, 2026), U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) would conduct “a two-day live-fire naval exercise” in the Strait of Hormuz, a key transit hub for global energy supplies.

CENTCOM warned the IRGC against “any unsafe and unprofessional behaviour near U.S. forces”, drawing a sharp response from Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

“The US military is now attempting to dictate how our Powerful Armed Forces should conduct target practice in their own turf,” he wrote on X.

The United States designated the IRGC a terrorist organisation in 2019, a move the European Union followed on Thursday (January 29, 2026), prompting angry reactions from Tehran.

The U.S. carried out strikes on key Iranian nuclear sites in June when it briefly joined Israel’s 12-day war against its regional foe.

Nationwide protests against the rising cost of living erupted on December 28, before turning into a broader anti-government movement that peaked on January 8 and 9 in what authorities called “riots” blamed on the U.S. and Israel.

‘Serve the people’

The official death toll from the authorities stands at 3,117.

However, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said it has confirmed 6,563 deaths, including 6,170 protesters and 124 children.

On Saturday (January 31, 2026), Mr. Pezeshkian urged his government to heed public grievances and “serve the people”.

Some Iranians at the Kapikoy border point separating Iran and Turkey, where a little over 100 people crossed on Saturday (January 31, 2026), said they wanted to be free of the clerical leaders in Tehran.

“They were shooting us in the back. We were even targeted through our windows,” said Shabnan, using a pseudonym. “Everyone has lost loved ones, friends, neighbours, acquaintances.”

Published – February 01, 2026 05:41 am IST

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran was ready for a “fair and equitable” deal, but not for coercion. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Iran will begin enriching uranium with thousands of advanced centrifuges at its two main nuclear facilities at Fordo and Natanz. File
| Photo Credit: Rainer Puster

Iran will begin enriching uranium with thousands of advanced centrifuges at its two main nuclear facilities at Fordo and Natanz, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said on Friday (November 29, 2024), further raising tensions over Tehran’s programme as it enriches at near weapons-grade levels.

The notice from the International Atomic Energy Agency only mentioned Iran enriching uranium with new centrifuges to 5% purity, far lower than the 60% it currently does — likely signalling that it still wants to negotiate with the West and the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump.

Also Read: U.N. nuclear agency’s board condemns Iran for the 2nd time this year for failing to fully cooperate

However, it remains unclear how Mr. Trump will approach Iran once he enters office, particularly as it continues to threaten to attack Israel amid its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip and just after a ceasefire started in its campaign in Lebanon.

Mr. Trump withdrew America from the accord in 2018, setting in motion a series of attacks and incidents across the wider Mideast.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment over the IAEA’s report. Tehran had threatened to rapidly advance its programme after the Board of Governors at the IAEA condemned Iran at a meeting in November for failing to cooperate fully with the agency.

In a statement, the IAEA outlined the plans Iran informed it of, which include feeding uranium into some 45 cascades of its advanced IR-2M, IR-4 and IR-6 centrifuges.

Cascades are a group of centrifuges that spin uranium gas together to more quickly enrich the uranium. Each of these advanced classes of centrifuges enrich uranium faster than Iran’s baseline IR-1 centrifuges, which have been the workhorse of the country’s atomic programme.

The IAEA did not elaborate on how many machines would be in each cascade but Iran has put around 160 centrifuges into a single cascade in the past.

It’s unclear if Iran has begun feeding the uranium yet into the centrifuges. Tehran so far has been vague about its plans. But starting the enrichment at 5% gives Tehran both leverage at negotiations with the West and another way to dial up the pressure if they don’t like what they hear. Weapons-grade levels of enrichment are around 90 per cent.

Since the collapse of Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers following the U.S.’ unilateral withdrawal from the accord in 2018, it has pursued nuclear enrichment just below weapons-grade levels. U.S. intelligence agencies and others assess that Iran has yet to begin a weapons programme.

Also Read: Iran will seek to ‘manage tensions’ with US: top diplomat

The U.S. State Department said in a statement to The Associated Press it was “deeply concerned with Iran’s announcement that it is choosing the path of continued escalation as opposed to cooperation with the IAEA”.

“Iran’s continued production and accumulation of uranium enriched up to 60 per cent has no credible civilian justification,” it added.

Iran, as a signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, has pledged to allow the IAEA to visit its atomic sites to ensure its programme is peaceful.

Tehran also had agreed to additional oversight from the IAEA as part of the 2015 nuclear deal, which saw sanctions lifted in exchange for drastically limiting its programme.

However, for years Iran has curtailed inspectors’ access to sites while also not fully answering questions about other sites where nuclear material has been found in the past after the deal’s collapse.

Iranian officials in recent months, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, had signaled a willingness to negotiate with the West. But Iran also has launched two attacks on Israel amid the war.

Kazem Gharibabadi, an Iranian diplomat, said in a post on the social platform that he met with EU diplomat Enrique Mora, criticising Europe as being “self-centred” while having “irresponsible behaviour”.

“With regard to the nuclear issue of Iran, Europe has failed to be a serious player due to lack of self-confidence and responsibility,” Gharibabadi wrote.

For his part, Mora described having a “frank discussion” with Gharibabadi and another Iranian diplomat. Those talks included “Iran’s military support to Russia that has to stop, the nuclear issue that needs a diplomatic solution, regional tensions (important to avoid further escalation from all sides) and human rights,” he wrote on X.

New Delhi:

It’s June, 2009. The streets of Tehran have erupted in protests over the results of a presidential election. The incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has emerged victorious with an overwhelming majority against Mir-Hossein Mousavi. Protesters alleged a fraudulent victory. Among them is a woman named Neda Agha-Soltan, who on her way to join the main protests, parked her car at some distance from the gathering and stepped out as the vehicle’s air conditioner was not working. As she breathed in the fresh air, a sniper belonging to a government-funded militia took aim and shot her square in the chest. She was dead.

While this was unfolding in Tehran, around 300 kilometres to the south at the Natanz nuclear facility, the heart of Iran’s nuclear program – ‘strange’ things were happening. Just days after Neda’s death, the CIA reportedly received approval to initiate a cyber operation against this facility. The operation involved uploading a sophisticated piece of malware, known as Stuxnet, directly onto Iranian hardware. This malware had been in development for years, a collaborative effort between the United States and Israel, and represented the world’s first digital weapon.

Stuxnet: The Genesis

Stuxnet was not a new presence in Iran’s nuclear infrastructure; it had been causing disruptions for years. However, this new version was designed to deliver a decisive blow. 

The story of Stuxnet’s development and deployment began years earlier. The inception of Stuxnet can be traced back to the early 2000s, during a period of heightened tension between Iran and Western nations over Iran’s nuclear ambitions. The Bush administration, concerned about Iran’s potential to develop nuclear weapons, sought unconventional methods to impede Tehran’s progress. Thus, the covert operation codenamed ‘Olympic Games’ was born. This initiative, involving close collaboration between the CIA, the NSA, and Israel’s Mossad, aimed to create a digital weapon capable of physically disrupting Iran’s nuclear enrichment capabilities.

Stuxnet was not an ordinary piece of malware. Its design reflected a level of sophistication unprecedented in the realm of cyber weapons. The malware targeted Siemens Step7 software, used to control industrial equipment, specifically focusing on the centrifuges at Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment facility. These centrifuges, essential for enriching uranium, operated at high speeds and required precise control to function correctly.

Stuxnet: The Execution

The US built a replica of Iran’s nuclear facility in its Oak Ridge facility in the state of Tennessee, where they meticulously studied the centrifuges to understand how to sabotage them without detection. In 2007, the first version of Stuxnet was released, targeting these centrifuges by preventing the release of pressure through the valves, causing the uranium gas to solidify and the centrifuges to spin out of control and ultimately self-destruct.

Iran’s nuclear facility was air-gapped, meaning its network was offline, so Stuxnet had to be introduced via an inside agent using a USB drive. The malware operated undetected, using a rootkit to hide its presence and stolen digital certificates to appear as legitimate commands. Despite its effectiveness, initial versions of Stuxnet only slowed Iran’s progress, and did not sabotage it entirely.

In response, US researchers developed a more aggressive version of Stuxnet, using four zero-day exploits and stolen private keys to sign its commands. This version could spread rapidly, even across air-gapped networks, and reprogram the centrifuges to destroy themselves while masking the sabotage as hardware malfunctions.

Stuxnet: The Implications

An insider at Natanz introduced this new version of Stuxnet, and it quickly spread throughout the facility’s network. However, its aggressive nature led to unintended consequences: the malware spread beyond Natanz, infecting computers across Iran and eventually the globe. The CIA, realising the uncontrollable spread of Stuxnet, decided to continue with the operation, hoping it would remain undetected within Natanz.

Their hopes were dashed when cybersecurity firm Symantec discovered Stuxnet and published a detailed report on the malware. Iran soon realised the extent of the cyber attack and took measures to protect their nuclear program. Despite the setbacks caused by Stuxnet, Iran vowed to continue its nuclear ambitions.

One of the earlier hints of Stuxnet’s existence emerged in June 2010 when a Belarusian cybersecurity firm discovered an unusual piece of malware on an Iranian computer. As cybersecurity experts from around the world began analysing the code, they were astounded by its complexity and purpose. 

Impact On Iran’s Nuclear Program

Stuxnet’s impact on Iran’s nuclear program was significant but not immediately catastrophic. By 2009, Iran had installed over 7,000 centrifuges at Natanz, but Stuxnet caused approximately 1,000 of these to fail. The disruptions forced Iran to temporarily halt its enrichment activities and replace the damaged equipment, delaying its nuclear ambitions by several months to years.

The Iranian government, initially oblivious to the cause of the centrifuge failures, eventually recognised the cyber intrusion. Publicly, Iran downplayed the impact of Stuxnet, but internally, it spurred significant investment in cybersecurity measures and the development of offensive cyber capabilities.

Over the following years, targeted assassinations of key Iranian nuclear scientists further crippled their program. Car bombings and other attacks eliminated many of the leaders involved, including the director of the Natanz facility.

Stuxnet: Global Fallout

Stuxnet did not confine itself to Iran. It spread to other countries, including India, Indonesia, and Pakistan, affecting industrial systems worldwide. In India, several critical infrastructure facilities,  reportedly infecting as many as 80,000 computers. Several power plants and manufacturing units were also found to be vulnerable to similar attacks.

In 2013, India adopted the National Cyber Security Policy which focused on “protection of information infrastructure and preservation of the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information in cyberspace”. The following year, the Centre announced the formation of the National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre to further safeguard India’s cyber security space. 
 

London:

London, Paris and Berlin on Thursday said they had agreed to a strategy maintaining nuclear proliferation-related sanctions on Iran beyond an October date which had been set to bring partial respite to Tehran.

Under the terms of a 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA) deal which Washington unilaterally abrogated in 2018 under former president Donald Trump, some sanctions were due to be lifted on October 18 under the terms of a so-called sunset clause.

But in a joint statement from their respective foreign ministries, Britain, France and Germany noted Tehran’s “non-compliance” and underlined their commitment to ensure the country does not obtain a nuclear weapons capacity.

“In direct response to Iran’s consistent and severe non-compliance with its JCPoA commitments since 2019, the governments of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom intend to maintain nuclear proliferation-related measures on Iran, as well as arms and missile embargoes, after JCPoA Transition Day on 18 October 2023,” a statement read.

The statement said the decision was fully compliant with the JCPoA, given continued Iranian “non-compliance” and given that “Iran has refused opportunities to return to the JCPoA twice and has continued to expand its programme beyond JCPoA limitations and without any credible civilian justification,” taking its stockpile of enriched uranium to more than 18 times the amount permitted under the deal.

The ministries at the same time stressed their “commitment to finding a diplomatic solution” and added the decision would be reversed if Iran fully implemented its JCPoA commitments.

A British Foreign Office statement noted that “alongside our French and German partners, we have taken a legitimate and proportionate step in response to Iran’s actions.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)