Diplomats say the IR-6 is its most advanced model, far more efficient than the first-generation IR-1 - the only one the deal lets it enrich with.

As precious minutes in the countdown ticked away, launch controllers repeatedly halted the fueling operation, which already was running nearly an hour late because of thunderstorms offshore of Florida’s Kennedy Space Center.

There is no solution to terror and violence emanating from Gaza except to govern the territory itself.

Steinmetz has consistently denied the charges for which he was sentenced to five years in jail and fined 50 million Swiss francs ($52 million) by a Swiss criminal court in 2021.