IS IRAN BEING HELPED BY RUSSIA TO ACQUIRE NUCLEAR WEAPONS?

US, UK concerned Russia may be assisting Iran with nuclear weapons program — report

Concern grows after alleged shipment of ballistic missiles delivered to Russia for use against Ukraine; Tehran dismisses impact of Western sanctions, calling them a ‘failed tool’

 

The Times of Israel

Sep 15, 2024

 

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi at the Kremlin in Moscow, December 7, 2023. 

 

The US and UK are concerned that Russia has been helping Iran develop its nuclear weapons program in exchange for the recent delivery of ballistic missiles it was provided by Tehran for use in its war against Ukraine, according to a report Saturday that cited sources familiar with the matter.

The issue of deepening ties between Russia and Iran was a matter of concern during meetings between US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Washington, DC, on Friday, as well as during talks between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy earlier in the week.

According to the Guardian newspaper, however, the two countries aren’t just focused on the ballistic missiles supplied to Russia by Iran, but are also concerned about what Russia may provide in return.

Citing British sources familiar with the high-level talks last week, the news outlet reported that the two countries believe Iran may be working with experienced Russian specialists to streamline its manufacturing process as it grows its stockpile of enriched uranium and prepares to make its own nuclear weapons.

Iran has pursued nuclear enrichment just below weapons-grade level ever since the collapse of the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers following the US’s unilateral withdrawal from the accord in 2018.

Western powers say there is no credible civilian reason for that, while Iran claims its aims are entirely peaceful despite its officials warning recently that the Islamic Republic could change its “nuclear doctrine” if it is attacked or its existence is seen as threatened by Israel.

 

Centrifuges line a hall at the Uranium Enrichment Facility in Natanz, Iran, in a still image from a video aired by the Islamic Republic Iran Broadcasting company on April 17, 2021, six days after the hall had been damaged in a mysterious attack.  

 

In August, the United Nations nuclear watchdog found that Iran had further increased its stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade level. As of August 17, Iran had 64.7 kilograms (363.1 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60 percent, an increase of 22.6 kilograms (49.8 pounds) since the IAEA’s last report in May.

The country has continued to dismiss the impact that Western sanctions are having on the country, including those recently imposed by Britain, Germany and France due to the alleged arms exports to Russia.

Iran has repeatedly denied sending any weapons to Russia for use in its war against Ukraine and vowed to respond to the latest in the long string of Western sanctions, which Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Saturday dismissed as a “failed tool” to influence Tehran’s politics.

The state-owned news agency IRNA quoted Araghchi as saying: “It’s surprising that Western countries still do not know that sanctions are a failed tool and that they are unable to impose their agenda on Iran through sanctions.”

The top Iranian diplomat called sanctions “a tool of pressure and a tool of confrontation, not a tool of cooperation”.

Araghchi added, according to IRNA, that Iran has “always been open to negotiations” and “constructive dialogue” with other countries.

“But the dialogue should be based on mutual respect, not threats and pressure,” he said.

For its part, the foreign ministers of the Group of the Seven condemned on Saturday “in the strongest terms,” Iran’s export and Russia’s procurement of Iranian ballistic missiles.

The G7 is made up of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Great Britain, and the United States.

“Iran must immediately cease all support to Russia’s illegal and unjustifiable war against Ukraine and halt such transfers of ballistic missiles, UAVs and related technology, which constitute a direct threat to the Ukrainian people as well as European and international security more broadly,” the ministers said in a statement.

Word of the alleged transfers emerged last weekend after the US and its allies warned Iran for months not to deliver ballistic missiles to Moscow.

The move was decried as an “act of escalation” by Germany, France and Britain, in a statement warning that the development was “a direct threat to European security.”